Environment
State of dying democracy
Christine Milne
“They’re in it up to their necks together. It’s bipartisan almost; there’s been an unspoken agreement between the federal Coalition and federal Labor to absolutely stay away from Tasmania’s forest — not visit it, not go there, not discuss it — to the point that when Peter Garret was appointed as shadow Environment Minister the deal in the Labor Party was that he stay out of forests. Forests would be managed by Kerry O’Brien, who is the Tasmanian Labor Senator who is an absolute pro-logger, pro logging at absolutely any cost. And that uranium and all mining would all be dealt with by Chris Evans who’s a big supporter of expanded uranium mining. And that Garrett’s role was to confine himself to public relations for the Labor Party in the inner-city seats, and that the real business of resource management for Labor would go to the pro-mining and the pro-logging factions and shadow ministers — and that’s what occurred.”