The World Heritage Committee has unanimously rejected the Australian Government proposal to remove 74,000 ha of forests from the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area.
It took less than 8 minutes for the Committee to dismiss the proposal, in a forum where lively debate often continues for hours.
After the two UNESCO expert scientific bodies, ICOMOS and IUCN, dismissed the proposal as "sparse" and a backward step, three countries spoke against proposal. Portugal described the proposal as "feeble" and noted the opposition from the Australian Senate, environment groups and indigenous Tasmanians.
When the chair invited member states to speak in support of the Australian proposal, there was complete silence.
The proposal was unanimously rejected in a humiliating rebuke to the dishonest attempt by Prime Minister Abbott and Senators Abetz and Colbeck to mislead the World Heritage Committee.
You can watch video of the session here. The 'debate' on the Tasmanian World Heritage Area is in Plenary 15 and starts at 2:27:00
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