So much is at stake

Susan McMahon

Paul Lennon has said that we can have it all, but he is wrong. The deeply unpopular path he seems hell-bent on taking this state down at any cost and against the majority view, will irrevocably destroy our hard-won reputation, which is also our market edge.

FELLOW West Tamar residents, we elect our governments to represent us; to be our mouthpiece – this is true of all levels of government – local, state and federal. We expect nothing more and nothing less. When our elected representatives choose to ignore the majority view on a subject of vital importance, such as the likely impacts of the proposed Tamar pulp mill, then we have a very serious problem. In effect, our democratic process has been scuttled and we find ourselves living under a regime that could hardly even be described as democratic.

All reputable recent polls on the pulp mill issue have shown that a healthy majority of the Tasmanian public rejects a giant chemical pulp mill, coupled with a green-waste burning power plant in the Tamar Valley, given the well-documented difficulties inherent with this location. This majority view has become even stronger since the removal of the assessment process from the independent RPDC, which was entrusted to give a fair and balanced appraisal of the proposal. In scuttling the RPDC process, the State Government has lost the hearts and minds of thinking Tasmanians.

The inferior assessment process we have been left with leaves a great deal out of consideration, but that notwithstanding, SWECO PIC still found vital deficiencies with the proposal, which our government chooses to simply gloss over. We were promised a transparent process with public consultation as a vital component, but this has been whipped out from under our very noses, and we are left bereft, perplexed and unrepresented.

Instead of the representation we should have had, we have been denigrated and ridiculed; labelled ‘extreme’ and ‘misinformed’ by the very people (with a few notable exceptions) who should be taking our views on board.

We find ourselves at a crossroads, and the pulp mill is merely symptomatic. Do we adopt this third world pulp paradigm and subject ourselves to a future that depends on the market whims of low-value volatile commodities? Or do we capitalize on and grow that which makes our island unique and the wonderful, enviable place to live and work that it already is?

Paul Lennon has said that we can have it all, but he is wrong. The deeply unpopular path he seems hell-bent on taking this state down at any cost and against the majority view, will irrevocably destroy our hard-won reputation, which is also our market edge.

It is imperative that we get this right, as so much is at stake. The people must be heeded and represented. Give us back our democracy, starting locally, or reap what you have sown.

Susan McMahon’s speech to the West Tamar meeting

Earlier: A Wild West public meeting

Read more, Comment: HERE