Pretty cheap, really

Keeper’s Friend
Re #4,5&6;You can’t expect people NOT to hold those prejudices when you look at the amount of money forestry interests and Forestry Tasmania spend every electoral cycle. Not to mention the so-called ‘Government’ Media Unit, which operates as a Labor Media Unit on an ongoing basis. I’d estimate that it adds up to more than $1 million per year from the private side, and god only knows from the government and GBE side. In such a small media market as Tasmania this massive anti-Greens spend entirely warps perceptions, and perception counts for a lot at the ballot box. Its quite simple really – the government of the hour give the big company our forests on a platter for $13-$16 a tonne, and the big company make tens of millions every year devouring that platter of el cheapo timber. Then the big boys give what is essentially a pittance back to their politicians in the form of astroturf organisation funding, political donations, and straight out PR on a massive scale (usually behind the mask of some other organisational fiction – Tasmanians For A Better Future (For Gunns) come to mind). And that’s that. Its pretty cheap really … $200 – $300 million in profits over a four-year cycle, and only about $4 to $5 million in costs expended on the various PR ‘projects’ that currently guarantee their continued access to our forests for $13 to $16 a tonne. Read more, Comment here