Fifty seven protesters – including gardening guru Peter Cundall – were arrested on the steps of Parliament House this afternoon in a Gandhi-style protest against State Parliament’s backing for the Tamar Valley pulp mill.
Several dozen protesters gathered on Parliament House steps and the nearby lawns “to demand the establishment of a Royal Commission into corruption surrounding the pulp mill process”.
Each of those gathered on the House steps was asked to leave. When they peacefully refused, they were escorted to waiting paddywagons by police.
Peter Cundall later said it was the first time he had been arrested. He said he had a life-long respect for the law … but was prepared to be arrested because of his strength of feeling about the corrupt pulp mill process and the destruction by logging interests of all that was unique about Tasmania’s natural world.
“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
The protesters promised, there was more to come.
Lucy Landon-Lane, spokesperson for Pulp the Mill said: “We’re here to express our outrage at the corrupt process that saw politicians and Gunns Ltd do a dodgy deal to approve their proposed pulp mill.
“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.”
“A significant number of us are prepared to make this positive stand of being arrested to 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 unhealthy relationship between the Tasmanian Government politicians and Gunns has left us with no other option but to take this stand. Labor politicians continue to do special deals designed to benefit Gunns’ project, at the expense of the health and welfare of the people of Tasmania – especially those who live and work in the Tamar Valley,” she continued.
“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.”
“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,” said Ms Landon-Lane.
Michael Hodgman arrives after lunch during his last day in Parliament. He did not join the protest.
Mercury picture, Mercury story: HERE
Extreme bail conditions:
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.”
