Jess Wright
We are faced with a climate emergency and we want to know David if you are a leader with vision, and courage, a leader who can see past business as usual. A leader who acts not because it is politically expedient to do so, but who acts with integrity and with wisdom and who acts because it is the right thing to do. Instead of spending tax payers money on ensuring its thoughtless destruction, promote tourism in this highly accessible and stunning valley. Instead of letting our carbon storing forests fall to the chainsaws and bulldozers, declare them protected for everyone. We are asking you David to be the Premier who unites our community and who looks after Tasmania’s future. Make this Florentine’s Day! We are asking you Mr Bartlett to please choose to stop the destruction, we are asking you to please “be our Florentine”.
Cassy O’Connor …
David, Be Our Florentine Speech – Jess Wright 13/02/09
Welcome everyone, thanks for coming, Happy Florentines day!
I would like to start by acknowledging the traditional owners of the land we are standing on today. It’s important that we understand that this aboriginal land, as it always has been and always will be.
When I was asked if I would say a few words today I jumped at the chance because I really wanted to be able to share how much the Upper Florentine means to me, and I wanted to stand up here and represent all of the women in the Tasmanian community who love our Island’s precious places just as much as I do.
We’re all here today because our hearts are breaking to see another one of Tasmania’s irreplaceable, magical forests be destroyed. We are all here today to stand together and say we want an end to the mindless destruction of our forests and to say together that we want to see these places protected and looked after into the future.
It was actually the week before Valentine’s day 2 years ago that I came to Tassie and fell in love with the Upper Florentine. I’d spent a few holidays here over the years, exploring the Island and its beautiful places like the Weld and the Styx valleys. On the third time I came here I went straight out to the Upper Florentine, and I fell in love so hard that I never went home. I actually had to get a friend of mine to pack up my bedroom in Melbourne and put all of my stuff in storage for me. That year was my first Florentine’s day, and I hope today that our Premier David Bartlett, accepts the invitation from all of the women here today to Be Our Florentine and make today Florentine’s day too.
All of us here have our special places in Tasmania, places that speak to us and touch us and we all have a deep and heartfelt love for our precious forests. I’m privileged enough to have spent a lot of time out in the Upper Florentine and it’s my special place. We all love these places for many reasons. Whether it’s the joy of watching the forest change with the seasons or the excitement of discovering brightly coloured and oddly shaped little mushrooms and fungi that we know we’ll probably never see again.
We love these places when they let us know some of their secrets, like what the forest sounds like at night, or what it’s like when the wind is rushing through the canopy and yet standing in the undergrowth, we can only see it and hear, not feel that wind on our bodies.
We love these places because we know they smell different when it’s cold and when it’s warm, when the rain is falling and when the moisture is evaporating. We love to crumble sassafras leaves in our hand and breathe in deeply.
Everyone here loves these places because they are teeming with life. With microscopic organisms we cannot see and with animals like our quolls and our wombats, our cheeky possums and our echidnas, our precious Tasmanian Devil and our mighty wedge-tailed eagle. We love the animals, the birds, the insects, the plants and the trees.
We love these places because we know that nothing makes for a more special sleep than when you’re snuggled beneath a giant fern on a bed of moss and lichen with possums in the trees and morning’s first light filtering through a canopy of sassafras and ancient myrtle.
All of us here, we love these places because they are our life support. They provide us with our water and with our clean air. We love these places because they stand tall and strong, tirelessly absorbing carbon dioxide out of our atmosphere and safely storing it away.
We love these places because we feel what they are. We feel their strength and we also feel how fragile they are. We all love these places because they are timeless and they are supposed to be forever.
A month ago on Monday the 12th of January we saw once again though that the bulldozers had arrived at one of our precious places and we realized once again that on our Island home these precious places, places like the Upper Florentine, are not forever.
I know I can say on behalf of all of us here that to say we were heart broken is an understatement.
I keep remembering all of the times that I’d taken people walking into the Valley, up to the lookout and shown them that breathtaking view of that lush green forest bordered by those majestic mountains and then tried to explain to them that the view they were seeing may not be forever. For most people, and for all of us here, the very thought of that valley not being there is almost too hard to comprehend and to sad to want to come to terms with.
But the reality is that right now there is a 4km road running into that valley. The very valley that passionate, brave and dedicated people from all over the community have fought for day and night for the last 3 years because they can’t bear to see another of our precious places destroyed. Thousands of tourists and Tasmanians have explored and fallen in love with that valley just like we have.
Thousands of community members have visited the Upper Florentine over the last month and stood on that road saying that this must stop. This destruction must stop.
Today we are here together to say once again, that this mindless destruction must stop. It is time to take care of these places. We are here today to ask our Premier David Bartlett to please accept our offer and to come on a ‘date’ with us out to the Upper Florentine. We want David Bartlett to bring his family and to see these forests with us, to experience this valley with us and then to stand on that ugly scar of a road with us and to make the decision to be clever and kind and to stop the destruction of the Upper Florentine and all of Tasmania’s precious places.
We are here today because the women of Tasmania want to know David if you really can be the new generation Premier? We want to know David if you really can offer a positive future for Tasmania? We want to know David if you have it in you to end the era of adversarial and ignorant Tasmanian politics? We need to know if you have the moral fibre to see the ethical obligation that we have to save these places for our children’s future and the future of our Island?
We are faced with a climate emergency and we want to know David if you are a leader with vision, and courage, a leader who can see past business as usual. A leader who acts not because it is politically expedient to do so, but who acts with integrity and with wisdom and who acts because it is the right thing to do.
Instead of spending tax payers money on ensuring its thoughtless destruction, promote tourism in this highly accessible and stunning valley. Instead of letting our carbon storing forests fall to the chainsaws and bulldozers, declare them protected for everyone.
We are asking you David to be the Premier who unites our community and who looks after Tasmania’s future. Make this Florentine’s Day!
We are asking you Mr Bartlett to please choose to stop the destruction, we are asking you to please “be our Florentine”.
I really hope that Mr Bartlett can be the leader that we need right now. And we need him to show us right now if he is up to the job, because if he is not, then we need a new leader, and we need a new leader right now. We need a leader who acts with courage, with integrity, with wisdom and vision and we need them now. If Mr Bartlett is not this leader we need a new leader who is. It is up to us to make sure we have the right leader. We no longer have time on this planet to wait. It is up to us to act and we must stand together and act now, waiting is no longer an option.
A heartfelt thanks to everyone in Tasmania who fights for our special places, the Upper Florentine, The Weld, the Styx, the Tarkine, the Blue Tier and every place that makes Tasmania this special. Whoever you are and whatever you do, know that we are all standing here with you.
And a huge thanks to everyone who has come along today, we need to stay strong, and support each other and we need to make a stand, and we need to not stop until the destruction of our ancient forests and all of our precious places ends.
*Get everyone to sign the invite to take to Bartlett’s office.
And finally there are some buckets going around to collect money for the Victorian Bush fire appeal and Amanda is going to get the money off to the Red Cross. Our hearts are with everyone in Victoria.
Thanks.
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Friday, 13th February 2009
MEDIA RELEASE
“DAVID, WILL YOU BE MY FLORENTINE”
Please don’t tear the heart out of Tasmania
Tasmanian women invite Premier Bartlett on a Valentines Day date to the Upper Florentine
Today Tasmanian women from all walks of life asked Premier David Bartlett to “be their Florentine” and show them his love for our beautiful island home by ending the destruction of Tasmania’s most precious forests.
The women said they would love Mr Bartlett and his family to celebrate this Valentine’s Day by joining them on a “date” in the Upper Florentine Valley to show him what is breaking their hearts.
“We would be absolutely delighted if Mr Bartlett would join us on a date in the Upper Florentine to experience the beauty of the Valley’s virgin old growth forests and see firsthand the destruction that’s breaking our hearts” Group spokesperson Jess Wright said.
“We are asking Mr Bartlett to turn his vision of a clever and kind Tasmania into reality and to make our Valentine’s Day by ending the wood chipping of our old growth forests. In this time of climate crisis, we must protect our ancient forests which keep vast quantities of carbon out of the atmosphere.” said Miss Wright.
“We want Mr Bartlett to make today the day we decide to stop destroying precious places like the Upper Florentine, to make today “Florentine’s Day” Miss Wright said.
“Mr Bartlett, we want to know if you can really be the new generation Premier, able to end the era of adversarial and ignorant Tasmanian politics? We want to know if you see the moral obligation we have to save these places for our children’s future and the future of our Island?” asked Miss Wright.
“Tomorrow on Valentine’s Day take your family into the Upper Florentine, take a walk on your new 4km logging road and make the decision to be clever and kind. Instead of spending tax payers money to ensure its destruction, promote tourism in this highly accessible and stunning valley. Instead of letting our carbon storing forests fall to the chainsaws and bulldozers, declare them protected” continued Miss Wright.
“We are asking Mr Bartlett to be the Premier who unites our community and look after Tasmania’s future. We are asking Mr Bartlett to please “be our Florentine” Miss Wright concluded.
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VALENTINE PLEA TO PREMIER BARTLETT
… Show More Love for Tasmania’s Environment
Cassy O’Connor MP
Tasmanian Greens Environment Spokesperson
Saturday, Valentines’ Day 2009
www.tas.greens.org.au
The Tasmanian Greens today made a Valentines’ Day plea to Premier David Bartlett to show more love for Tasmania’s wild forests, coastline and all Tasmanians who care about their island environment.
Environment Spokesperson Cassy O’Connor MP spoke at the ‘Be My Florentine’ rally in Princes Park today, and told the audience more love is needed out of the Bartlett Government.
“This Valentines’ Day, I urge Premier Bartlett to look into his heart and ask himself if he is really doing the best by Tasmania. If he is sincere in this task, he would have to say the answer is ‘no’,” Ms O’Connor said.
“Sadly, David Bartlett has created an image problem for himself, as the Great Divider.”
“Where there should be unity, there is division, inspired not by love or respect for Tasmania and its people, but by cynical, short-term politicking. There is division over our forests, the Pulp Mill, the Tarkine, Ralphs Bay and threatened species, to name a few.”
“A Premier who loved Tasmania. and respected the right of Tasmanian children to enjoy their blessed, natural heritage in the future, would work hard to unite the community over environmental issues.”
“Come on Premier Bartlett. Show Tasmanians who think and care, that you too love this island and its people.”
“Show you love and care for the Tasmanian Devil, the Wedge-Tailed Eagle and the Swift Parrot – all on the edge of species’ survival. Change the policies that rob them of habitat; bring a new environmental ethos into government in Tasmania.”
“Bring respect for the environment back to the Cabinet table and stop causing so much damage to our rare flora and fauna, and to places Tasmanians love,” Ms O’Connor said.
