That pulp mill in Tasmania
Where would we be without Alan Ramsay? He has written a very interesting piece in the SMH about the pulp mill in Tasmania. Very interesting indeed. An excerpt:
Note the binding date of the length of the approval. Fifty years. Gunns Ltd now has watertight legal standing from the Australian people, courtesy of a government and a prime minister so thoroughly on the nose with voters they’re headed for imminent electoral defeat, to go on destroying, for the next half century, what remains of Tasmania’s magnificent old-growth forests for woodchipping fodder for a $2 billion pulp paper mill in the Tamar Valley, south of Launceston.
The incumbent government is not the only one at fault here either, as this piece also notes. I saw Peter Garrett toeing the party line on the news last night. It made me so sad. Midnight Oil has always been one of my favourite bands and, in a matter of about 20 seconds, he undid 20 years’ work. This is why politics is an evil profession - it forces people to compromise their ideals until there is nothing left. Sigh.
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This makes me want to cry. I would vote for almost any government that would say no to this pulp mill.
Garrett’s a Labor sellout, sorry.
Mungo MacCallum has defended PG in today’s subscriber edition of Crikey with ‘the impotent are always pure’ argument. Which to me, just means that my point about politics being evil is all the more valid.
My understanding is that no additional forest has been opened up for logging and that the mill will process wood chip normally pulped overseas. Anyone know if this is the case? If it is the case, then surely this is a positive for the environment as the mill has major conditions placed on it that foreign mills may not. It will be located in an existing industrial area where there is an aluminium smelter which runs on hydro and gas I think. If additional forest is to be opened up then my point is invalid.
Good point, Matt. But I thought we were discussing whether or not Garret is a wanker
Well he is definitely a terrible dancer.