Robert McMahon Tasmanians Against the Pulpmill
Dear Editor,
Several times last year, TAP (Tasmanians Against the Pulpmill) members attended Launceston City Council meetings and asked questions of Mayor Ivan Dean concerning the viability of Launceston’s water supply, given that the upper catchment of the North Esk/St Patricks River, the source of all of Launceston’s water, is being clearfelled at a ferocious rate.
Already, by our calculations, approximately 40% of the catchment above intake has been clearfelled and converted to extremely thirsty plantations. Now that Launceston appears to be facing a looming water crisis, such criminally irresponsible forest practises would be ignored only by a people intent on self destruction.
The mayor was aggressively dismissive of our concerns and blandly assured the residents of Launceston that their informed apprehensions were misplaced. His next move was to entrench his ducking of the issue by banning verbal question time altogether. From that moment onwards, questions would be limited to Launceston ratepayers only and had to be forwarded to the Mayor in writing.
The Mayor is a fervent supporter of the proposed pulp mill and he readily signed the mayoral accord at the first soft sell from Gunns Ltd. Now that the scientific evidence is in, what TAP suspected all along has been confirmed. The proposed mill will have a damaging effect on Launceston’s air quality, in addition to which the pulp mill will drive even faster the conversion of much of north-east Tasmania to tree plantations and further deprive Launceston of its water.
It is about time this part-time mayor withdrew his support of the pulp mill because by his support he is condemning Launceston to a slow death. If he is not able to do the job he was elected to do, that is, maintain and advance the welfare of the people of the municipality of Launceston, he must resign and hand the job over to someone who does give a damn. For the mayor, and the people of Launceston, the luxury of “business as usual” is no longer an option.
Robert McMahon (TAP)
Exeter, Tas 7275
