Cassy O’Connor

Michael Ferguson was being misleading. He should acknowledge Bass voters have no such assurance of eliminated mill risk factors for the air they breathe, and the beaches they swim, fish, surf and play along. Jodie Campbell has been equally disappointing but unlike Michael Ferguson, never had the intestinal strength to adopt a position with any conviction on the mill. She ignored evidence that’s on the public record, nodded in agreement when Rudd and Garrett backed the project, and the unsustainable logging that would feed it, and comes up with the same sort of feeble excuses as her Liberal counterpart to back the actions of Gunns, Lennon Labor and, sadly, our Federal Environment Minister.

WELL … All I know for sure is that there is a qualitative dimension absent from Kevin’s calculations, and it counts.

It is the brooding depth and intensity of the fury that a crass, corrupted approvals’ process has seared into those of us who comprehend some of the consequences … should this mill ever be built. And, I refuse to believe it will.

Some Tasmanians love this place so much, it’s a physical ache. It comes from a deep sense of responsibility, and a terrible fear for what would be lost.

There are young men prepared to scale bridges, high school students marshalling a class walkout, grandmothers ready to frontline a blockade, millionaires and other big brains strategising against the mill, financial institutions raising eyebrows, journalists watching, public rejection of forest destruction and the heavy load landclearing puts into the atmosphere, scientists still at work on the mill’s impacts … studies still to be done.

There is a long way to go yet. Gunns and compliant politicians are being, and will continue to be, challenged at every turn – in the forests, the courts, the Parliaments, the public domain and on the beaches … of Bass Strait, Bondi and Coogee.

It’s a sad state of affairs when the major party candidates in the affected electorate/s marginalise their voters by speaking as one on an economically stupid pulp mill straight out of the industrial dark ages.

Bass Liberal candidate, Michael Ferguson, was on ABC PM on Monday night stating he helped to make sure there were tough environmental conditions in place, and that Mr Turnbull’s decision should reassure people in Bass the mill would have no negative impact on the marine environment or on human health!

Hang on a minute …

Prior to the approval, and then to justify its failings, the Environment Minister repeatedly told us the Commonwealth had no jurisdiction to address public health issues, beyond Commonwealth waters. He approved a mill without the necessary clear understanding of the potential impact of contaminated effluent on Bass Strait beaches, or the Tamar River. Gunns also tells us this effluent may contain up to 160 chemicals of concern.

Former CSIRO chief research scientist, Dr Stuart Godfrey, Surfriders Foundation Australia (Nth. Tas), and the Greens among others, made the Minister well aware of the likelihood of negative human health impacts from marine effluent. Dr Godfrey’s hydrodynamic work was independently validated by scientific consultants engaged by Turnbull.

http://www.cleantamar.com.au/pulp_mill_analysis.html

The Minister could have significantly reduced the risk to human health by extending the effluent pipeline into Commonwealth waters further away from the Tasmanian coastline, an option canvassed by his Department, and dismissed …

We also know the fast-track State approval process failed to address potential health risks from the effluent, or allay the Australian Medical Association’s concerns about the mortal impacts of particulate pollution on the most vulnerable of the Tamar Valley’s +/- 100 000 residents.

And then there’s this sort of news from overseas:

http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=44897

Michael Ferguson was being misleading. He should acknowledge Bass voters have no such assurance of eliminated mill risk factors for the air they breathe, and the beaches they swim, fish, surf and play along.

Jodie Campbell has been equally disappointing but unlike Michael Ferguson, never had the intestinal strength to adopt a position with any conviction on the mill. She ignored evidence that’s on the public record, nodded in agreement when Rudd and Garrett backed the project, and the unsustainable logging that would feed it, and comes up with the same sort of feeble excuses as her Liberal counterpart to back the actions of Gunns, Lennon Labor and, sadly, our Federal Environment Minister.

Kevin, all elections are rife with unknowables. This one will be no different. I hope everyone who knows this mill is a pox on our island’s future, and resents the way it has been foisted upon us, goes into the polling booth with a clear head in November. As one means of wresting Tasmania back from these mercenary capitalists, we must make our votes count.