Sven Wiener A report of Gunns meets the George Town Council
THE REPORTER from the Examiner didn’t stick around long enough to hear any of the debate regarding the pulp mill public meeting motions or pulp mill elector poll. Hats off to the ABC reporter Jacquie Street for waiting through an hour and a half of boring discussion before we finally got to the pulp mill items that members of the packed public gallery were all there to hear.
Motion 1 (Deferred to the February council meeting (i.e. until after the results of the pulp mill elector poll are known):
“That this meeting calls upon the George Town Council to actively oppose the proposed Pulp Mill on the grounds that the health, safety and well being of the citizens of the East Tamar has been put at risk by the fast-track approval of the project and can no longer be adequately protected or ensured.
Motion 2 (Motion passed subject to some amendment of the wording – see words in italics shown below)
That George Town Council
(1) seek, consult and advise on all projected major hazards and risk assessments and inform the community on completion;
(2) ensure that baseline studies for all major environmental hazards are completed for future testing for communities health and wellbeing; and
(3) Provide world health safe guard information for industrial pollution levels and safe distances for community living.
Elector Poll: Unanimously passed that this should be run by the Electoral Commissioner (and thankfully not by Gunns whom the council could equally well quite legally have authorised to run the elector poll). A motion was passed expressing concern over the phrase within the elector poll question text, “The Council wishes to determine the opinion of its electors on issues associated with the proposed pulp mill in the Tamar Valley” and the phrase “Petitioners wish to” was recommended as being more appropriate. The Electoral Commissioner will no doubt take that on board and consult with the petition co-lodgers Jim Welsh, Justin Miller and Richard King to arrive at some mutually agreeable elector poll question text. A preamble (i.e. information electors get to read before completing the elector poll form) will also have to be drafted by the Electoral Commissioner setting out the arguments for and against. Might be helpful in outlining various alternatives to the Gunns proposed type of pulp manufacture.
Councillor Bob Wallace also proposed a motion, which was passed, that unless the Electoral Commissioner did so, the Council would pay to advertise that electors and non-resident ratepayers have until Thu 10 January to get on either the Electoral Roll (with an enrolled address within George Town Municipality) or onto the General Managers roll if they own property within the municipality but have an electoral enrolment address outside the municipality. Otherwise non-enrolled ratepayers would not be able to participate in the pulp mill elector poll. These council ads tend to appear on page 80 in the Local Government section of the Saturday Examiner and so maybe this advert would pretty much be a waste of money.
Apparently at yesterday’s closed meeting of councillors with Carlton Frame from Gunns, Mr Frame said that the necessary risk assessments had been done and undertook to have the associated reports forwarded on to George Town Councillors.
