REFLECTIONS:
What brought me here? It’s a long story, you’d have to say. We are all part of it in different ways. The pulp mill saga has gone on for seven years now. I remember when it was first suggested, that I thought the idea of down-stream processing was a reasonable enough proposition. Sounded like a good thing. Why not, if you were going to have some sort of timber/forestry industry, that instead of just selling woodchips, that we do something more with it here and get the benefit of that. I know as I write this that I was naive, and I still am. I didn’t really understand how the woodchip industry had initially started on the promise of just ‘using the waste from the forest floor’. Look how it grew, until it displaced our sawmills, and consumed nearly all of the bush that gets logged.
John Gay told us that it would be the world’s cleanest, greenest pulp mill, that it would be chlorine free, closed loop and we were given to understand it would be over in Hampshire. I don’t know whether that would have been a suitable location.
I remember Warwick Raverty saying that it was the ‘right mill, wrong place’.
[Outside the ute, as I type, I can hear Peter Henning in eager discussion with Andre and Keith about the ins and outs of the ridiculous situation this state is in. The trucks keep bringing our forests along the highway in front of us. They return empty for more. Where is our moratorium? At the same time, more earth works equipment has arrived this morning – at about 10:00am. There is some beeping from some vehicles, I just heard a bloke from a truck call out ‘Get a job you fxckxng pxxftxhs’- yesterday apples were thrown from a moving vehicle – I’m glad we weren’t hit, at speed I should think they could do a bit of damage. I don’t know how to incorporate into my world view the sight (yesterday afternoon) of a vehicle moving south at speed, and someone (a male apparently) contriving to extend his bare backside out of the rear passenger window. Was I to conclude that this person was in favour of the pulp mill?]
Back to Warwick and John Gay’s broken promises – for they were broken. Hampshire became Long Reach and they renamed it Bell Bay Industrial Estate – an area of bush that was a wildlife sanctuary, was on the Register of the National Heritage Estate. Closed loop became effluent pumped into Bass Strait. Chlorine-free became partially chlorine free.
We endured the pulp mill task force, and things worsened as Gunns struck hurdles of their own making. Eventually the RPDC was shafted and the Assessment taken out of the hands of those dedicated to do the job. Parliament, with the major parties in hot agreement, would pass the PMAA 2007 no matter what. The Federal Ministers gave due consideration and said yes. We had the state crises with a number of govt ministers. Gunns were still at their zenith.
I have rallied, marched, held banners in town. I have researched, and informed myself and tried to have reasons to support my views. Not reasons for trying to convince other people necessarily, but firstly, to make sure that my own views were acceptable to myself – that they weren’t reasons of convenience, or based on slogans rather than fact. I have tried to responsibly inform myself, and to be clear of my reasons, as they developed, for opposing this mill. I have also written submissions, letters, emails. I have called up on the radio. I never felt my views were really, truly listened to. ‘They’ have just been going through the motions. We all have been cheated in this process and have had this monstrous proposal forced on us. They just have not listened.
What else is there that I can do? Recently my research led me to the question of the expiry of the Pulp Mill Permit and the distinction between ‘substantial commencement of the Project’ and ‘substantial completion’ (of the four water related permits). I took a compass and a camera. I proved that those permit had inarguably lapsed, because they had not even been commenced by the end of the extended permit period.
Our Premier told us it wasn’t her responsibility.
The EPA told us they’d let Gunns proceed until a court forced them to stop.
And Gunns, a company that is in crisis, is suspended from trading, a company that is still trying to squeeze every last govt dollar that it can get, is finally moving in earth moving equipment each day – intent on finally beginning a semblance of work even now, after The Permit has lapsed.
THE GOOD SHIP TASMANIA:
It is as if we are aboard a ship, called Tasmania. We are adrift, the vessel wanders as if rudderless. Up in the bridge, the Captain, standing next to the wheel, can not bring herself to grip it, to instill direction into the vessel. She is standing there, saying ‘I’m not responsible, I’m not responsible’ while the ship languishes. By her side stands the mate, and he has long wanted her post, but once in charge, would take us into the maelstrom.
That’s why I'[m here, by the side of the road. Gunns is attempting to revive its expired project, in spite of the fact the The Permit has lapsed. Even now, it appears that they are beginning to fashion with their equipment, the settlement pond to the north of the mill area. That, if true, is clearly illegal. These water permits have clearly expired.
Thank you to those people who have begun coming to my spot on the side of the road, to object to this travesty, and to be with me. There has been a constant stream. We object to everyting to do with this benighted project.
The storm is approaching.
HOUSEKEEPING:
I’m sorry that I haven’t been able to respond to all the text messages I’ve received. I appreciate them very much, but my texting skills are at the ‘beginner’ level. Also I am quite busy (more than I expected to be) out here at ‘The Vigil’. I’m better at emails, and I get a chance to look at them in the evening, when I pack up and go home. I’m getting the hang of my phone – I can respond to a call now without turning it off unintentionally. I usually have to get inside the ute, because the noise of the trucks on the highway can be quite load. Thank you to the many people who have come bearing gifts of food and drink. I was lucky enough to have a hot breakfast this morning – prepared for me by Nick from Rowella.
