Henry Melville
GUNNS Pty Ltd has, by its actions, virtually put a knife to the neck of Tasmania and threatened to slaughter it.
During the Pulp Mill Debate in the Legislative Council last Wednesday, a nervous Greg Hall, MLC for Rowallan summed up their ultimatum or dilemma thus: “If we [Legislative Council] say no to this [new] assessment process, we [Tasmania] say no to the pulp mill. That is the reality. Unpalatable as it may seem to some, we have to decide that now either we approve the process or reject the pulp mill.”
And that‘s the political corner that Premier, Paul Lennon and Gunns Executive chairman, John Gay have pushed our elected mob of sheep into.
Would that we knew the truth behind the machinations that have lead to this frightening show-down.
In his address to the Legislative Council, Terry Martin quoted the words of former U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt who once said:
“The liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to a point where it comes stronger than their democratic state itself. That, in its essence, is fascism — ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or any controlling private power”.
Where else did this elected mob have to go? This was their last muster, they had finally been cut out and the killing chute was so close by.
By now most were exhausted and frightened by years of being heavied by this corporate-government juggernaut.
Can we blame them?
We all heard a tremulous and timid state treasurer, Michael Aird try to Judas-kiss Terry Martin for opposing the Bill.
But a courageous Terry Martin was the sacrificial ‘lamb’ that went willingly and peacefully to the slaughter, leaving the State Labor Premier to cut his throat and leaving him and his Party with blood on their hands.
Recent history shows this is a private company and a government that brooks no dissent or questioning. The modus operandi is to gamble with big money and rule with shameless power.
Their process has been unchecked by no one and no thing beyond themselves … they are simply a lore unto themselves.
The gutter politics of spin and attack are splattered like blood and guts around a madman’s abattoir. ‘The stench’ from this badly dismembered carcass fills the air and the lifeless body of State democracy is contaminated by spilt entrails.
And the last insult to this ‘Machiavellian’ slaughter is for this mangled, contaminated body to now be offered as the world’s best mince [or pulped] meat fit and proper for a king to dine upon.
And this from MLC for Nelson, Jim Wilkinson: “It is when you get some people deciding not to play by the rules and then getting special treatment [Could that be Gunns, Jim?], that you do not take the people with you, [and] you do not take me with you.”
This is our governance gone mad!
