Gerard Castles Speech at Pipeline public meeting, Launceston June 10, 2008

This is just the start, the Bartlett Administration has the opportunity to go even further; to tear down the wall that has divided us, and together with Tasmanians here and the famous Tasmanian Diaspora to breathe into being a New Tasmania – a Tasmania that is, as the Premier says, both kind and clever. It is a New Tasmania where projects like the mill do not belong.
ON THE night of November 9, 1989 an amazing thing happened on the other side of the world. The Berlin Wall came down. It was unexpected. The wall that had physically and metaphorically divided East and West Berlin and divided the free and oppressed; the new and old was torn down. As it was torn down the two worlds streamed into each other and a new world was created.

On Monday 26th of May our own Wall started to fall. We awoke to news that Lennon was to resign, later that week the ANZ announced it was pulling back from the Pulp Mill and then after that we heard that Rolley was sacked.

This is just the start, the Bartlett Administration has the opportunity to go even further; to tear down the wall that has divided us, and together with Tasmanians here and the famous Tasmanian Diaspora to breathe into being a New Tasmania – a Tasmania that is, as the Premier says, both kind and clever. It is a New Tasmania where projects like the mill do not belong.

There are four foundation stones on which this new Tasmania will be built; foundation stones the Bartlett Administration must put in place.

A new economy

The first foundation stone of the New Tasmania is a new economy, for without wealth we have no choice about our future. The question is how do we generate and share that wealth.

In the words of Saul Eslake, ANZ’s chief economist, “Tasmania’s economic future cannot possibly lie in the volume production of essentially undifferentiated commodities competing only on price with producers from other places with access to larger resource bases, smaller distances to markets and cheaper labour or capital, but instead lies in the production of goods and services with a high intellectual content and for which customers can be persuaded to pay a premium price.”

This new economy will see us building on where we have real strengths, where we’re different. The foundation of our new economy will be our island identity with all it promises – clean, fresh, natural, and wild.

New growth industries await – software, education, health, environmental, even energy – as well as sustainable leadership and innovation in old industries like food.

People outside Tasmania actually think Tasmania is an environmental paradise – so don’t we really have to sell that; the challenge for the Bartlett Administration is to just make sure we don’t screw it up.

Does the Mill and the pipeline attached to it fit this vision – No. What must the Bartlett Administration do – develop a full State economic development strategy based on these new economy principles – now.

A new society

The second foundation stone of our New Tasmania is a new society. Our society needs to move beyond civil war. It needs to move beyond the feudal system where a few make profits at the expense of many. We must continue to acknowledge the scars of our recent past and understand the wisdom it holds that travels to us across tens of thousands of years.

We will be an island of ideas and knowledge. Education is the key. New growth industries require skill driven development. Institutions like the university which attract, develop, nurture skills will be critical.

We must transform our education system. We must aspire to have outcomes not just in line with the best in Australia, or in line with the OECD, we must aspire to having education outcomes in line with the best in the world – whatever it takes. With that the next generations of Tasmanians will awake. With that they will see the slight of hand and paternalism that have seen Governments allow companies like Gunns thrive at the expense of the rest of Tasmanian society. With that they will walk with quiet confidence in the world.

Education alone is not enough we must be a healthy society. A mill that will pump pollution into the air above Launceston and into the waters of the river and Bass Strait has no place in the New Tasmania.

The “creative classes” will help lead us to the New Tasmania. They generate ideas and jobs. They are already here, more are coming – and it is many of them that have the courage to see the madness of the Mill and speak out against it; it is many of them who are living the New Tasmania.

A deep sense of place and respect for our environment

The third foundation stone is our deep sense of place and respect for the land, the sea, the air and the waters of river and sea that make our island home. We all know we have something special here. That same belief is held outside Tasmania. It’s up to us to not to screw it up, to hold this place in trust and pass it to future generations.

I grew up on the NW coast and came to appreciate the wonder of our islands once I had been a way and seen the world. We sense the pulse of the island thrumming under our feet. It is a gift and one we must respect and nurture.

The Bartlett Administration must commit to increasing our environmental stocks and allow no further destruction of our wild forests, lands, rivers or seas.

The Mill and its pipeline have no place in a New Tasmania that recognises the reality of climate change. It is unthinkable that the Mill will steal water from the catchment and destroy old growth forests to fuel it’s machines – all, no doubt, given at a huge discount to their real value.

Governance we respect and can trust.

The final foundation stone of the new Tasmania is Governance we can respect and trust. Leaders, even the most powerful, cannot survive if they lose the trust of the people of Tasmania. Leaders must be honest, above all else protect the interests of the people and they must respect democracy. Political debate must be genuinely open and inclusive and political debate informed, creative and meaningful. We must eliminate any governance process where the focus is to win by having other Tasmanians lose. I call on Premier Bartlett to commit to real transparency in Government. Real transparency will mean no more shady deals where big business get’s what it wants at the expense of the Tasmanian people. Real transparency will mean, no more interference in the processes like the RPDC we have established to oversee projects. In the New Tasmania there will be no more corruption of the democratic process.

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Where does the Mill and the pipeline fit in this New Tasmania? – They do not. I call on the Bartlett Administration to say no to the pipeline, say no to the Mill and say a resounding yes to The New Tasmania.