Barnaby Drake
I managed to get through the first three paragraphs before I was interrupted by the chairman and told that what I was saying was irrelevant and they did not wish to hear more. I was refused permission to present the rest of my speech and I was not allowed to table a copy. At that point I decided to abandon my prepared speech and tackle them verbally and stated I was representing the fears of the entire community, and that as we had been totally ignored and our interests had been trampled on by the Council, we were looking to the RPDC as the only way in which our voice could be heard. The other party at the top end of the chain, who had had the privilege of making major input and writing all their own requirements into the Act, was Gunns and the MIS Corporations, whilst we, as citizens, have to live with the consequences and without a voice.
LAST WEEK I received a letter from the RPDC inviting me, along with all other people who had lodged written objections, to address them at a public meeting on the matter of the Meander Valley Council PAL Act Amendment.
At last! A chance to be heard and to be able to voice our disappointment at the cavalier treatment we had received at the hands of the council. A glimmer of hope?
Not a bit of it. The two panel members who were in the chair executed any hope of any action immediately. They were here to do their duty, and that was to hear about specific clauses where technical evidence or expert witnesses could be called to testify and could PROVE that the council had made an error in their judgement. Nothing more would be tolerated and there would be no general discussion. They were there to do their duty as government appointed officers because they had a requirement under the law to do so. They would accept nothing except chapter and verse, and any objectors in the audience would not be tolerated and would be evicted from the meeting if they persisted in commenting or interjecting.
I was one of the first speakers to be called, and I had prepared what I considered to be a pretty succinct and telling speech on the merits of the PAL Act Amendment. I even had photographs and much incidental material to back up what I was going to say.
I managed to get through the first three paragraphs before I was interrupted by the chairman and told that what I was saying was irrelevant and they did not wish to hear more. I was refused permission to present the rest of my speech and I was not allowed to table a copy.
At that point I decided to abandon my prepared speech and tackle them verbally and stated I was representing the fears of the entire community, and that as we had been totally ignored and our interests had been trampled on by the Council, we were looking to the RPDC as the only way in which our voice could be heard. I pointed out that we were the last to be informed and had made no input into the process, despite being one of the two most affected parties. It is we, as citizens whom this Act is aimed at. The other party at the top end of the chain, who had had the privilege of making major input and writing all their own requirements into the Act, was Gunns and the MIS Corporations, whilst we, as citizens, have to live with the consequences and without a voice.
I was then informed that this was not the place for this type of objection, and that they had no mandate to listen to this. They were here merely to report back on the technicalities of the matter and that if we wanted these sort of matters heard, we would have to look elsewhere.
I then asked, ‘ just exactly where was elsewhere’ if the RPDC was not the place? (There was much derisive laughter.)
The reply was astounding. ‘We are not actually members of the RPDC. We have been employed by them to listen to these objections on their behalf and report back to them’!
‘So ‘elsewhere’ is actually ‘nowhere’?’
‘That is not our problem.’
Shortly after, having been refused permission to continue, I left, to rousing cheers from the entire audience.
The speech I was not allowed to deliver
Thank you for inviting me to speak.
However, I am more than a little perturbed by the preamble in your letter and in your opening address where it seems that the matter has been prejudged somewhat, and we have virtually been told we are wasting our time. I refer to the statement:-
‘As the draft amendment does not propose any changes to the status of forestry from its current permitted status in Table 8.1.2 of the Meander Valley Planning Scheme, this issue is of little relevance. Nevertheless, the issue attracted many representations.’
But this is precisely the problem and the cause of concern. The fact that there are no changes to the ‘permitted’ status despite the fact that the Meander Valley Council received a petition signed by 1200 people, over 700 people attended a privately called meeting to discuss this issue, 300 people attended the deliberately limited official public meeting a month later and two Council meetings attracted audiences of 200 and 250 respectively. Also, and I quote, ‘In response to the Draft Amendment, Council received 221 written representations from the community, totalling over 550 pages.’
From a community the size of Meander Valley, that is a terrific response and is a measure of the concern felt. However, it was at this second council meeting that we witnessed the trashing of EVERY SINGLE ONE of these submissions without a single exception. It is as though the community and their concerns never existed and the public voice mattered not one jot to them as they rubber stamped every written response into the bureaucratic trash can.
I refer to the document ‘Submissions to the PAL Amendment’ published by the Meander Valley Council. A 322 page reply to these 550 pages of objections, where the third column, which is the official answer states universally to every comment, ‘No action required.’
In what can only be surmised as a pre-arranged plan, Forestry, Gunns and the MIS Corporations triumphed over the will of the people.
This is not Democracy or how it should work.
At this point I would like to quote from the Tasmanian Together project, where the survey conducted by the government over a much larger sample of the populace were told by 87% of those interviewed that Old Growth logging should stop immediately. This was ignored by the government, and now even the references to this have been deleted from the websites, and the only mention that exists are the two later reports where it is simply stated that: ‘The objectives of the TT report on old growth logging have not been met.’
We, the residents of Meander Valley recognise that we are at the bottom end of the chain, and that instructions have come down from higher authorities to implement this Amendment to the PAL Act, and that our Council have been only too joyful to carry out this command. The Council worked in secret and have attended many government run workshops over a period of years before coming up with the details of this amendment. It is also to be noted that much of the legal side of this amendment has been advised and drafted by the same lawyer that is also the legal adviser to Gunns Limited, thereby ensuring that the major beneficiary’s interests are well looked after. At no time during this secretive period was the public informed of the situation or allowed to make any input, but it appears that Gunns, at least, had a hand in all the planning stages. It was then presented as a fait accompli to the public for comment. This we were then told, constituted ‘public input’.
But what these planners and council members had been working on was OUR FUTURE and OUR RIGHTS. This Act affects every single person in Tasmania to a greater or lesser degree, let alone just the Meander Valley, and we were not even informed of the intention or allowed ONE SINGLE item of change. In the 322 page report issued by the council, the Planning Department supplied the answers, and five out of the seven councillors rubber stamped our rights into oblivion.
Now we have to live with the results. Forestry has won. The RPDC is our last resort.
What the ‘Permitted’ status means to the people of Meander Valley:
… Firstly, trees and corporations have been given more rights than the people.
… Forestry and all Private Timber Reserves (PTRs) do not require any form of planning permission to log any area they desire and the land afterwards can then be converted to plantation.
… PTRs pay little or no rates and taxes, thus reducing the tax base for the area, leaving the additional burden to fall on the remaining residents.
… The Act states that human habitation is ‘sensitive’ in rural areas and is to be discouraged.
… By redefining plantations as a crop, it gives them more rights than genuine agriculture. For instance, food production does not generally require a 300 metre setback on someone else’s property boundary, nor does it require aerial spraying with toxic chemicals. It removes all rights of the public to object or seek compensation for inappropriate logging.
… It states that small properties ‘fetter’ agricultural land, and for agriculture in this context, read ‘plantation’.
… By allowing the MIS companies to turn food producing land into plantations, we are taking an irreversible step towards what many see as the destruction of our future. In a land stricken by drought, Meander Valley is an outstanding jewel with a high rainfall and possesses some of the best land in the whole of Australia. Our Council actively wishes to squander this resource on a low-value, non-edible woodchip crops. (It must be noted that only a short while ago, the Premier announced that he was about to ban plantations on Grade 1,2 and 3 land. It would be interesting to know whether this will eventuate or whether the statement was mere politicking. If it is true, then substantial amounts of the PAL Act and the Amendments become redundant and will have to be rewritten.)
… Because of the spread of plantations, water resources are badly affected, as the e.nitens plants require a substantially greater amount of water than existing forests.
… The toxic sprays that are required for the growth of e.nitens eventually end up in our waterways. Meander Valley has had several examples of this contamination, and this can only get worse as the number of plantations increase.
… With the increase of logging activities, biodiversity decreases. Heavy shooting and poisoning of wildlife is still rampant in the area, and clearfelling and forestry burns affect many more species of flora and fauna. Our wildlife is finite, and should be protected.
… Logging removes the potential of future carbon trading and adds strongly into the increase of greenhouse gases from their burns and the destruction of the only lungs the planet has – the trees. It is a fallacy tantamount to fraud on the part of forestry to try to pretend that plantations are a carbon sink when they have already been declared a crop. If this is the case, then all other crops have an equal right to be considered for this label. The only difference is the cycle time.
… The small communities and townships in Meander Valley have a right to exist. Without the support that comes from the rural dwellers, this becomes increasingly more difficult. (Note: Before any public holiday, the car park at Deloraine supermarket is full, and many people are unable to find a single parking space. This is because all those people who dwell in the outlying areas come into town at the same time to do their shopping. It is an indicator of just how much volume of business comes from these rural dwellers, and without it, the shops and all supporting services would not be viable. The entire town is dependent on these people for their living, yet our council is trying to force them off the land and prevent all new planning applications in rural areas. Plantations are a great unemployer, and what was once thriving communities and farms, are being stripped of their wherewithal to survive. I cannot believe that this is not part of the plan.)
… Logging discourages tourism, and this is a major factor in the Meander Valley where many people derive their income from it. Currently Forestry is logging right to the edge of the World heritage area of Liffey Falls, and there are logging tape indicators directly opposite the sign announcing that it is World Heritage that you are entering. Forestry activities in the area seem to be deliberately designed to frighten off tourists. (Note the photographs)
… This current Amendment to the PAL Act is a recipe for disaster and should be scrapped in its entirety. It requires a complete rethink AND with input from the community.
This piece of legislation is called the Protection of Agricultural Land Act. This is the greatest misnomer of all. It is this very Act that is destroying the farming community and decreasing the potential for REAL agriculture.
It is a means of driving farmers off the land and closing down farms for ever. It is the very means by which rural and farming communities suffer financial ruin. It is this very act that sees that the private landowners rights are diminished and their properties devalued, in many cases forcing them to abandon their lifetime hopes and ambitions. In many cases they have no alternative but to sell their land to these vast financial corporations and watch wile their life work is destroyed and turned over to monoculture plantations. Much is the sorrow and grief expressed by many of these unfortunate victims of this Act.
It is this Act that is designed to control the populace and force them away from their chosen lifestyle and into areas chosen for them by these remote authorities.
This is an Act designed for no-one except those who have a vested interest in acquiring as much of Tasmania’s fertile land as possible and turning it into a financial milch cow for their own benefit. This is done against the wishes of the people and for the sole purpose of increasing their financial profits — profits which benefit Tasmania not at all, despite the rhetoric. The money heads offshore in tax-free benefits to mainland investors and the jobs issue diminishes with every public statement. We are left to fund these corporations by seeing our taxes and rates rise, as the base diminishes, seeing our forests and heritage destroyed for no profit at all, see our standard of living diminish and on top of this, we are forced to subsidise these giant corporations.
This Act encourages this and give the corporations more legal, political and financial power than the very citizens they are fleecing. We are paying for our own demise!
That corporate power is behind all this there is no doubt. The fact the entire Act was worked on in secret by the government and the councils behind closed doors is testament to this duplicity. Greed and power triumph over democracy and the people. This Act was foisted upon us giving us little time to digest the contents, and denying us actual input. It was presented as a fait accompli by the government, their puppets and their corporate sponsors.
This act, as I have said before, is a misnomer. It should be called the PRI Act – or, the ‘Protection of Gunns Interests’!
Barnaby Drake
(The attached photographs are of logging within 100 metres of the World Heritage area, showing ‘World’s Best Practice’ and the entrance to the Falls area with a forestry marker right opposite the World Heritage sign.)
