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1. The concept of ‘outsourcing’ the approvals process to a consultancy at taxpayer expense is another station down the Via Dolorosa for the government. A private sector company assessing a proposal by another private sector company? Why don’t we outsource the government? It would be cheaper.

   Why couldn’t the government carry out this approval? Aren’t we spending enough on big departments? Don’t they have the expertise to do the assessment?

   And now restricting the assessment to leave out the impacts of the world’s fastest rate of forest clearance on an island famous for it’s natural resources will leave out the huge amounts of water to be used by tree plantations, the losses of agricultural revenue as we turn more farms into tree plantations, tourism losses as tourists are deterred by duelling log trucks, unregulated smells in the Tamar and scarred scenery.

   This is NOT a set up by the logging industry.
   This is NOT a set up by the logging industry.
   This is NOT…

   Posted by RIchard Barton  on  20/03/07  at  07:04 PM

2. Can we have some decent speakers please. I’d rather hear from scientific experts and economists and writers and poets than the usual Greens spokespeople. I think it would present a wider circumference of interest and be more interesting.

   Posted by Shady Deals  on  20/03/07  at  07:09 PM

3. I wonder if this rally will attract as much media attention as the pathetic 40 odd girls and kids pro mill rally in launceston.

   Posted by crud  on  21/03/07  at  09:30 AM

4. I doubt it very much Crud—it’s in Hobart, the Premier won’t be there, and the message will be strongly anti-Mill.

   Three strikes and you’re out, in the Examiner’s book.

   Posted by Cameron  on  21/03/07  at  06:47 PM

5. And what suite of juvenile stunts can we expect this time around. I liked the recent one with mickey mouse heads, but I’d like to see people with Mickey Mouse masks on in bed - hmmm.

   And what is this breaking news about TAP and the RPDC? Can we hear more about it at the rally? I might even come up to town for that one.

   Posted by Tomas  on  22/03/07  at  10:13 AM

6. The breaking news about TAP and the RPDC is an attempt by the Union to discredit the RPDC. As far as I know no evidence has been produced. TAP members all live in the north of the state - they’d find it hard to work for the RPDC in Hobart. I’ve been to most TAP meetings and I’ve never even heard a whisper that we have any links at all with the RPDC. In fact they don’t even reply to our letters. It’s just outrageous that someone can come out with something like this without a single shred of evidence.

   Posted by Rodney Ross  on  22/03/07  at  05:23 PM

7. Or maybe Tomas we could hear more about Lennon’s very quickly set up pro pulp rally at Newstead College! That might be interesting! I’ll let you stew on that!

   Posted by Claire & Charles Gilmour  on  22/03/07  at  06:27 PM

8. I would suggest that we abandon rallies, just put up a big sign on the lawns at parliament house saying
   “Closed, moved to Lindsay St Launceston”
   Really Tomas if all those people take the time to express their democratic right to free speech, and the 40 or so pro mill people turn up to express their democratic right to free speech what is your problem.
   The Silent Majority if they exist could always get off their backsides and attend a pro rally if in fact they support the mill.
   I don’t think that there is a silent majority in actuality. I may hang out in shady circles but the majority of people I meet are really concerned by the affects the pulp mill will have.
   And having the Premier spreading his little porkies doesn’t help.
   eg
   “not one extra tree will be cut down for the mill”
   “ending the lunacy of sending woodchips overseas”
   ” the logs for the Smithton veneer mill will be logs that would otherwise end up in the chipper”
   Porkies the whole lot. Unless that is that the Premier is admitting that at the moment we are chipping high quality veneer peeler logs.
   And one must remember who has been at the helm for the last 8 years at least guiding the lunacy of chipping our lovely state.
   This place is too beautiful to allow it to be destroyed so that one small man can boost his giant ego.

   Posted by Pete Godfrey  on  22/03/07  at  07:58 PM

9. There IS a ‘silent majority’ out there, Pete, also known as the lumpen proletariat. They are either a bit thick, for which we must not denigrate them, or they simply do not care enough to find out a few facts. They simply accept any old garbage that is dished up to them without question. The old ‘jobs’ catchcry usually elicits some kind of Pavlovian response, I’ve noticed.
   Actually, come to think of it, on this issue I think there may only be a silent minority.

   And I get sick and tired of people saying that the last state election was a ‘poll on the pulp mill’ - it was no such thing - the pulp mill was a very peripheral issue at most, and at the time of the election, most people thought the proposal was for a closed loop chlorine-free mill anyway, not the stinky monster that Gunns wants to foist on us.

   I notice that the Usual Suspects are strangely silent on the dynamite stuff that Christopher Wright keeps coming out with. I love these old ex-judges etc who refuse to shut up!

   I know what the CFMEU allegations are all about. There is nothing , absolutely zilch in it. These people are desperately clutching at straws. They are sad individuals.

   Posted by Anne Johnston  on  22/03/07  at  11:02 PM