12 August 2008 - TAP kicks off two weeks of civil unrest
Calendar of events
15 August Friday 2.00-3.00pm West Tamar Council Chambers at Riverside.
Demonstration to impress upon the West Tamar Council that the ratepayers will not tolerate the Council allowing Gunns free access for the proposed pulp mill pipeline to land owned by electors.
19-21 August Tuesday – Thursday Albert Hall Launceston
People's Parliament in City Park outside the Launceston sitting of the politician's Parliament in the Albert Hall.
20 August Wednesday 6.30-8.30pm Gunns Pulp Mill and Climate Change Public Forum
Tailrace Centre, West Tamar Highway, Riverside facilitated by Environment Tasmania and including representatives from Gunns and Forestry Tasmania.
23 August Saturday 12.00pm Rally and March City Park Launceston
SPEAKERS Bob McMahon (TAP), Rachel Maynard/Nala Mansell (TAC), Peter Cundall (TAP), Dr Warwick Raverty (formerly of the RPDC), Kim Booth MHA, Terry Martin MLC, Phillip Pullinger (Environment Tasmania) Stef Gebbi/Gabby Forward (Students Against the Pulp Mill)
One of the main outcomes of the Rally will be a demand for a repeal of the Pulp Mill Assessment Act 2007, in particular the pernicious Section 11 which denies the people of Tasmania access to their own legal system.
26-28 August Tuesday – Thursday Parliament, Albert Hall, Launceston
People's Parliament in City Park outside the Launceston sitting of the politician's Parliament in the Albert Hall.
27 August Wednesday Parliament
Kim Booth MHA (Greens) tables a private member’s bill to repeal the Pulp Mill assessment Act 2007. A big community presence is expected inside parliament for the debate.
Bob McMahon - media spokesman Tasmanians Against the Pulp Mill
June 24th 2008 TASMANIANS WRITE TO THE PRIME MINISTER IN CHINESE
As a last resort Tasmanians have written to Prime Minister Rudd in Chinese.
“We apparently have a Prime Minister who doesn’t understand English”, asserted TAP spokesperson, Bob McMahon. “Therefore we have written to him in Mandarin, a language in which he is reputedly fluent.”
“No matter how often we write to him or his ministers in English, concerning the socio-economic, legal and environmental impacts of the proposed pulp mill, we are sent bizarre forest industry propaganda and information sourced from the pulp mill proponent, by way of reply. Does Kevin Rudd have any idea how insulted the people of Tasmania are at this behaviour of Federal Labor?” continued McMahon.
“There is a chance that Rudd’s advisers and ministers are blocking our correspondence to the Prime Minister in their effort to run an unseemly and ill-informed pro-pulp mill line. We are trying to inform the Prime Minister that he has been led astray. That is why we have written to him in Chinese.”
The letter was sent Priority Post on June 2nd 2008. As yet there has been no reply.
“There has never been a full assessment of the Gunns pulp mill proposal. The disenfranchised people of Tasmania are, in this letter, demanding that one be undertaken,” said McMahon.
Many independent groups and individuals have expressed severe reservations about the risks, potential hazards, location, costs and supposed economic benefits of the mill. They include CSIRO, ANZ Bank, RPDC, former member of RPDC pulp mill panel Dr Warwick Raverty, National Toxics Network, Beca Amec and 128 independent scientists.
None of the serious concerns raised by these groups and individuals have been assessed, nor have any steps been taken to protect the public from the identified hazards.
“There can be no way forward in Tasmania unless Federal Labor and State Labor understand that the huge risks the Tasmanian communities have been exposed to represents a massive breach of faith between our paid representatives and the taxpayers who pay them,” said McMahon.
“We want equal treatment with Gunns and the forest industry. For too long they have had many favours supplied at taxpayers’ expense, from legal, resource and cost exemptions to huge and unaffordable subsidies.”
“As long as one group is treated differently under the law and provided with preferential access to the ear of government, there can be neither fairness nor equity in Tasmanian society. Remedy this situation, Mr Rudd, or lose Tasmania,” concluded McMahon.
CONTACT: Bob McMahon 0448 547290
Email bob@orielstudio.com.au
Text of Mandarin letter in English
“Incompetent aides shielding a good king are like clouds overcasting the sun and the moon”
In the past, Bi Gan cut open his heart to show his loyalty; Qu Yuan committed suicide to warn the king of corruption.
These days, we people in Tasmania have to write the Prime Minister a letter in a foreign language as a last ditch attempt to get your attention. We have written numerous times to Canberra about the Tasmanian pulp mill and were stonewalled.
We represent a broad community in Tasmania who are deeply concerned about the economic, social and environmental wellbeing of Tasmania. We are in grief that our voices and concerns have been ignored by the Tasmanian Premier and the Minster for Environment, Heritage and Art. As a group who supports the Prime Minister and its new government and directions, we understand our concerns may not have been brought to your attention as you are inundated with various issues.
After consulting various stakeholders in Tasmania and conducting extensive internet research on similar pulp mills around the world, we opine that:
In calculating the economic benefits the pulp mill may bring to Tasmania, other social costs should also be considered, such as expenditures on building new roads, maintenance of roads, supplying water at a low price, health issues arising from environmental pollution and the subsequent costs of health care. If these costs, estimated to be over $250 million per year, are excluded from the calculation, it is the community who will eventually have to bear these costs. This will be a form of subsidy to a private company at the expense of the general public in defiance of the spirit of democracy.
The socio-economic risks of the pulp mill are extremely high. Official assessment covered only 15% of the total impacts that we gathered from consultation and research. The official assessment was incomplete.
Ignoring public voices and proceeding regardless is like “plugging one's ears while stealing a bell”. The people’s voices will get louder and louder and the government will eventually suffer in consequence.
We urge the Federal Government to conduct a detailed and independent review of the pulp mill proposal before it is built. The Government should fully consider the interests of all Tasmanians and its industries, including impacts on tourism, operating and production environment, quality of life as well as property values. If the Government only listens to one party by getting information and data from the logging industry alone, how can you fairly govern your people? How can you convince your people of the correctness of your policy?
We look forward to meeting the Federal Government and offer a briefing on the political, social, economic and health costs and risks that have been ignored so far.
“The Great Learning teaches the display of illustrious virtue, the caring for the people, and repose in the highest good.” The Prime Minister should care for the people by listening to us directly and seek a satisfactory solution to the issue.
“Wretched flies turn black to white. Blandishing opinions distance one from one’s closest allies.” In a democracy, your closest allies are the voters and we appeal to the Prime Minister to keep this in mind.
Signed on behalf of the disenfranchised people of Tasmania
Robert McMahon
26 May 2008
0448 547 290
email bob@orielstudio.com.au
19 May 2008 The failure of Gunns to comply with requirements imposed by the Commonwealth Chief Scientist is exposed by TAP.
“Gunns Ltd have failed to provide accurate and substantive roadkill data for threatened species, on three major access routes to their proposed pulp mill as required under Condition 26 of the Environment Protection Biodiversity Conservation Act 2007/3385,” said Tony Saddington, TAP Roadkill Monitoring Co-ordinator.
“With the evidence before him there is no way the Minister for the Environment, Peter Garrett, can sign off on the inadequate work done by Gunns. The threatened species surveys must be redone to an acceptable standard,” Mr Saddington continued.
To manage the risks to threatened species, the Chief Scientist required Gunns to “immediately following the date of the approval, establish baseline monitoring of roadkill along the East Tamar highway and other major access routes for construction.”
“Threatened species data for the West Tamar, Frankford and Bridport Highways was not collected,” said Tony Saddington. Gunns’ roadkill surveyor was contracted to undertake a monitoring program only on the East Tamar Highway.
The Chief Scientist (Rec. 2.1.2.6.) required daily surveys by Gunns but Mr Saddington said “weekends and public holidays appear to have been unmonitored and evidence exists that carcasses were occasionally removed prior to the arrival of Gunns’ survey crew.”
Data were not collected for 80% of the daily three month monitoring program as required by the Chief Scientist. In addition, for the first 6 of 24 sampling runs, data was collected over only one quarter of the 33km East Tamar Highway.
Since October 2007 TAP has been conducting its own daily roadkill monitoring along 22kms of the East Tamar Highway to ensure accuracy and compliance by Gunns with acceptable standards of quality assurance and quality control. TAP’s early morning seven days a week survey included species identification, GPS location and dated digital photos of specimens.
Significantly TAP has identified and independently confirmed fifteen carcasses belonging to threatened species out of a total of 656 specimens. Gunns have only recorded five out of 272 specimens.
20 February 2008 - To pulp or not to pulp: public forum on alternative futures for Tasmania’s forests
Decisions by Forestry Tasmania about the State's forests centre on producing one main low value product – pulp wood, but at what cost?
Tasmanians Against the Pulp Mill (TAP) is holding a public forum on alternative futures for Tasmania's forests including as a source of energy, as a carbon store and as protector of water supplies.
Engineer and co-presenter Mike Scott said, “By committing long term to pulp wood, we lose the use of forests as a source of energy (biofuels) to replace fossil fuels in a post peak-oil future”. “Focusing on one main product discourages diversity and stifles our ability to adapt to rapidly changing demands.”
“In contrast to Tasmania, progressive nations are looking towards a variety of products to extract the maximum value from the forest for all users and with superior environmental benefits,” he continued.
“Biofuels will become an increasing necessity in the fight to reduce carbon emissions and we must fundamentally rethink our lifestyle choices in the face of escalating damage to our planet from profligate use of fossil fuels” .
Co-presenter Kim Booth, Greens MHA, said, “Native forest woodchipping in Tasmania is like mining, but our forests are important in many other ways such as for landscape, biodiversity, tourism and eco-tourism, water supplies, specialty timbers and environmental services such as carbon stores.”
Master forester Frank Strie will also discuss uptake of carbon, responsible forest and catchment management. “The silt in the Tamar basin was once soil further up in the catchment, on the slopes and on the bank of streams and rivers. We must have new thinking about the ways of managing the forest to bring genuine environmental, economic and social benefits,” he said.
The forum will also examine the economics of a future forest-based biofuels industry.
Forum details
When: 7pm - 9.45pm Monday 25 February 2008.
Where: Riverside Community Centre, off Brownfields Lane behind the Riverside High School, West Tamar Highway, Launceston.
17 September 2007 Voters to block pro-mill political candidates
Thousands of Tasmanian voters have pledged not to vote for any local, state or federal political candidate who supports Gunns’ proposed pulp mill in the Tamar valley.
Bob McMahon, spokesman for Tasmanians against the Pulp mill (TAP), said, ’11,100 voters have signed the “Voters Block” not to support any pro-mill political candidates at elections’.
‘This is a potent political statement for any candidate, particularly those in marginal electorates,’ said McMahon. ‘The numbers are growing daily.’
‘The people are angry at the appalling orchestrated and covert support by the Lennon government for the pulp mill, the loss of democracy and the downward spiralling standards of governance in Tasmania,’ said Bob McMahon.
For the imminent Federal Government and local council elections, TAP will be polling all candidates for their views on the proposed pulp mill.
‘We will advertise the results and distribute cards in all electorates showing how to vote against candidates who support the pulp mill,’said McMahon.
