A Jacqui Lambie Network candidate in the Tasmanian election is facing a court hearing over allegedly driving on prohibited 4WD tracks along the heritage-listed Tarkine coast.
Rodney Flowers, a farmer from Redpa, a small town near the coast where farmers historically wintered their cattle on blocks that are densely packed with Aboriginal middens, has pleaded not guilty to three charges dating back to 2016, when he allegedly rode a quad bike along a closed section of the track. Each of the alleged offences under National Parks and Reserved Land regulations carries a maximum fine of $3,180.
The hearing is scheduled for Burnie magistrates court on 28 February — three days before the state election.
The tracks are in the Arthur-Pieman Conservation Area on the remote north-west coastline and run through a narrow strip of land that received national heritage listing in 2013 for its Aboriginal heritage values, including extensive middens and a collection of petroglyphs.
Vehicle access by locals is a key issue in the election, with the Liberal party and the Jacqui Lambie Network arguing for them to be open to vehicle access, the Greens opposed and Labor straddling the fence by offering a $3m conservation plan that it has said is “about more than tracks”.
Tasmanian government efforts to reopen a 37.2km section of the tracks that were closed by the former Labor government in 2012 were successfully challenged by the Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre in the federal court.
The matter now rests with the federal environment minister, Josh Frydenberg, who has been asked to assess whether a state government proposal to lay thick rubber matting over particularly sensitive areas is sufficient to protect the heritage values of the area.
Flowers, one of five JLN candidates for Braddon, a north-west electorate that under Tasmania’s Hare-Clark system has five MPs, has made reopening the tracks his key election priority, saying in a biography on the party’s website that he had “dedicated many hours and his own money to the cause”.
But the Liberal MP for Braddon, Adam Brooks, whose campaign to reopen the tracks helped fuel a 13.6% swing to his party in Braddon in the 2014 state election, said what Flowers was accused of were actions which had the potential to derail the cause.
“If true, these are the type of … actions which could seriously compromise getting the tracks reopened,” Brooks said in a statement on Friday. “We have fought long and hard to get these tracks reopened, and this sort of stuff only serves to give fodder to the Greens who want to keep them shut.”
In a statement to the ABC, Lambie said Flowers had her full support and was entitled to a presumption of innocence. JLN has been contacted for comment.
