57 ARRESTS AT PARLIAMENT HOUSE

What: Peaceful Community Protest.

When: 2 pm Thursday November 19.

Where: Parliament House, Hobart.

Over 100 protesters assembled outside Parliament House today, to demand the establishment of a Royal Commission into corruption surrounding the pulp mill process.

Of these, 57 were arrested. Among them was Peter Cundall who said he was there because he doesn’t support the corrupt process that led to the pulp mill’s approval.

“This is the first time I have ever broken the law or been arrested in my life. I felt compelled to do this because I feel so strongly about this issue. This stinking dirty pulp mill was approved by a stinking dirty process. This mill will never be accepted. We will never stop fighting it. We will never, ever give up,” he said.

Lucy Landon-Lane, spokesperson for Pulp the Mill said “We’re here to express our outrage at the corruption and the dodgy pulp mill deal made by politicians and Gunns. We demand a Royal Commission into the project’s assessment process, because only a Royal Commission will have strong enough retrospective powers, and be specific enough, to examine the corruption that has pervaded every aspect of the approval process for the proposed pulp mill.”

“The Pulp Mill Assessment Act was written with the help of Gunns’ lawyers and rushed through Parliament. The deeply flawed piece of legislation effectively removes all those basic democratic rights to which every individual is entitled, and allows no right of redress should the mill be found to impact negatively, in any way whatsoever, on their lives. We refuse to let this happen.”

“57 of us were prepared to be arrested today to make this positive stand and send a clear message back to potential joint venture partners and financiers of the proposed pulp mill, that the project has never been given a social licence,” said Ms Landon-Lane.

The protest attracted the attention of several tourists and bystanders. Upon learning the reason for the protest, two more people subsequently joined the group awaiting arrest on the steps of Parliament House.

On her release from the police station, West Moonah resident Elizabeth Perey, a seventy year old grandmother and second time pulp mill arrestee, said her extreme conditions of bail now prevent her from being found anywhere near Parliament House, Salamanca Place or Battery Point until February 3rd next year, effectively excluding her from attending any of Hobart’s summer activities. More than 20 other people were given similar bail conditions.

Ms Landon-Lane said “These bail conditions are totally unreasonable for a peaceful protest where everyone co-operated with the police. They will be appealed in the Magistrate’s Court.”

She also said today’s protest was a clear message to the government that people are prepared to stand up again and again against the corruption surrounding this pulp mill.

“Potential pulp mill investors and politicians can expect further civil disobedience unless the proposed pulp mill’s approval is repealed, and all plans to build this mill in the Tamar Valley are withdrawn,” she said.
Lucy Landon-Lane