Franklin Dam Controversy - Resolution

Resolution

On 5 March 1983, the Australian Labor Party won the federal election with a large swing. The new prime minister, Bob Hawke, had vowed to stop the dam from being constructed, and the anti-dam vote increased Hawke's majority - some federal Victorian seats were notable for having a strong interest in the issue. However, in Tasmania, the vote went against the national trend and the Liberals held all five seats. Hawke's government first passed regulations under the existing National Parks and Wildlife Conservation Act 1975, and then passed the World Heritage Properties Conservation Act 1983, which prohibited Franklin River dam-related clearing, excavation and building activities that had been authorised by Tasmanian state legislation.

However, the Tasmanian government ignored both the federal regulations and legislation and continued to order work on the dam. The issue was brought before the High Court with the first day of hearings on 31 May 1983. The government of Tasmania claimed that the federal government had no powers under the Constitution to pass either the regulations or the legislation. They claimed that as the right to legislate for the environment was not named in the Constitution, and was thus a residual power held by the states, that the World Heritage Properties Conservation Act 1983 was unconstitutional. The federal government, however, claimed (successfully) that they had the right to do so, under the 'external affairs' provision of the Constitution as, by passing legislation blocking the dam's construction, they were fulfilling their responsibilities under an international treaty (the UNESCO Convention for the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage, Australia having signed and ratified that convention and the Franklin River having been listed on it). The Commonwealth government also argued (successfully) that the federal legislation was supported by the constitutional powers of a federal government to pass laws about corporations and about the people of any race (in this case the aboriginal race, whose sacred caves along the Franklin would have been inundated).

The resulting court case became known as Commonwealth v Tasmania. On 1 July 1983, in a landmark decision, the High Court on circuit in Brisbane ruled by a vote of 4 to 3 in the federal government's favour. Judges Mason, Murphy, Brennan and Deane were in the majority and justices Wilson and Dawson with Chief Justice Gibbs were in the minority. This ruling gave the federal government the power to legislate on any issue if necessary to enforce an international treaty and has been the subject of controversy ever since. Justice Lionel Murphy wrote most broadly of the Franklin Dam decision's broader environmental and social implications in terms of the UNESCO Convention's common heritage of humanity principle, stating that "The preservation of the world's heritage must not be looked at in isolation but as part of the co-operation between nations which is calculated to achieve intellectual and moral solidarity of mankind and so reinforce the bonds between people which promote peace and displace those of narrow nationalism and alienation which promote war...he encouragement of people to think internationally, to regard the culture of their own country as part of world culture, to conceive a physical, spiritual and intellectual world heritage, is important in the endeavour to avoid the destruction of humanity." The High Court ruling ended the dam's construction, and the plans have never been revived.

The demise of plans for the Franklin Dam also largely ended the building of dams for the generation of hydroelectricity in Australia.

However, dam-building by the Hydro was not finished. The corporation was still able to construct a 'compromise' power development scheme on the nearby King River and Henty River to compensate for the loss of the potential power generation from the Franklin scheme. Further on in time, the West Coast Wilderness Railway - the reconstruction of the old Mount Lyell Abt Railway between Queenstown and Regatta point, was mainly financed by compensation funds allocated to the Tasmanian Government for the "loss" of the Franklin River or Gordon River dams.