THE State election is probably only a few months away and neither Labor nor the Liberals are confident.
What we need is bit of a scare campaign!
The Mercury editorial “Threat to hard-won prosperity” (Saturday, 26th November) focuses on the inherent instability of minority government and claims that if the Greens hold significant power after the election it will damage investor confidence and the economy.
It’s true that the Greens demand transparent and detailed scrutiny of major projects; that they often oppose projects that they feel will damage our social or natural environment.
Yes, they put less emphasis on economic outcomes.
It’s equally true that both Labor and the Liberals have a strong tendency to automatically support ‘big projects’. Sometimes regardless of the likely social, environmental or longer term economic consequences.
Coalitions can and do work and the very tensions that inevitably exist within them can lead to more vigorous and constructive debate — and more considered solutions. Being forced to work together they may come up with better balanced policies and strategies.
Yes, the Greens are opposing the building of this large scale pulp mill in the Tamar Valley and they claim both environmental and economic justification while the Government spends our taxes promoting it even before the final details are known.
We already have a burden of long term debt from major projects like Basslink and Spirit III and, given the steady decline in the real value of pulp on the world market, it seems increasingly likely that once this mill is up and running we will be committed to providing subsidised transport infrastructure, large volumes of water and as much as 4 million tonnes per year of cheap timber from native forests for the next 30 years.
The Greens argue that that both our economy and environment would benefit more by creating more long term jobs across the entire timber industry by focusing the public spending required on encouraging multiple, smaller, locally-owned and operated enterprises manufacturing a far wider variety of relatively high value timber products while using less natural resource.
Minority government need not be the disaster it’s sometimes painted by scaremongers.
Healthy public debate, transparency and then probably an eventual compromise is better than one party holding absolute power.
The real danger that we should be very aware of (and avoid at election time) is giving any one party the ability to ram through secret deals, pet projects or dangerous legislation unopposed.
Pat Synge
www.buyselltrade.com.au
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