Go back to the days of Electric Eric and The Emperor, says Howes

TASMANIA needs to stand up to the environmental movement for the sake of its future, a Labor Party powerbroker says.

Paul Howes, secretary of the powerful Australian Workers Union, said the Government needed to resist the environmental movement and mainlanders who were influencing issues such as the Tamar Valley pulp mill.

“Voters in the eastern suburbs of Sydney who think they are working to help preserve some kind of pristine, untouched natural paradise have no understanding that this is a pulp mill being built in an industrial zone in an area where there is already significant industrial activity and has been for generations,” Mr Howes said.

The mill has drawn the ire of environmental campaigners from all around the country, including high-profile businessman Wotif.com chief executive Graeme Wood and Sydney-based businessman Geoffrey Cousins.

In March this year, Mr Cousins told the media he had advised potential mill investor Richard Chandler not to invest $150 million in the Tasmanian timber company Gunns Limited, which is building the pulp mill.

This week, the fight for the Tarkine heated up, with the Tarkine National Coalition and activist group GetUp! accusing Tasmanian Minerals Council chief executive Terry Long of playing down the size of the mining developments.

Also, in recent months, Malaysian-based company Ta Ann has blamed consistent campaigns about Tasmanian forests by environmental groups ( Latest, on TT here ) for the loss of markets and consequent loss of jobs.

Meanwhile, Mr Howes said Tasmania’s main political parties had lost the public relations battle to the Greens and the environmental movement.

“Tasmania needs to portray itself as not just a giant tourism park,” he said.

…

Mr Howes said the state needed to take the lead of previous state premiers such as Eric Reece and Jim Bacon and stand up to environmental groups.

“There is a lot to be said for this state,” he said.

“People have written it off many, many times, but when it picks itself up and dusts itself off, it achieves pretty amazing things.

“It requires self belief, confidence and frankly giving the mainland the middle finger and saying we deserve it.

…

He said the Intergovernmental Agreement on forests had proved environmentalists would not stop selling their message.

“The scary thing for Tasmania is if the Greens win on the pulp mill it won’t be the end they will move on to aquaculture next,” he said.

Read the full story, Mercury here

• Dave Groves here

• John Biggs, in Comments: Well said Cameron, that just about covers it. Likewise Anne. ” … no understanding that this is a pulp mill being built in an industrial zone in an area where there is already significant industrial activity and has been for generations.” What an ignorant statement. No distinction between heavy polluting industry and environmentally friendly primary industry, wine, fishing, tourism, the proceeds of which are far greater than anything the mill will produce and would put in jeopardy. How many experts have predicted the mill would be uneconomic in view of the dollar, the declining world market and the competition from S America and China? But Howes is only echoing what both major parties, state and federal, are saying about the mill. How can so many get it so wrong? The question that nags me: what’s in it for the Liberals, Labor and Howes in particular to push this patently uneconomic and divisive project? Can it simply be that they have a mid20th century mindset that their rigid little minds are unable to shake off? Kudelka’s cartoon on today’s Mercury was right on, if a little too kind:

• TASMANIA NEEDS TO SMARTEN UP, NOT TOUGHEN UP

The Tasmanian Greens said comments reported today from the National Secretary of the Australian Workers Union, Paul Howes, were populist grandstanding from an old-school unionist stuck in a last-century economic mindset.

Greens Leader Nick McKim MP said that Tasmania instead needed to smarten its economy, by transitioning away from an over-reliance on market-exposed heavy industries and bulk commodity exports.

“Paul Howes has described himself as a ‘dig it up, chop it down, pave over it sort of guy’ and that really says it all,” Mr McKim said. [1]

“The Greens on the other hand are a ‘protect it, promote and profit from it’ sort of political party, because we understand that’s that kind of smart approach where Tasmania’s economic future lies.”

“It’s the attitude of people like Paul Howes that put Tasmania’s economy in the vulnerable position it’s now in, and now he has the temerity to fly in from the mainland and give us a lecture on economics.”

“Mr Howes parrots the economic diversification mantra, but it’s old-school unionists like him who have led the push for government subsidies to prop up failing, unprofitable industries like native woodchipping.”

“His nostalgia for a past industrial age is blinding him to the reality that global markets have changed, and Tasmania can no longer compete with cheap heavy manufacturing and bulk commodity producers in places like Asia.”

“Mr Howes talks about having a diversified economy, but he fails to see how the proposed Gunns pulp mill would destroy the very real economic diversity that already exists in the Tamar Valley.”

“Tasmania cannot continue to put all our eggs in one economic basket, because if the GFC has taught us anything, it’s that an over-reliance on old manufacturing and commodity industries leaves us too exposed to global markets and currency fluctuations.”

[1] The Examiner Newspaper, 12 May 2012, p. 17.

• Mike: Pulpmill site, Bell Bay or Long Reach?

We’re at Long Reach. Harry Abdominalis (Comment 28) may just be able to see Bell Bay on the horizon. Slightly farther away than a few hundred metres…
And, from Gary …

• SENATOR THE HON RICHARD COLBECK

Tasmanian and Federal Labor leaders must heed advice from senior party figures Nick Sherry and Paul Howes and put an end to Tasmania’s disastrous forestry negotiations.

“In recent days two ALP senior figures in AWU secretary Paul Howes and Senator Nick Sherry have spoken out against the push to lock up more Tasmanian forests,” Coalition Forestry Spokesman Senator Richard Colbeck said.

“Senator Sherry used his valedictory speech last week to express his concern that adding more area to Tasmania’s already considerable network of national parks and reserves would have “significant economic implications for our economy.”

“Senator Sherry is correct in his observation that this is not just about trees; that we are talking about nonsensical restrictions that will impact mining, fishing, agriculture and tourism.

“I also agree with sentiments expressed by Paul Howes when he says Tasmania must stand up to environment groups that are pushing for the state to become a giant tourism park.

“Mr Howes’ comment that environment groups will soon be turning their attention to aquaculture is bang on the money – in fact, both aquaculture and wild catch fisheries are already in the sights of these activists.

“It is time for Labor to stand up to the environment groups and their bully tactics.

“The Federal Coalition has consistently maintained that the Intergovernmental Agreement and the political mechanisms that have produced it are a sham.

“We are no closer to peace in the forests than when this process commenced in 2010, and there is no logical basis for any more of Tasmania’s forest resources to be locked up.

“The Federal Coalition stands by its previous calls for the deal to be torn up and I hope that despite long ignoring the forest industry’s concerns, Ms Giddings and Ms Gillard might wake up to the warnings finally coming from within the ALP ranks,” Senator Colbeck said.