A promise to some friends saw me mount the trusty bicycle and attend a cycling race in Westbury instead. My first ride in nearly nine months, which hurt a great deal. I may have been in pain, but there were plenty who appeared to be enoying themselves. There wasn’t a State Government representative to be seen, just thousands of locals and cycling fans, supporting a great event that brings millions of dollars into Tasmania.
Our Premier was in Beaconsfield around the same time, rallying his trusty police force to arrest what appeared to be a handful of well-meaning and thinking Tasmanians for trespassing in the grounds of a school. On a weekend.
The day before, I spend a pleasant morning walking around Launceston’s CBD trying to convince people to vote for me in the upcoming Council elections. As an independent, virtually unknown candidate in a field of 20, my chances are slim.
Despite the pressing problems facing Launceston and my planned strategy of campaigning on responsible fiscal management, the question I was asked was ubiquitious – What’s your view on the pulp mill?
In some respects, that question is irrelevant. Even should I be elected with a landslide vote, there’s nothing I could do to support or block Gunns’ proposal. The important fact is that the pulp mill appears to overshadow every other issue in the minds of voters.
Despite appearing as a regular media commentator on pulp mill related matters, I can’t recall every voicing either support or opposition to the mill. Yet in some minds, I am a closet Green candidate, not to be trusted. Hence various interesting rumours about my honesty, sexual preferences, allegiances and financial capacity are being circulated. Not that I care.
For those that are interested, I am voraciously heterosexual, poor, honest, and have never been a member of a political party. I don’t even oppose a pulp mill.
What I do oppose is a State Government blind enough to ignore a string of opinion polls, public meetings, scientific evidence and common sense in continuing to support a project lacking even modest public support.
In my youth, my parents were asked to vote in a referendum on a far less contentious proposal. To build a casino in Sandy Bay. That casino, my parents were assured, wouldn’t target locals; just big-spending, high-rolling overseas tourists. Last time I visited said casino, the high-rollers appeared to have vanished, replaced by hundreds of leisure-suited pensioners.
Still, I retain faith in the power of the people. The only way to dispel the public disquiet about Gunns’ proposed pulp mill, and the questionable process involved in it’s approval, is to go to the people.
Barlett, forget your silly community forums.
Give us a referendum instead.
Tom Ellison
Launceston City Council Alderman Candidate
