Picture: Code Green
Friends of the Tamar Valley (FTV) and Pulp The Mill (PTM) just put out a Media Release [http://oldtt.pixelkey.biz/index.php?/weblog/article/no-certainty-about-pulp-mill-permits-validity/] about the legal uncertainty of the pulp mill permits hanging over the heads of any potential investors. Those members of FTV and PTM are good friends of mine and I respect and value the ideas they have expressed in their MR. I am presenting a counter point-of view. I wish we’d pursue the court case. And I wonder how it is that TCT, although having denied doing so, are showing no desire to pursue the legal case. It’s not easy.
It doesn’t get any easier. Two questions. Let’s consider the first one: The Pulp Mill Permit and the associated Dam Permits. There has already been comment here on Tas Times to the effect that it would make good sense to keep TCT’s court case lingering but untested. The sword dangling over any potential buyers’ heads. Yep. It seems to make sense. How can we read the future? We can’t. We heard insightful comment from Bob McMahon (TAP) over some years saying that Gunns project economics didn’t stack up. Well he was right. I don’t know if he and the rest of us really believed it then, or whether we hoped it was true or whether we hoped that it would be proved to be true.
In any case, we now know that Gunns belong to Yesterday’s Tasmania. The properties, contracts and rights under law that Gunns held, are now under the hammer. It has always been clear from the very terms of the Pulp Mill Permit, that the project rights could be on-sold. It is in the public interest that this doesn’t happen. We have a dysfunctional government in Hobart that just can’t bring itself to face reality. Its Greens partner, while honouring its commitment to provide stability in partnership, has been unable to instill commonsense into the mind of the Premier. The worst of the tragedy that is Tasmania’s present situation, is that still the log-and-mine mentality keeps coming to the surface. When we have an historic opportunity to choose a future, in which we Tasmanians step up to the plate, and do some good things, not pulp mills in a beautiful river estuary.
The job is huge. Truly, we have a wonderful island. But there is so much despoilment … physical, social, cultural and mental. We have to love our island. Not like chest-beating flag wavers, but like citizens who know what is wrong, what is inappropriate, what is fitting and what is worthy. Contrast what was proposed for Long Reach with what is achieved at Mona.
My Tasmania is an island that is modest in its consumption. It has a citizenry that is diverse yet mutually trusting. It is aware. It has enlightened government which gratefully accepts from its stakeholders advice and guidance – David Obendorf’s bottom-up in policy-making initiative.
The pulp mill and chest-thumpers represent to me, the past. And what of the future? Will we leave the TCT legal case like Damocle’s sword, a threat? Don’t threats turn out empty sometimes? Don’t people become blasé about never-ending threats? Won’t there be an election in the near future? Won’t there be a chance of a majority government then? And be it Giddings or Hodgman, will they not move in the Parliament to ‘clarify’ the standing of the Pulp Mill Permit and its associated dam permits? For those who would pursue the ‘let’s dilly dally’ with the court case tactic, I would put to them: The Premier of this state, and the Leader of the Opposition are unremittingly in favour of the Pulp Mill described in the PMAA 2007. The economy might have changed. The industry might have changed, but the minds of two of our political leaders have not. They are in denial. Still. In spite of everything.
If we pursued the court action now, we could lose. Is that ever a reason for not trying? When in life can you be sure that you can win and cheerfully go out and ‘bet the rent’? You can’t. We can’t. We didn’t tell ourselves that 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008 etc wasn’t the best time time write a submission. That it wasn’t the best time to hold a rally, to march, hold banners, ring up the radio, go to meetings, put stickers on our cars and campaign. The time is always now. Not tomorrow. Not some threat dangling above some unknown investor’s head, while said investor has negotiated with and may well have received an assurance from our recently overseas-travelled Premier, and Leader of the opposition for that matter.
The time is now.
The second question: Possession and use of the site at Long Reach is already being planned for by a number of commercial operators. Will the site be onsold to some dirty yesterday industry, not any better than what was proposed, could it be used for something clean, green and smarter, or even, for quixotics like myself, could it be restored to its buffer-zone status, to its wild-life sanctuary status, and to it National Heritage status which had recognised its unique heritage estuarine bushland?
You can’t go back to the past? – Who says! As Missy says, “Everyone’s waiting”.
