First published August 30
Hi Everyone
Red letter day and reckon we can all break out the champagne, or whatever is the beverage of your choice.
This (below) from today’s (Wed) Oz which spells it out in black and white really.
Congratulations to everyone who helped achieve this result, one I suspect few ever imagined would actually happen. Just shows the strength of people power. Well done to you all!
Yaaaayyy!! and congratulations and thanks to all who helped make this result happen – whatever action you did, and however small you think it may have been. Every single thing contributed towards this result.
Special thanks too to all our Greens MPs, with heartfelt thanks to former Bass MP Kim Booth who was so involved in the campaign and worked tirelessly to expose the corrupted process at both a political and corporate level.
Now … for The Party! Several of them – Watch this space!!
Gunns pulp mill finally dead, buried and site for sale
• MATTHEW DENHOLM
• The Australian
• 12:00AM August 30, 2017
•
After 14 years of bitter division, protests, legal and boardroom stoushes and the demise of a major listed company, the Gunns Ltd Tasmanian pulp mill is finally dead.
The $2.5 billion project — first hatched in 2003 — was consigned to history last night by Gunns’s receivers, Korda Mentha, who confirmed the pulp mill permit effectively expires today with no buyers to hand.
KordaMentha partner Bryan Webster told The Australian the pulp mill site, at Long Reach in the Tamar Valley in northern Tasmania, would now be sold for different uses.
“The pulp mill permit lapses this week and KordaMentha will proceed with the sale process for the land — the 600ha site including 50ha of cleared land,” Mr Webster said.
Gunns Ltd, the now failed timber giant, first proposed the world-scale pulp mill in 2003, provoking a major environmental and community battle over its initial plans to use native forests as feed-stock, as well as pollution concerns. When the project struggled to clear planning -hurdles, former Labor premier Paul Lennon infamously fast-tracked its approval through parliament after an assessment by hand-picked consultants.
After former Gunns chairman John Gay was deposed by shareholders in 2010, chief executive Greg L’Estrange tried to win back hearts and minds, but a white-knight investor withdrew and Gunns sank into administration in 2012, followed by liquidation.
KordaMentha had hoped to resurrect the project, pushing then Labor premier Lara Giddings to introduce legislation in 2014 to quash a court challenge to the mill permit and extend it to today, but with the plantation estate needed to feed the mill no longer available, the project lacked sufficient feed-stock.
Mr Gay this week told The Australian he accepted the mill was dead.
Opponents of the pulp mill were jubilant last night. “I’d like to congratulate the local community because it was the people who stopped this pulp mill,” said Wilderness Society campaign director Vica Bayley. “It was the people who stood up for their air-shed, for their marine environment, for their local amenity and for their forests, and ultimately defeated the biggest company in Tasmania. They also defeated a government that was willing to corrupt the process to further a commercial interest.”
Tasmanian Liberal Treasurer Peter Gutwein made it clear the project had reached the end of the line. “We’ve been one of its strongest backers … but we’ve made it clear if the pulp mill is to go ahead, it needs to go forward under its own steam.”
Mr Gutwein promised the government would work with any job-creating proponent for the site.
Over the years, KordaMentha is understood to have had several parties interested in the land, including for a proposed wind farm, but it is not known how close a sale may be.
• Vica Bayley, Wilderness Society: Pulp mill and its process to stand as a symbol of how not to do business in Tasmania The confirmation from Gunns’ receivers that it accepts today’s expiration of permits to build and operate the Tamar Valley Pulp Mill, and will proceed with a sale of the proposed site unencumbered by the permits, is welcome and a testament to the long and drawn out community campaign to protect the Tamar Valley, its environments, amenity and future. With ongoing controversies over salmon farming in Tasmania, 4WD tracks on the takayna coast, aggressive legislation to progress an offensive cable car on kunanyi/Mt Wellington and politically-driven attempts to log oldgrowth rainforests from within Tasmania’s reserve estate, the demise of the pulp mill stands as a stark monument to a failed modus-operandi. ‘To welcome the final demise of the pulp mill would be the understatement of the last 14 years of campaigns against the mill,” said Vica Bayley, spokesperson for the Wilderness Society …
• Peg Putt, Markets for Change: Pulp Mill Permit Expiry Welcomed – Call To Repeal The Pulp Mill Assessment Act … “Finally, the Pulp Mill Permit has expired after plans for the project were first revealed in 2003 by then Greens Leader Peg Putt, now the CEO of Markets for Change. That must be the end of this toxic, ill-conceived project,” Ms Putt said. “The pulp mill relied three times on life support delivered by a mostly captive Parliament. It’s time to switch that support off.” “The pulp mill has never had a social licence and threatened tremendous damage to the environment.” …
• Andrea Dawkins: Greens to Move to Repeal Pulp Mill Assessment Act
• Susan McMahon in Comments: halle-bloody-lujiah. Been hanging out for this day for years now. I think the Labor/Liberal parties would have hoped that it quietly slipped by without so much as a peep. No chance of that! Too many of us have had bottles of champagne on ice for too long. I just wish my late husband (Bob) was here to see it …
Susan McMahon
August 29, 2017 at 14:24
halle-bloody-lujiah. Been hanging out for this day for years now. I think the Labor/Liberal parties would have hoped that it quietly slipped by without so much as a peep. No chance of that! Too many of us have had bottles of champagne on ice for too long. I just wish my late husband (Bob) was here to see it.
Peter Godfrey
August 29, 2017 at 14:36
What a fantastic result.
As they say the wood supply is gone, it is being chipped at a great rate now.
The project would have been a disaster for Tasmania, so glad to see the end of it.
Chris
August 29, 2017 at 14:40
Gay abandon?
John Biggs
August 29, 2017 at 14:48
I am amazed that the permits have been allowed to go on for this long. The original permits expired on 30 August 2009 when no substantial commencement had been made, Gunns did some earth moving after that date and an additional two years was allowed. Still no substantial commencement. Then Gunns went down the drain, and incredibly the Labor govt AGAIN gave an extension to the permits, in terms literally dictated by Korda Menthe’s lawyers. What a farce!
But nothing has been learned from that instance of crony capitalism. Again today we find the government favouring mates’ business over the public good: letting TASSAL get away with environmental murder, potentially stealing public land to hand over to the wretched cable car’s, the shocking deal proposed to make poker machine collateral damage even worse. Thank God TT is here to have all this corrupt governance on the public record.
Pilko
August 29, 2017 at 14:51
Australian history will chiefly remember the Gunns Pulp Mill saga in Tasmania as a tale of people power vs corporate greed & political stupidity. Congratulations Tassie! x
Rom
August 29, 2017 at 15:11
Now, who is going to pay for the remediation of this mess? Not the “government”, I bet.
Well, the bastards better take note; we, the people are sick of environmental terrorism from our so called political representatives, money grubbing parasites after a quick buck and those responsible for the unholy alliances that exist between them!
Dr Buck & Prof Joan Emberg
August 29, 2017 at 15:11
Power to the people! After all the years of protesting, campaigning and fundraising, the mill is finally dead. Thanks to all those who fought for so long. We’ll crack a bottle tonight.
Tim Thorne
August 29, 2017 at 15:12
Let’s not get too carried away. We lost.
We lost tens of millions of dollars out of the public purse, not to mention what was owed to Gunns’ creditors. We lost a lot of local jobs with the sell-off of various Gunns businesses.
Even if you think this project was primarily about a pulp mill (I would contend that it was primarily about money, and the mill was only ever a vehicle) we haven’t had a victory, only avoided a defeat.
We will have truly won when Tasmanians stop chasing cargo cult projects (Fragrance skyscrapers, Mt Wellington cable cars, massive increases in aquaculture etc etc) and work cooperatively towards a sustainable and non-exploitative economy.
Ted Mead
August 29, 2017 at 15:42
I’m happy to see those who want to joyously celebrate this event do so.
However we didn’t actually win. They lost!!!
So the message that should be ringing in all unethical developers ears around the world is – ‘Forestry from native forests in Tasmania is a bad investment’.
Greed, retribution and karma finally caught up with Gunn’s, though the only people that lost out were their shareholders and the state’s taxpayers.
The entire management and board members did quite well out of it, and right up to the point that the bank foreclosed they were still cashing in and unbelievably receiving bonuses.
Our politicians also got it terribly wrong, but i’m sure the Liberals would go down the same path given another opportunity.
These reprehensible Gunns creatures are probably operating unethically somewhere else now, but alas Tassie is relieved of them.
Good Riddance!!!!!!!!!!
John Hawkins
August 29, 2017 at 16:13
The demise of the Pulp Mill was brought about by people power organised and marshalled by the great Bob McMahon using as conduit one Lindsay Tuffin and his Tasmanian Times.
We salute you both.
I agree with Susan it is a shame that Bob is not here to take and accept our heartfelt thanks.
The Examiner and the Mercury must take down their flags still hanging on bent and twisted masts.
Then Editors try to work with the community which buys your product rather than taking money from vested interests under the pretence of advertising.
Tony Stone
August 29, 2017 at 16:27
Not over yet, they may have let the licence lapse, but what destructive abomination will take its place is the real question.
Letting the licence lapse, will take the heat of the libs and then they can try to get the same thing some other way. Which you can bet may be even worse than what the pulp mill.
It’s a never ending lose lose situation for Tas, as long as we continue electing and supporting the destructive political party system
Scott
August 29, 2017 at 17:39
Today has been a long time coming.
The cleared site will stand as a monument to show what happens when planning processes are bypassed and businesses operate in open conflict with the community that supports them.
It is like a dark cloud is being lifted from the Tamar Valley. Hopefully now the threat of a massive, polluting pulp mill has gone, we’ll start see investment in the region resume.
John Day
August 29, 2017 at 17:43
To everybody that supported the No Pulp Mill effort. Thanks , thanks and thanks.It took people who care to stand up to the proposed project and be counted. Tasmanian Times had a key roll, and thank you Lindsay and the rest of the crew. How so many people kept grinding away, giving,challenging and networking everyday for so long is awesome.The effort took its toll on people, relationships and health. Some people lost out and I miss Bob and Mike especially.
max
August 29, 2017 at 17:55
Sorry to go against the jubilation, we didn’t win in fact we lost badly. The permits was granted against all the opposition and all common sense, why?
All indication of how the pulp mill was unviable were there for all to see, existing mills closing, plantations not performing and to diversified, overseas competition to great and the value of the Australian dollar to high. We should be asking the question why, was Gunns board controlled by a megalomaniac or was our government some how implicated. Don’t forget we had a LibLab coalition in all but name and they are still there and still trying to bulldoze public opinion. At the very least an inquiry into how the LibLab coalition may have been, along with all there advisers implicated in the downfall of a good and viable Tasmanian business and the massive loss of money and jobs as a result
Susan McMahon
August 29, 2017 at 18:26
To the odd wet blanket out there – please allow us to celebrate our small victory. Yes, it might only be one battle in an ongoing fight, but if it feels like a victory, sounds like one looks and smells like one, it probably is one, and worth celebrating. We’ve waited for a long time, not knowing whether something was going to be sleight-of-handed out of a bag of tricks at the eleventh hour. It seems not…….the thing is long dead. I WILL be celebrating!
Chris
August 29, 2017 at 21:57
The site would make a great graveyard for those who were convicted of criminal offences in the Gunn’s camp.
Here lies lies lies etc.
Edmund will be turning in his tomb, warmed by football socks full of dollar bills and there is no Questin of that!
Shades of Gray tombstone !
John Alford
August 29, 2017 at 22:59
#15 You, your wonderful husband (bless his heart)
and the people of the Tamar Valley and Tasmania all deserve to celebrate this milestone, Susan. Take the cork out of the bottle and in the words of Elvis Costello singing about Margaret Thatcher, ‘Tramp the dirt down’ on that dirty rotten pulp mill!
Barney Rubble
August 29, 2017 at 23:05
Sad day, oh well let’s sell our timber forests off as wood chips to a dirty Asian mill then buy back the product guilt free.
Simon Warriner
August 30, 2017 at 00:02
As my old boss used to say, out of every disaster something worthwhile is learned.
We now know how low the powers that be are prepared to sink, we know that political parties are a carcinogenic force, we know that there are a lot of people of good heart here, and we know that Tasmaniantimes is worth its weight in gold.
I too am saddened that Bob McMahon was not here to see this day. He earned it.
My thanks to everyone who helped.
TGC
August 30, 2017 at 00:12
Will the numerous For Sale signs now be taken down on the numerous West Tamar properties that owners tried to get rid of before they ‘choked to death from pulp mill fumes’?
Ted Mead
August 30, 2017 at 00:31
#18 We are not selling our timber forests off as wood chips, we are giving them away at cost negative. Asian or no Asian, we the taxpayer lose for trashing our own backyard at the whim of the liberals.
Pilko
August 30, 2017 at 00:59
Arguable that Lennon & Gay did more than all mill opponents combined to derail the project & the company. The greatest own goal in Tasmanian corporate & political history.
But you know what? The asinine throwbacks in the Liberal party are still drinking the same Kool-aid & have learnt nothing, Hodgman is making the planning & assessment of projects in Tasmania more undemocratic & open to corruption than ever before. The great shame is that we Tasmanian’s are bedevilled by such fuckwits & are compelled to put our lives on hold cleaning up the mess they make. An influx of immigrants, a bigger gene pool and a few million years of evolution may remedy that. Maybe not. We can only hope. x
Claire Gilmour
August 30, 2017 at 01:13
Great day indeed, and many kudos to you Sue and Bob.
To live a life, indeed the ends of one’s life, trying to protect for future of generations to come in the face of such deceitful cruelty … I toast you both and TT for reporting, and all who could see truth in the face of gov sponsored corp corruption.
I don’t doubt Bob or any such would ever say – that’s the end of my story …
rather – it’s only the beginning … …
Hallelujah …
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LRP8d7hhpoQ
ps the Examiner’s chief of staff, at the time of the height of Gunns pulps mill who lauded J Gay (and Gunns) as a hero (and who now works for the Tas Liberal party) should now recognise his advice is a path to failure …
Meanwhile out here in the real on-going world
We still suffer the long term effects of long term gov/corp greed …
Frank & Family
August 30, 2017 at 01:26
Done! What a waste of years, waste of energy, community trust, lack of positive, creative collaboration between people, industries and regulators.
The Good Team will live on in my memories and the friends we have will be with us as long as we value them.
Now, let’s think about and work for a better Tasmania, work on the future for children’s children.
Now – let’s turn the page over to another chapter, a positive one.
May the future bring about building a healthy community economy from the ground up.
Let’s upcycle, not simply recycle, let’s abolish waste as it represents wasted opportunities.
Because only when we do something can we change something.
Smart with stable carbon is the way to go as close to source as possible.
http://www.seedballskenya.com
Clive Stott
August 30, 2017 at 02:45
Cleanairtas is happy the way things have turned out so far.
Lots of people to thank…including the proponents!
Big thanks to TasTimes Linz.
Andrew Ricketts
August 30, 2017 at 03:11
It is indeed a time to celebrate and reflect on the people and community who opposed a Mill in the Tamar Valley and in so doing, devoted much time, and energy to this important cause.
The Pulp Mill Act to my mind stands as a memorial to the disadvantage and injustices which Governments were prepared to do to Tasmanians. And testament to how Government is prepared to do to undermine the normal planning processes. Why get rid of it. All that has happened since is that Governments have thought up a number of other ways to diminish one’s rights of appeal.
I view the The Pulp Mill Act in the same way as the Tasmanian Government letterheads containing the celebration of the Thylacine. It tells a story, not the whole story but it is a public face, a reminder of the struggle and the injustice.
This Government favouring of pet major projects is still going on of course. There is even a new Major Projects reform to LUPAA up for comment now. The bigger problem has not gone away. You can find the documents at: https://www.justice.tas.gov.au/community-consultation/major_projects_reforms
The site of the proposed Pulp Mill contained an area of Threatened E ovata forest, which I assume was destroyed. That ecological community is now in the process of being listed as Critically Endangered by the Commonwealth under EPBC. Eucalyptus ovata forest continues to be knocked down along with the forest of many threatened and endangered fauna species.
I wholeheartedly agree with Post #24: “Because only when we do something can we change something.†Now is not the time to stop.
Phil Lohrey
August 30, 2017 at 03:19
What wonderful news! This destructive project and process held Launceston and the Tamar Valley back for a whole decade. Tourism and innovative investment are only now regaining momentum in the valley. The future can be golden as long as filthy concepts don’t ensnare the mill site.
So many would have been hurt by the mill for the gains of so few. Where would Launceston’s water have come from in drought such as two years ago? And that is just a hint of the disaster of putting all one’s eggs in the one basket. Not that the Launceston Examiner let those costs and damages cloud its narrow vision. An industrial slum up North was always par for the course in Tasmania’s southern centre of power.
Thank goodness that good people fought so long and hard to delay the corrupt process whilst the Market sized up and finally boycotted it. No one fought with such earthy might as the eloquent Bob McMahon. No publication told the truth so fearlessly as the Tasmanian Times. Deep thanks from me and many Tasmanians.
Brenda Rosser
August 30, 2017 at 06:09
The day the culture entailing the unnecessary use of paper products ends is the day we’ve won. Surely alternatives for toilet paper, tissues, kitchen paper, newspapers, paper coffee cups etc can be found.
Paul Tapp
August 30, 2017 at 09:22
Just as the first poison-pens were towed into Paradise.
TGC
August 30, 2017 at 15:42
There can now be no excuse for all those entrepeneurs who had great schemes in mind for the Tamar Valley- indeed for the whole of Northern Tasmania reaching down as far as Ross and all along the north-west and east coasts but were holding back for fear of the terrible pollution which would devastate that whole region if a pulp mill was built- now it won’t be- so, cash on the table, drag out the ambitious employment creating plans and let’s go for it.Not good enough just to wait on government- taxpayer- investment- it has to be private capital- the pulp mill site itself awaits such an investment, one-or more, that will boost labour opportunities in the Tamar valley and that will demonstrate as nothing else that there were always superior investments ‘shovel ready’-well, perhaps not a ‘shovel’-that could mean digging-to more than make up what the pulp mill project was suggesting.
Hope to see thousands marching in the street demanding “More private capital investment in the Tamar Valley”- just paint over the old placards.
Caroline Ball
August 30, 2017 at 15:42
Yes at last we can all celebrate this victory for the Tamar Valley – Let’s celebrate with all those groups and individuals that have worked so hard; and I agree with Susie, those who are no longer with us to celebrate and I will include Jeremy Ball here ( but I am biased being his mother!) I’ll never forget the excellence of the extra-ordinary Launceston City Council meeting held in a packed Albert Hall at which he spoke. The signatures of 1000 rate payers had to be gathered before such a meeting could be held. He successfully convinced the Council to change their approval of the Pulp Mill. Vale Jeremy and those others.
max
August 30, 2017 at 16:01
Be aware that the same corrupt mindset that forced through a permit for the worlds biggest pulp mill in a valley with a big population and an inversion layer are still there , a live and kicking. Australia’s food bowl and poison-pens towed into Paradise and a revised FT that is still chipping the state into madness are all on the go against all opposition.
Barney Rubble
August 30, 2017 at 22:56
#21, yes we are. I bet you use paper, where does yours come from pal?
Mike
August 31, 2017 at 00:02
I’m sure it will be back in one form or another. Statists love to waste other people’s money.
Perhaps a convoy of cable cars transporting woodchips from the Huon up over the mountain and back down to the Derwent?
Mike Adams
August 31, 2017 at 00:13
Why, oh why, did out take so long to recognise the proposed pulp mill for what it was. A poisonous, stinking, over greedy, uncompetitive disaster.
The prolonged attachment by the various politicians to exploit the Tasmanian community’s need for semi skilled employment opportunities and their votes. That same support which led to the Examiner’s strident enthusiasm and occasional misrepresentation of actuality simply added years to the anguish of those of the Tamar Valley who year after year did what they could to delay its build.
Luckily, ‘cheats never prosper’ came to our rescue.
Among others I could wish Lennon and Gay and their Liberal and Labor cheerleaders to end their days in repentance. Having watched the so called Pulp Mill debate on TV screens in front of parliament and heard both Labor and Liberal waste our time in extolling the mill’s virtues, I could be forgiven for never trusting any Tasmanian politician ever again. Beginning with Rochester and finishing up with F.T.V. I have spent fourteen long years opposing this monstrosity.
I pay tribute to those now no longer with us. Bob, Mike, Jeremy, and others, who paid such active roles in opposing it.
And how long does it take for any Tasmanian MP who wake up to what is feasible as compared to what is just pie in the sky>
TGC
August 31, 2017 at 13:29
I don’t suppose #35 would regard his contribution as being ‘overwhelmingly subjective’
Tim Thorne
August 31, 2017 at 13:49
#33: Paper is not an appropriate end product for the process which has developed a tree out of a combination of air, soil, water and sunlight. Trees should be used only for products which outlast what would have been the expected lifespan of the tree. That way the contribution to climate change via transfer of carbon to the atmosphere is minimised.
There are better source materials for paper production, such as wheat and banana waste, and there should be more resources put into accelerating the existing decrease in the use of paper worldwide.
Ted (#21) and I may well use paper, but the vast majority of what Tasmanian woodchips end up as is unnecessary packaging. Our individual consumption accounts for relatively minuscule amounts.
The campaign against pulp mills will not be won as long as they are still being built elsewhere in the world. Those in Brazil, Indonesia, China etc might not be in the middle of vineyards, pretty scenery or vulnerable fishing areas, but they are as damaging to the planet as the Gunns monstrosity which we seem to have avoided here.
mJF
August 31, 2017 at 15:12
What happens now to managing the site for sediment and erosion control, topsoil stockpiles, weed management, stormwater retention dams, road drainage etc ?
Oh well, back to being a wildlife sanctuary.
Some irony that the small Tamar indent in the bank halfway along the site is called Dirty Bay.
Anne Layton-Bennett
August 31, 2017 at 17:58
Many, many people were involved in the campaign to stop Gunns’ Tamar Valley pulp mill, and it’s neither fair nor accurate to suggest it was down to the efforts of a few, just because they perhaps played a more publicly prominent role.
So many Tasmanians from across the state – and indeed mainland Australians – combined their energy, leadership, determination, creativity, perseverance, imagination, skills, knowledge and individual talents, to bring about this result.
Everything people did – attending a rally, posting a blog comment, emailing a politician, writing a submission, creating a poster, or just chatting to a friend, relative, colleague or neighbour and explaining why the mill would be so disastrous – EVERYONE who contributed in ways great or small can take pride in knowing they helped make this day happen.
With so many social justice campaigns involving communities v corporate interests, (Adani coal mine for example), maybe our hard fought for success will now give them inspiration and hope people power can win in the end.
Steve
August 31, 2017 at 20:57
#8; Have to agree Tim. It’s great to have won the pulp mill battle but I’d like to see a reckoning.
There have been no lessons learned and if another pulp mill was proposed tomorrow, the same offenders would behave the same way.
Still, one shouldn’t be too pessimistic. We’ve a nice bottle of Holm Oak Cab Sav that’s been awaiting this day.
TGC
September 1, 2017 at 00:38
#40 We’ve a nice bottle of Holm Oak Cab Sav that’s been awaiting this day.” A “nice” Tasmanian Cab. Sav.- I’d like to see that?
Steve
September 1, 2017 at 01:32
#41; Without being too cynical Trevor, a nice bottle of Tasmanian Cabernet Sauvignon looks not a lot different from any other red wine. Possibly a bit darker and fuller in colour?
I would suggest if you would like to see a nice Tasmanian Cab Sav, take a drive north from Perth, travel through Launceston, head up the West Tamar highway and make your way to Rowella.
I’m quite sure if you explain your mission, they will allow you to see a nice Tasmanian Cab Sav. If you are polite, they might even allow you a taste.
Whilst you are there, sipping their wine, you might gaze across the river and contemplate exactly what effect the pulp mill you supported would have had on your hosts.
TGC
September 1, 2017 at 14:01
#42.”… If you are polite, …” – politeness I dig, but I could stop at Dan Murphy’s – saving on further pollution of the West Tamar from vehicle exhausts-not that this seems to concern too many people- plus $15 in fuel savings – and at that stockist pick up a “nice bottle of …Cab Sav…” from a wide selection of that brew and at very competitive prices-
#42 is clearly well versed in picking ‘good wines’ but constrained by a tight budget I have to look at price/value quotients-
John Hawkins
September 1, 2017 at 17:26
TGC.
If your car drinks $15 in petrol from Launceston to Rowella and back you must be driving a Bentley.
TGC
September 2, 2017 at 00:00
No #44 just a very small Toyota- but haven’t learned how to get out of first gear- there must be way!
Mike Adams
September 2, 2017 at 01:17
No 46. Try reverse. I think it would suit you.
Clive Stott
September 2, 2017 at 01:50
#38: mJF other projects such as this that go base over apex are required to carry out remedial works at the site to reverse environmental damage.
Why is this one any different?
#45: Russell, the biggest threat is the belief that there is no threat.
Susan McMahon
September 2, 2017 at 02:22
#45 They were valid until 30/8/2017. After that date, if they weren’t renewed by another shonky Act of Parliament, they expired. They weren’t renewed. They expired. They are not “resurrectable” as such: the whole process would have to be started from scratch and there seems to be absolutely zero interest.
TGC
September 2, 2017 at 12:50
#47 “Reverse” ? ‘Please explain!’
Barney Rubble
September 2, 2017 at 12:56
#37 Tim, whilst I appreciate there exists other techniques for paper production the reality is these won’t be explored whilst other cheaper & easier options exist. The primary option at present is from forest harvesting. Aside from that debate if people understood how forest harvesting worked they would see there was a great opportunity here in our state to build a pulp mill. Thousands of hectares of plantation timber requires harvesting going forward. Unfortunately the intent to construct a pulp mill in a location perhaps not entirely suitable was the govts intent. As a result our plantation forest product (or those not suitable for other uses) will now be shipped off to pulp mills elsewhere where we Tasmanians have no control over the pollution that results from the process. Unfortunately Mother Nature does not seperate the environment on a state or country Geographic line thus we all suffer the results.
I am neither for nor against forest harvesting but as a resource we all readily consume we have a responsibility to future generations to make the best of what we can. Shipping our resource off then accepting the product back has an amount of guilt associated with it.
Power generation is another similar environmental disaster in waiting. We missed the chance to create a far more environmentally friendly method to generate and sell power to the mainland decades ago and we now buy power back from coal fired power stations. That’s just plain sad.