In publicly exposing the incestuous relationship between the Tasmanian Government and the timber industry, Mark Latham is simply articulating the feelings many Tasmanians have had for years, but have never had the profile to capture the media’s interest.
We wait now for investigative journalism to kick in. By the age old adage of “where there is smoke there is fire”, Tasmanians know there is a full blown regeneration burn in this. Too long have political donations, cheap wood, debt write-offs, legislated rule bending, back-door deals and bribery attempts been ignored, dealt with subtly or accepted as the norm.
Mr Latham’s claims are not without substance. Anyone who followed the evidence of ex-forest practices officer Bill Manning heard an insider’s version of how the system is unbalanced, favouring industry players. One quote highlights this quite simply. In his evidence to a Senate Committee, Mr Manning said of logging practices in Tasmania; “were it to be judged by the legislation that other Tasmanians have to abide by, it would be found to be comprehensively in breach of Tasmanian law.”
This evidence was so compelling that it drew political heavyweight Senator Bill Heffernan into the debate. He was so appalled with forest practices and government regulation that he went on to become a vocal advocate for forest protection and industry reform.
The proposed pulp mill is the perfect current example of a government and industry which are too close for proper regulation to happen. Millions of dollars of taxpayer money are funding a pro-mill campaign and the Pulp Mill Task Force that runs it. So concerning is it, that in April this year the RPDC had to write to the Department of Premier and Cabinet to say that “if the Task Force activities are not reined in … the Commission will be compromised in the eyes of the public and interest groups and therefore the assessment process seen to be contaminated (and) … the accreditation process may be in question.”
Too closely in bed together
Add to this the recently legislated loopholes in the new air quality legislation effective from 1st June this year. The Air Quality Policy specifically exempts bleached eucalypt pulp mills from emission limits on hydrogen sulphide and methyl mercaptan. These emission limits affect all other industries but as quoted from the footnotes of the policy it “does not apply to bleached eucalypt pulp mills.”
Mr Latham could well describe this as one policy for Tasmania, another for a pulp mill and use it to back his claims of a government and industry too closely in bed together.
The Tasmanian Government has come out with a predictable denial and an attempt to shift the blame to conservationists and Green politicians. In usual fashion it refuses to look in the mirror and see a party and personality that publicly turned its back on its federal colleagues at the height of an election campaign. To do this highlights significant conflicts and misaligned priorities and allegiances.
Denying reality, the Government continue to ignore the overwhelming demands of a community tired of watching their forests travel the roads on the back of a truck. The pulp mill proposal and the Government’s insistence to shove it upon us is but the latest example of it pushing the barrow of an unbalanced industry.
This, despite a $250 million opportunity to shift the industry away from logging oldgrowth and towards utilising the existing plantation resource. Tasmanians will oppose any pulp mill that uses native forests and chlorine bleaching as it does not represent the shift that is needed. Protecting oldgrowth forests and growing jobs based on existing plantations does form part of this shift.
Long have we heard cries from the public for investigations into this injustice and a commission of inquiry into the way our forests are mismanaged. If this Government truly has nothing to hide, let it open its doors and allow the process that could purge it of public no-confidence. Failing this we can only assume the skeletons in its closet have teeth. So, bring on investigative journalism to flesh out the truth and foster the democracy we all deserve.
Vica Bayley is Tasmanian forest campaigner, The Wilderness Society
