Mill: elector poll

Sven Wiener

THE West Tamar Council pulp mill public meeting petition was handed in last Thursday with 1958 signatures. Quite a few signatures were worthless as I was told by West Tamar Council that they do not have copies of their electors’ signatures and that any clarifying alteration to name and address details need to be initialled by the signatory. Very different from George Town Council’s requirements. Full first name is required along with suburb. A significant proportion of residents do not seem to have their electoral roll addresses up to date. Only around 800 signatories (i.e. 5% of electors) are needed in order to force a public meeting of West Tamar Council.

A copy of the cover sheet/end sheet petition pages and WTC’s signed receipt of acknowledgement, plus a covering letter and map of the Tamar River, were posted off in the evening post to Kevin Rudd, Penny Wong, Peter Garrett, Greg Hunt and David Bartlett.

While there was a WTC public meeting forced in August last year by a petition with almost the same text (this year’s has “proposed substantially taxpayer funded” added in), a motion passed at the August WTC public meeting to have a pulp mill elector poll at the Oct 2007 council elections, was not even voted on by WTC councillors at their follow-up council meeting. It just somehow disappeared as if by some pea and thimble trick. Unofficially some people heard that councillors thought the result of an elector poll would be obvious and so why spend the money. See August 2007 WTC council meeting minutes at http://www.wtc.tas.gov.au/webdata/resources/files/Microsoft_Word_-_WTC_Minutes_AUG_2007.pdf if you would like to check their handling of the August 2007 public meeting’s elector poll motion.

Furthermore, the scheduling of the August 2007 pubic meeting to be held in Beaconsfield 50km away from where conservation band John Butler Trio would be playing the same night in Launceston, seemed a deliberate attempt to reduce attendance of those against the pulp mill who had already bought tickets to that JBT concert. The choice of venue for the public meeting (Beaconsfield War Memorial Community Centre) had seating room only and after the first 550 people had arrived, any people thereafter were expected to stand outside on a very cold August evening listening to an external speakerbox system. Choice of location and size of building seemed highly inappropriate especially considering 1800 people had signed last year’s petition requesting a WTC public meeting.

The only way electors can force an elector poll, in view of every one of the WTC councillors (including Karl Stevens, Viv Tyson and Peter Kearney) being against the idea, is to lodge a petition demanding an elector poll within 30 days of a public meeting on the same issue. Its hoped that the 2008 WTC public meeting will also provide an opportunity for those undecided about the pulp mill, to have access to information from both sides of the debate. Curiously Karl Stevens signed the 2008 public meeting petition but was unwilling to table it at the June council meeting.

Sven Wiener