31.10.05 11:29 pm
DAVID OBENDORF:
What has suggested to the DFTD researchers that these chemical toxins, pollutants and poisons are the worthiest candidates to test any linkage with the development of the genetically rearranged cancer cells of devils?
31.10.05 3:31 am
PETE HAY:
So come on you smalltown bullyboy,
you strong-in-the-back, weak-in-the-head,
subtle-as-a-brick-shithouse
artless young beserker.
30.10.05 3:01 pm
KEVIN BONHAM:
The contrast between Hobart and Launceston is amusing. Hobart has elected a no-change council, returning its Lord Mayor and Deputy, six sitting aldermen and a new Green to replace the one who resigned before his term was over.
John Freeman appears to have taken his re-election for granted, and while he got away with it easily this time he no longer commands the support he once did and may lose (as Beams nearly did) if he runs such a meagre campaign again.
29.10.05 10:07 pm
RENE HIDDING:
Mr Hidding said it was likely that the Lennon Labor Government was splurging more than $5 million a year in salaries alone on manipulating public opinion about the Lennon Labor Government’s performance. The spin doctors are embedded in all corners of the bureaucracy — from the Royal Hobart Hospital, to the LGH, education, development, other parts of the health department, and DPAC and the Government Media Office. The Lennon Labor Government has taken public relations to an offensive new level, so desperate is it to try to attempt to secure its re-election next year. Tasmanians will be disgusted that the biggest public relations firm in Tasmania is now the Lennon Labor Government.
Paul’s Great White Elephant Park
28.10.05 11:45 pm
HAG:
Paul’s overseeing of the Bacon-Lennon vision has been deeply impressive. He is managing quite perfectly a strategy to denude the island of its native flora and fauna and re-populate it with the fascinating White Elephant which has the Sydney Spot 3 travellers (admittedly in limited numbers) gawping in such wonderment.
28.10.05 7:39 am
STEPHEN MAYNE, Crikey:
It seems both major parties are sucking up to the giant tree slaughterers ahead of next year’s Tasmanian election. I asked Gay about Mark Latham’s claim that he “runs Tasmania” but he declined to expand on his relationship with Premier Paul Lennon, who Iron Mark said “wouldn’t scratch himself” without John Gay’s say so.
Devil disease: The chemical bombshell
27.10.05 7:02 pm
DAVID OBENDORF:
Buried deep within the article were statements by cytogeneticist, Anne Maree Pearse and wildlife biologist, Nick Mooney that should have been the highlight of this article.
According to these two scientists working on the Devil Facial Tumour Disease, the cause could be pesticides or herbicides used by Tasmanian farmers or foresters.
27.10.05 2:08 pm
THE MERCURY:
ELECTORS in the West Tamar municipality have voted against a pulp mill being situated in the Tamar Valley.
27.10.05 2:01 pm
LEONARD COLQUHOUN:
Few teachers would disagree; few would reckon that they’re currently well remunerated, recent pay rises notwithstanding. However, there’s a fairly widespread vox pop view that teachers are over-paid and under-worked, especially with all those “holidays” — a point of view strongly, if erroneously, re-inforced by pupil-free days in term time. Perhaps there’s an element of “paying peanuts and getting monkeys” in this widespread attitude.
Yes, at the EdCentral Collective, the gods must be crazy. Or we’re crazy to pay them any mind.
Now, it’s the local paper’s fault
26.10.05 11:26 pm
NOW:
THE State Government launched a stinging attack on The Mercury newspaper yesterday, accusing it of waging a campaign against the Spirit of Tasmania III.
THEN:
The Premier lashed the Mainland Media and the Appalling Paparazzi who chased the Butlers in Sydney and from the airport. It’s Them not Us.
Is there a pattern here?
Troubled Spirit and the Truth
26.10.05 9:29 pm
GUY PARSONS:
The issue still stands: The tennis club borrowed money from the church in the 1930s to buy the courts, paid the church back but left the deeds in trust with the church, and now the church, as possessor of the title, wants the club to go so it can sell the courts to developers.
26.10.05 9:01 pm
KEVIN BONHAM:
This is the one real shock result from the count. Although Freeman will be returned there is no word for his vote other than “abysmal”. I predicted his vote might decline, but thought he should still be over a quota — in fact he is barely over half a quota (.54)! It is truly incredible that a sitting alderman, even while doing relatively little during the campaign, can crash from a primary vote of 20.0% in 2000 to 6.8% now — nearly two-thirds of his former voters have gone elsewhere.
25.10.05 9:34 pm
DAVE GROVES:
Just sit right back and you’ll hear a tale,
a tale of mighty slip.
That started with a trip to Greece,
to buy some rusty ships.
The mate’s were slappin’ each other’s backs,
the skipper bought two more.
The passengers got in the way …
Read more, comment:
HERE
And,
Hag: Yes, Mr Green let’s have a police inquiry:
But Mr Green indicated Tasmania Police might be called in to help the Department of Premier and Cabinet investigate the source of the leak …
24.10.05 9:54 pm
SUE NEALES, The Mercury:
More likely, according to top-secret Treasury estimates, retaining the regular Spirit III service to Sydney will cost $420 million over the next six years, with probably only $275 million to be recouped in fares. This startling figure is contained in a secret Treasury document on the future of Spirit III presented to State Cabinet in March. The same report also condemns the Government’s rationale that retaining the Sydney ship can be justified on the broader tourism benefits it generates for Tasmania.
Read more:
HERE
But here’s a more likely scenario …
HAG:
Make no mistake. Strategic leaking from within the heart of government is aimed at ridding Premier Lennon of another embarrassment imposed by former Premier Jim Bacon.
Labor: Death by feudal factions
24.10.05 9:44 pm
JOHN FAULKNER:
In Australia today there is a dangerous indifference to politics accompanied by a simmering resentment of politicians. Citizens who haven’t enough interest in the democratic process to stay even vaguely informed of the issues of the day have only one profound political conviction: that politicians can’t be trusted. Politicians show reciprocal cynicism in an electoral climate where a lie about mortgage rates has more impact than the truth about lies.
Read more:
HERE
24.10.05 9:21 pm
RUSSELL LANGFIELD:
As a new resident to Tasmania at the time of the TT Survey, I read it and thought “what a wonderful and innovative idea!” I filled it in. Unfortunately, now I think it was just an intelligence gathering exercise to give the Government time to develop strategies and implement protections for itself in the dealings it was involved in and intending to expand.
Read more in the Comments beneath, What was Jim thinking?
HERE
24.10.05 2:26 pm
NICK EVERS:
Another area in which the churches have been slow to adopt a rational position, at least in Tasmania, is on the matter of brothels. Due more it seemed to legislative bungling than to socially responsible policy-making the Tasmanian government recently required the closure of all legal brothels in the state. The churches were apparently supportive of this initiative but I can’t see why. Do they want those who were previously using legal brothels, that were subject to formal certification and policing, to be making furtive forays down back alleys and negotiating with lowlife pimps to spend time in a sordid bedroom or against a picket fence with a woman — or a man or indeed a child — who can provide no credible evidence of his or her sexual health? It is absolute nonsense and carries the rank odour of either policy incompetence or, in the event of church pressure, mindless stupidity.
In short, the traditional churches seem to me to bathe in an aura of yesteryear, to be stodgy, slow to accommodate change and disinclined to experiment and yet, given the legitimate worries canvassed by Archbishop Jensen, the need for urgent attention is readily apparent. I have no ready prescription for their salvation but I would like to see them survive and flourish because they have been — and can continue to be — an important integral element in our society. They continue to discharge immensely important welfare and missionary functions but these too will wither on the vine if the numbers of churchgoers continue to decline.
24.10.05 1:08 am
Latest Stock Market detail: HERE
And:
Nicholas Way, BRW: $1 billion pulp mill in doubt
Tasmania wants to add value to its timber industry with a pulp mill, but the public still needs to be convinced.
And,
Read: The industrial museum at Long Reach
23.10.05 11:52 pm
SIMON BEVILACQUA, The Sunday Tasmanian:
When the scientists visited last month the Conservation Area had been open to off-roaders for a week. But the damage was already extreme. “We were shocked and angered to see the extent of damage to natural vegetation and habitats, to visual landscapes and wilderness values, and to historical and cultural values, by recreational vehicles having open slather with no apparent control or monitoring,” Dr Corbett said.
Read more:
HERE
And:
HERE
PIC:
HERE
And:
Experts set to survey Recherche Bay
