You wouldn’t ever call Paul an ideas man would you? He’s still chewing over the same failed plan 10 years later.

A perfect example of the obsession with cargo cults—the one big project without which Tasmania will collapse in a heap. We’ve had it from the very beginning. In Lennon’s case it’s part this culture and part the limited vision and asociated megalomania of a one-bit mind. He simply can’t think of anything else but his own pet obsession, even when all the economic,scientific and political evidence has condemned it outright. It is no credit to Giddings that she affects pride in being mentored by such a person.

Lennon is now a gun for hire and his opinions now reflect those who pay his consultancy fees.

That a Dead in the Wood Chip Pile, Gunns Pulp Mill Pusher, should canvas the locking up of vast areas of Tasmania so as to enable the IGA to pass the Upper House of the Tasmanian Parliament is a sure fire indicator of the Lobbyist at work.

The major beneficiary from such a decision if made by the Committee chaired by long time Ta Ann spruiker Paul Harriss will be Ta Ann who will receive approximately 50 million dollars.

Rolley now CEO of Ta Ann but former CEO of FT, Harriss and Lennon represent the old Guard still using their influence over a failed business model to the detriment of Tasmania.

Even candle lit vigils idolising the great persona of Lara’s political mentor will not save her from the voters decision come April 2014!
Paul still preachs the gospel, the Pulp Mill according to Paul, amazing after all those years a true believer. Nothing changes. Tasmania still going no where.

Two words: diversified economy.

Go on Paul, give us a thrill and see if you can manage two coherent words in close proximity.

It’s unspeakably moving to see Thuggo finally given his rightful place in the Rogues’ Pantheon.

But for the cruelties of economic reality, he might have realised his vision of a final solution to the Tassie forest wars, at 7m tonnes a year in competition with South American chips a third cheaper.

Some would have preferred a more naturalistic portrait - perhaps under a table at the Casino - but his legacy will live close to forever on bare and eroded hillsides throughout the State.

John Hayward

Paul Lennon certainly is a visionary. No wonder Tasmania and Canberra are run by such popular, wealthy governments with high ethical standards.

So she is proud of the fact that Paul mentored her…Now I understand why we have a female arrogant clone of the past.

Similar in mind and stature…my goodness old habits die hard.

Well he would say that wouldn’t he. How often do we here politicians come out and say. “I was wrong”.
I suppose one could argue that since Bacon, Lennon and now Giddings have been trying relentlessly to funnel everything towards hinging off a pulp mill, one could say it is what we ‘need’ because nothing else has been set up to account for the fact that most didn’t want it after its total inappropriateness became crystal clear. Tasmania, still putting all its eggs in one ‘cargo cult’ basket.
Meanwhile, the poli’s are still vacilating and crying over its demise rather than getting on with the job of finding something else and listening to the people they are ‘supposed’ to represent.
Yes we need something, but its not a pulp mill.
If he is such a great man, why is he still backing a loser. Because he is as pigheaded as he always was.

So Lara’s idol Big Red still believes in a pulp mill. I dont think Lara mentioned it the other day in her Head Prefect styled rant to the National Press Club.
Its no wonder the “powerful persona” of Big Red who acts as if he is still the Premier looked angry with grumpy Bob Gordon looming in the background as pictured in the Mercury.
At least we know nothing has changed, still stuck with dead projects to uplift a dying state!

Cargo cult? A far closer parallel to the type specimen of cargo cult (the building of airstrips and then awaiting manna from the sky) is clearly Tasmania’s tourist, erm, industry. Movie simile: Field of Dreams.

Then there’s the carbon cult. I notice that descriptions of the revenue from same are always (i) exaggerated and (ii) preceded by words like ‘possible’ or ‘potential’. Movie simile: Jerry Maguire.

Comment 1’s “You wouldn’t ever call Paul an ideas man” makes sense if by “ideas” is meant “visions”.

We, and every society, culture and nation, need people with visions, lots of people with lots of visions, lots of different people with lots of different visions. We need to let 100 visions contend.

Otherwise, stagnation sets in.

But, this is a crucial “but”, we DO NOT NEED such people in power*, because one of the absolutely clear lessons of history is that vision + power makes for a thoroughly dangerous and deadly combination.

Comments which show ignorance of this should not expect to be taken as serious contributions to this discussion.

TTers aware of this do not need a roll-call of 20th century visionaries who abused political power with deadly and destructive results. Oh, and they had great “passion” and “commitment”, too!

* Let’s be straight-forward: to expect inspiring politicians as a norm (i.e., except in extraordinary circumstances) is sad and pathetic. That’s not what they are for.

Paul Lennon, the template of a Loser.

Re #12
Tasmania’s backward political economic single-idea loser non-profit stupidity. Movie simile: Avatar.

The same old same old dead wood…the same old rusted on re-cycled politicians… but hey,  the biggest problem is the same old tired career bureaucrats that never change despite who ever gets elected.
Even if they are caught being naughty (as I have witnessed) all that happens is the deck chairs are shuffled and it’s “BUSINESS AS USUAL” let’s have another meeting and dream up another idea how to dud the Feds.
Tassie there is your biggest problem .....

Get a bit of dirt on any pollie (and that’s not hard to do) and you are set for life in the public service in Tassie.
I could cite you a dozen cases.

My goodness the people commenting here on the cargo cult certainly got it right…since 1998 it has become a way of life to expand the empire!

I’m not so sure that Comment 15’s “the biggest problem is the same old tired career bureaucrats”, although it is clear what sort of malaise is meant.

In classic public / civil service practice, the main job of bureaucrats was to advise the government “without fear or favour”, and to implement government policies regardless of their own beliefs or attitudes. The intention was that the bureaucracies in the various departments had the skills, knowledge, experience and expertise to do this, and to provide continuity from one administration to the next.

Importantly, ministers were not expected to have the skills, knowledge, experience and expertise to put policy into practice: parliament is not meant to have a tinker, a sailor, a soldier or a spy, a doctor, a baker or a candlestick-maker to be appointed as ministers to those areas. (Attorneys-General are an exception.)

Since, say, the 1970s, that arrangement has almost totally broken down, with incoming governments appointing new heads of departments who are in line with government philosophy or ideology. Obviously, there are advantages to this, but the main defect is that there is no-one to say to Minister X, “Hang on a minute, that’s against the constitution / economically unfeasible / against the laws of the land / dodgy on ethical or moral grounds / voiding this or that treaty responsibility”.

Or, risking sacking, to ask, “Are you a complete f*ckwit, Minister?”

The last destructive factor is a surely unintended consequence of pay for parliamentarians: instead of it being a recompense for time away from ‘normal’ work, being a representative of We the People has now become a full-time, long-term career, coupled with MPs being as unrepresentative of us life-wise and work-wise as they could possibly be.

Now surrounded by yea-saying minders and other parasites, ministers have no-one to say those sorts of things.

And doesn’t it show.

I agree # 16…
“In classic public / civil service practice, the main job of bureaucrats was to advise the government “without fear or favour”, and to implement government policies regardless of their own beliefs or attitudes. The intention was that the bureaucracies in the various departments had the skills, knowledge, experience and expertise to do this, and to provide continuity from one administration to the next.”

However,  this is Tasmania… “a very special place.”

The very epitome of an incestuous little place with most - if not all appointments, based on who is with who and who isn’t paying!
That is the bottom line.

#2 Tasmania IS collapsed in a heap- there aren’t even any small projects- though #2 may have some in mind?

Great, very telling portrait. Mr 17 % … Just a big dark cloud with a little head … says it all.

#14;

Oh dahhling, ouwch….Not.

Growing an economy may be fortuitously boosted by a single mega project. Prince Albert was such a place until the pulpmill closed. PA is still there, servicing the farming and tourism sectors with a retail therapy strip, education and a hospital.

They may have had in the builders of local economies, those who can develop clusters of co-operating busineses or develop niche markets.

You can wait for a mega project and then feed it taxes so it doesn’t depart or take the slow road and build on the base you have.

In a carbon constrained world high value low volume will be the exports of places far from the markets for those products whilst higher volumes may remain affordable in markets closer to home.

That is what we need to grow.

Nice still life Geoff Dyer. Could you locate any personality?

I would suggest that recent history has shown that the last thing Tasmania needs is a Pulp Mill or Ta Ann.
The only benefit large projects bring is more subsidies and more useless projects that turn into white elephants.
-Brighton Bypass
-Brighton Transport hub
-Meander Dam
- East Tamar Highway upgrade.
- Culvert under the East Tamar for non existent water pipeline that will never be paid for.
- $5 million in subsidies from John Howard to help produce the IIS for the non existent pulp mill,
- $2.5 million for the pulp mill propaganda bus.
All of this was money that could have been spent on far more useful projects to help the people of Tasmania.
Now we have Ta Ann.
- we gave them $10,380,000 to help them get their peelers underway.
-FT gave them the buildings to put them in
-we subsidise the power costs to them
- we almost pay them to take the logs
-Now we are about to give them $50 to $80 million to compensate them for not giving them more logs.
So who needs mega projects.

According to pulp mill opponents, the threat of building a mill was holding up all sorts of other developments in the Tamar Valley as well as depressing house prices.

The mill is dead so let’s see the money. Where are these other developments? And are house prices, supposedly being suppressed by the mill threat, now going up?

If not then Lennon may well end up standing atop the pile of credibility and most Tasmanians will for many years to come. On the other hand, if mill opponents were right then the future looks bright indeed.

So let’s see the money. There’s no excuses left.

By being so blind to exploiting Tasmania’s remaining Nature, will Paul Lennon be singled out as the last Stihl Taswegian?

Lara has got to be told, to proceed with the pulp mill, you and your Labor mates
will be decimated at the next election, if not already!  Basil Fitch

#23 It would be perhaps more accurate to say “who needs government intervention?”

It’s government intervention in business, not the scale of any particular project, sees your taxes disappearing in subsidies.

If government isn’t involved in the first place, then there’s not much chance of a loss to the taxpayer.

#24 BS Shaun. The mill permits are still alive and do you reckon that the affects of a six year struggle will suddenly be shrugged off?
The damage of the pulp mill debacle has gone deep and it’ll be many years before your question is valid.

#24 is right- what’s the problem?- no mill- but an economy even more stalled than it was said to be by the ‘threat’ of a pulp mill.
Where’s the amazing future for the Tamar Valley so many promised if there was no mill?
Unemployment rate in George Town is…?  Empty shops still? Entrepeneurs were waiting in the wings…now they must have flown.
Anti-mill campaigners were always selfish, self-centred scare mongers.

#24 “...So let’s see the money. There’s no excuses left.”
Posted by Shaun on 23/02/13 at 05:57 PM

Shaun, we have invested since it was clear that GNS was going under.
So yes we have financed building jobs, and yes we have invested into tourism and continue to, right here in the Tamar Valley.
So, show us what you are doing for a better Tasmania.

Bit hasty there Shaun. Gunns is dead. Apparently the mill permits are yet to be revoked and as we have seen recently Labor still thinks it fit to mark the mill on its project map. Not exactly ripe for post-mill scenarios to kick in but we’re getting there.

Shaun @ 24 - I agree with #31. Although the mill project appears, to all intents and purposes, to be an ex-parrot, dead, defunct, fallen off the perch, etc, etc, while ever the permits remain in place, the PMAA 2007 is still on the statutes and Gunns’ receivers are still vainly trying to find a buyer for the project as a viable thing, then the brakes remain on other development to some extent. Having said that, property sales and house prices have picked up considerably since the threat receded, and there is a greater air of optimism here at Former Ground Zero.
Small steps…....many eggs in different baskets….....takes time.

#32 Even more excuses for nothing happening- these people must dread the day - should it come-that everything connected to the proposed pulp mill is “laid to rest” and there are absolutely no lingering possibilities of a re-birth (“Dead,buried,cremated!”)
What reason then not to advance the economic boom the antis promised.

#28 “#24 BS Shaun. The mill permits are still alive and do you reckon that the affects of a six year struggle will suddenly be shrugged off?
The damage of the pulp mill debacle has gone deep and it’ll be many years before your question is valid.”

We don’t actually have years to wait for anything to “wear off”. Right now ordinary Tasmanians are losing jobs and related businesses (eg fabrication, machine shops etc) are closing as far away as Derwent Park (Hobart). And the current flood of cash from the Hydro is of course a one off too with only a year or so left to go. Then what?

Investment fundamentally involves taking a risk. Anyone who is “holding back” because the permits are still there must believe that there is a credible chance of the mill actually being built. You wouldn’t hold back just because of some legal technicality if you honestly thought the mill was dead.

So I take your comment to mean that opponents of the mill still think there is a reasonable prospect of it actually being built?

The best thing that could happen so far as I’m concerned is to cancel the permits for the current site and issue a new one valid for Hampshire. That way we settle the issue in the Tamar Valley, thus removing the perceived barrier to investment, whilst retaining the possibility of a mill being built somewhere else where it would have minimal impact. Not that I think it will ever be built, but leaving the door open in a sensible location ought to keep everyone happy.

A fool and public money can design one hell of a Party.

As any “good” leader should know, you can’t blow a weak, indeed broken trumpet.

The Liberals have promised that if (when?) they are elected they will ensure the pulp mill will be built according to the Gunns proposed model.  They have not ruled out financing it with government funds.  Whether or not it will be viable seems not to be a consideration.

They have also promised that they will tear up the TFA and revert the forestry industry to what it was when it employed thousands of people and exported shiploads of woodchips.  This will happen regardless of whether there are either sufficient markets or sufficient trees.

Giddings has only said that she hopes all this will happen, whereas Will Hodgman will make it happen.

Perhaps he will emulate the Danish political candidate in the nineties who campaigned on a platform that promised every cyclist a following wind, whatever direction they were facing.

More seriously, I fail to see why those of us who are pointing out that the last several decades spent following the wrong policies have ruined the industry are being asked to suggest ways of resuscitating what is undeniably dead.

Perhaps Tasmania’s forestry industry is Lazarus and Will Hodgman is Jesus.  I doubt it, but I’ve been wrong before.

... Kudelka’s portrait would have sufficed.

And #26 is against a pulp mill because…?

#38, have you not been paying attention for the last several years?  Basil (#26) can answer for himself, but I reckon that if the cost of building it (estimated at close to $3 billion) is now going to come out of the government budget, and if its operation is to be subsidised (also out of gov’t funds) because it isn’t viable otherwise, then that’s not a bad place to start.

Add to that the disastrous effects on the environment, on public health, on the roads budget of local councils, and on fishing, viticulture and the hospitality industry, and the reasons for opposing it are still far from being exhausted.

And all for the employment of a couple of hundred people, many of whom will have to come here from interstate or overseas.  The end result, taking into account all those Gunns workers retrenched, and all the contractors who have had to lay people off because Gunns stopped paying them, will have been a nett increase in unemployment.

Converting forests or plantations to paper products instead of to longer-lasting timber ones has an exacerbating effect on global climate change. 

Now, TGC, perhaps you could provide a reason to be in favour of a pulp mill?

the big stinker & the tree farms may have made sense   with       $A 1.00 = $US 0.50

with all the gold, iron ore, coal ,gas etc on the mainland we have parity exchange rate with the $US.

with interest rates where they are & you want lots of tassie blue collar jobs the answer is simple -

restart building the gordon-below-franklin which robin grey & his liberal government was stopped from building.

Re #24
According to everyone in the driving seat the mill is still very much alive, yet to be still-born.

Re #38
How about once and for all, Trevor, you show us where the pulp mill has been shown that it will ever make a profit, or that there are enough plantation trees to economically feed it? Put up or….you know the rest.

All of #39 is all supposition with no basis in any facts- the mill hasn’t been built so the itemised “effects” are mere opinion formed in prejudice.
The “effect” of the mill on climate change is a new claim-  still, anything goes I guess when one is trying to build a case against.
And the question of “public money” funding an enterprise - whether it be a mere few dollars or “$3 billion”- most calculations stopped at $2billion and the funding was to be largely private- is always a genuine cause for concern-
although not the case currently with comparatively substantial government funds available to support the ABT railway-which means virtually direct funding of many jobs in the tourist industry on the West Coast.
And..#41…has figures which demonstrate beyond any doubt that the pulp mill would have always run at a loss and would have very quickly run out of plantation feedstock…hasn’t he?

Re #42
And..#41…has figures which demonstrate beyond any doubt that the pulp mill would have always run at a loss and would have very quickly run out of plantation feedstock…hasn’t he?

In that respect neither you, Gunns, KPMG, the Tasmanian Government or anyone else has supplied financials or a business plan which shows otherwise.

On the other hand there have been innumerable sources of data given to show it was always going to be a fizzer. Keeping your head in the sand won’t help you.

The poster @ 42 likes the view from inside the sand-pile - nice and comfy and warm with no uncomfortable truths to worry about! Albeit, a bit hard to breathe without getting a lungful.

Re #42: So you couldnt provide an answer to #39’s question eh? Deflection won’t improve your credibility.

It should be apparent (but obviously isn’t to some) that the world economy is the main reason that even if the mill had been built, it would have run at a loss.
Things have changed and Tassie chips are no longer flavour of the month.

Now Shaun asks where is the money, why are we not having a boom?
Well Shaun just think how bad it would have been if the mill had gone ahead.
No market for the pulp, a down turn in local trading because of the mill, house prices at rock bottom Etc Etc.

Big red is not the tooth fairy and will not wave his wand to produce his mill and everyone will live happily ever after.

It was and is a dream, or a nightmare.

If Will gets in he will not be able to resurrect this pious hope that he is probably pinning all his hopes on and is doomed to disappointment.

then where will he turn in desperation? sell the Hydro? Sell Tassie to China?

#38 TGC- Is the forest industry sustainable?
Is FT sustainable?
Was Gunns sustainable?
Was a pulp mill sustainable?
Were MIS schemes sustainable?
Is anything to do with forestry sustainable?
Millions of our logs rotting - sustainable?
Millions of log trucks tearing up council roads-
is that sustainable?(ratepayers footing that bill-
is that sustainable?)
Lara giving FT $110million-is that sustainable?
Gunns owe $3billion ($1.6billion to investors-
is that sustainable?
FT lost $470million last 5 yrs-is that sustainable?
FT owes $160million in Super Funds is that sustainable?
FT like Gunns broke is that sustainable?
Lara promises another $40million to Burke’s $60
million,if IGA passes- is that sustainable?
For 30 yrs forestry received over $2billion-
is that sustainable?
For 30 yrs forestry have left Lib/Lab govts broke-
is that sustainable?
TGC your elevator has stopped working-is that sustainable?      Basil Fitch

expect that the feds are using the overseas aide budget to prop up the malaysian’s taa- ann & its tas inc associates.

can’t see how it benefits tasmanians

how about an independent accounting & a full audit of where all the loot ends up & detail how it passes thru to the final loot recipients.  looks a lot like present dealings in the nsw rum corp - obied, macdonald & mates - who is it who looks like craig thomson -  will the tas leg councilors play ball - who’s payroll are they on.

Speaking of “head in the sand”-  objectors to almost anything to do with forestry, Gunns, pulp mill,  haven’t spotted the latest Tasmanian unemployment figures or the virtual collapse of a self-sustaining Tasmanian economy. You lot up above should take a reality check.
There is not the slightest doubt that all of those who have campaigned against the pulp mill would have also campaigned against the aluminium smelter- “uneconomic, stink, pollute, not enough bauxite to run it, will crush tourism and damage the viticulture and fisheries in Tasmania…” and other industries at Bell Bay- yet, 60 years later-still going.
Huge damage has been done to Tasmania by selfish and self-centred people, aided and abetted by political opportunists with nothing of any consequence to offer for the future of this State.

Speaking of “reality checks” - how about you come clean with the acknowledgement (like everyone else in Tassie) that the smelter and other Bell Bay industries threaten to pull the pin each year if they don’t have their subsidies continued. Add to that those industries who have walked away from Bell Bay in the last couple of years.

Maybe your head is somewhere other than in the sand?

“Huge damage has been done to Tasmania by selfish and self-centred people, aided and abetted by political opportunists with nothing of any consequence to offer for the future of this State.”

So true, led by head up bum Losers like Paul Lennon and Co.

Re #49: I take it your list of “selfish and self-centred people, aided and abetted by political opportunists with nothing of any consequence to offer for the future of this State…” doesnt include Robin Gray, John Gay, Edmund Rouse, David McQuestin, Tony Rundle, Ray Groom, Michael Aird, Paul Lennon, Paul Harriss, Greg Hall, Tony Fletcher, Tania R-W, Michael Polley, David Llewellyn, Rene Hidding, Jeremy Rockliff, Will Hodgman, Elise Archer, Sam McQuestin, to name a few. 

I’ll give you some common ground and concede we both probably have Brenton Best.

#49 Move on from the 1950’s, its 2013! The ‘huge damage done’, is subsidising these,last century pollutors @ Bell Bay. 
P.S Doubt if all latest pulp mill campaigners would have been born or crawling 60 odd yrs ago.    Basil Fitch

#52 No-one who owns property of any kind should ever take the high moral about “pollution”

So, if no-one “who owns property of any kind should ever take the high moral about pollution”, as in comments 52 & 53 in whatever way, have the more worthy & pure Greens ideologues checked whether ex-Senator Brown and Senator Milne have divested themselves?

(Be interesting to know whether the drongo who claimed that property is theft owned anything!)

#49+53 Please do us all a favour on TT,
take your frock and go back to Stanley, and leave us all in peace.  Basil Fitch

#56
Basil Fitch, I understand your frustration with the puerile drivel that that is TGC’s contribution to TT, but as a Stanley boy myself I don’t think Stanley would want him back.

Claire your #35 is quite a telling tale of the practices engaged in Tasmania that today provides us with such as the Abetzian Liberal attitude-d political party.
Their avid support to further annihilate anything in nature that hops, swims, flies or grows tall and stately, could only arise from the minds of our Tasmanian destruction inflamed political self-seekers.
Yet these reprehensible individuals actually create nought for the people, other than a continuance for them to feed hungrily from the toils of those whom they constantly seek to oppress.
What for the alarming wasted amount of costs that are being paid out from our e’er diminishing treasury to energise such burdening drivellers.

#55; Trolls require bridges. Are there any suitable bridges in Stanley?

#56 most likely not and for very good reason: but
if the idea is to intimidate…

It was inevitable that #55 would become so frustrated the dark card eventually had to be played and in the free-for-all environment of TT- undisciplined some may say- all contributors are aware of the risk.

TGC 60. You could include your role in the pulp mill in an autobiography. Why not? It would clear-up discussion about where you came from. I’m sure the Examiner would be interested in serialising it.
The Examiner has just spent a week covering who wore what to the Launceston Cup so they need some fresh input from one of their most prolific letter writers.

Basil, and everyone else for that matter, we should be grateful for the full range of views on display. Down the other road lies tyranny.

“The Examiner has just spent a week covering who wore what to the Launceston Cup” (Comment 61).

So what?

Those august mainland broadsheets (and soon to go tabloid, sorry, compact), The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald, which regard themselves as the intellectual person’s papers, also spend lots of time and effort on the equivalents in their cities. What’s more, they print rubbish such as horoscopes, too.

So TGC was from up this end. If you’re ever brave enough to venture up this way again come and visit me Trevor, I’ll give you a tour to remember, show you the truth of how inconsideration, lies and corruption has ruined potential. I don’t think you would though, seemingly preferring to be blind-sided by con rather than seeing reality. Seeing is believing of course. You know I asked the current Examiners Ed to do the same once, and he said he didn’t need to see it, that he’d already been told the truth. Ha ha! Of course the links between the Exag, Lennon, Gay and co … what I call John, Paul and their Lingo rot, was quite interesting too …! But then again what would I know? Lots!

The eggmen and the Walrus …  very apt …
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