Ethics party meeting

5 Comments

1. 

   Sven Wiener

   March 6, 2010 at 13:44

   Further to the info mentioned in this meeting notice (and as mentioned in Media Releases at http://www.esparty.org),

   if you’ve got good, constructive ideas or just want to listen to what we have to say, please come along even if you don’t want to become a member, e.g. Peter Cundall doesn’t want to become a member of any party — quite often people have told us that.

   About us:
   =========
   We are a new party working alongside the Greens to stop old growth logging and overturn fast track assessment of the Tamar Valley pulp mill plus address other environmental/public health issues.

   The difference between us and the Greens is we are not economically left wing and we don’t have their adventurous social policy.

   Sven Wiener
   Independent standing for Bass
   (defacto Ethics & Sustainability candidate)

   Authorised by S. Wiener, 4 Gosling Grove, Legana
2. 

   George Harris aka woodworker

   March 7, 2010 at 01:54

   Hi Sven, if you are saying ‘stop old growth logging’, you are saying to out artists and craftspeople the following: no Huon Pine, no Blackwood, (except for that palid, pale, broad grained shit they are trying to grow in plantations), no Black-heart Sassafras, no Myrtle, no Tiger Myrtle, no Musk, no Celery-top Pine, no King Billy, no Horizontal Scrub, no burls, no Native Olive, and numerous others.
   How would you explain yourself to the furniture designers, the wood turners, the wooden boat builders, the musical instrument makers, the sculptors, as well as to the proprietors and staff of the many quality retail shops and galleries that sell superb value-added products to tourists? These are people who bring money into the state from external sources, and who contribute to the economic and cultural life of the state. How would you? I am interested to know….
   Would you be making any exceptions, and if so, how would you administer that???
3. 

   amyb

   March 7, 2010 at 12:17

   So, Woody, if you reckon that these species are being sustainably managed, why is it that there is still the necessity to log old-growth forests? With nearly 200 years under its belt, had the forestry industry been managing the vast areas of this state it has already harvested in that time, why isn’t the demand for that wood being met by the harvesting of regrowth timber?

   Why the continuing need to clear-fell and burn the increasingly smaller amount of genuine temperate old-growth wet eucalyptus and mixed rainforest that is left in what is a supposedly sustainable industry?

   Most of the woods you describe there are second phase rainforest species – the type that take over after the first generation of fire-generated eucalyptus forests have matured and partially died off to allow the understorey of these rainforest species to establish and grow to maturity with their sometimes considerably longer lifespans. The current regime of clear-felling regrowth in 20-80 year cycles clearly doesn’t allow provision of those species from that source, so under your suggestion eventually all those species will become unavailable anyway.

   You mention Huon Pine in there as well, which is entirely disingenuous – owing to previous practices that wood was mined out ages ago, is now wholly protected and cannot be felled, and is available as strictly controlled salvage only. Under the current regime this probably be be the fate of many of the other species as well.

   As you mention, the wood available from plantations is “shit”, so eventually, following your line of argument, there will be nothing but “shit” available.

   You really owe it to yourself to visit the Florentine, Styx or Weld valleys to see the rate that the “not shit” forests are being cleared to produce “shit”, which will no doubt give you an understanding that running out of these high-value special species is going to happen far sooner than you realise. Old-growth, by its very definition, is a finite resource, and no steps at all are being taken to protect the supply of this wood for the purposes you state into the distant future at present.
4. 

   Gerry Mander

   March 7, 2010 at 14:24

   Woodworker wrote “2.Hi Sven, if you are saying ‘stop old growth logging’, you are saying to out artists and craftspeople the following: no Huon Pine….”

   Please inform us just how much OG Forest has to be logged to extract Huon Pine, and where is it located?

   And….

   no Blackwood, (except for that palid, pale, broad grained shit they are trying to grow in plantations), no Black-heart Sassafras, no Myrtle, no Tiger Myrtle, no Musk, no Celery-top Pine, no King Billy, no Horizontal Scrub, no burls, no Native Olive, and numerous others.

   I thought all that was the firewood that forestry burnt on the ground????
5. 

   King Romeo

   March 7, 2010 at 16:02

   Just where are your ethics comment #1? Peter Cundall was a member of and a candidate for the Communist Party of Australia.
   Whilst he might not want to be tainted with the Ethics party and the criticism that it received in the Supreme Court, he certainly is willing to put his name to political parties and to causes.
   Is he not the patron of Fitzroy Legal Services’ Law Handbook and recently took on publicity and fundraising Patron duties for Pollution Information Tasmania. PIT seems to be a joint venture between Environment Tasmania and the National Toxic Network aimed at giving publicity to toxicity issues during this year’s state election.