July 24 2008
New backers for pulp mill tipped
Nick Clark Mercury
GUNNS Limited was close to completing a new deal for pulp mill finance, a leading financial commentator said yesterday. In online newsletter Business Spectator Robert Gottliebsen said “rumours of new backers for the project had been circulating in Europe”. Read more here
Never!
Mercury Thursday
It’s cold out there
Lukas
The Edge in radio
Melanie Page
Edge Radio actively curates the world’s largest collection of Tasmanian music. With over 1000 Tasmanian songs on rotation, Edge Radio schedules Tasmanian music in prime time programming, and frequently showcases Tasmanian releases as part of the fortnightly Edge Radio Recommended feature releases. Read more, Comment here
July 23 2008
HCC: the aldermen sit back …
Turnoff Thetelly
Dismal Hobart city centre - old and tired - like the 10 to 20 years plus aldermen. HCC aldermen sit back and expect traders to lead the way and make any improvements. Read more, Comment here
Curse of the pokies
Background, James Boyce on pokies: Here
Damien Brown Mercury
GAMBLING in Tasmania is not a substantial contributor to economic or jobs growth, a major study has found. And it said there was a link between serious crime and substance abuse and problem gambling. The long-awaited Social and Economic Impact Study into Gambling in Tasmania was made public yesterday. The report found claims the gambling industry significantly contributed to economic growth was not substantiated. It also found there was no real evidence the introduction of gaming machines had a positive impact on employment or tourism. Pokies: new study rejects benefits
No to bizarre sculptures and travel jollies
Honest Broker
Aldermen might like to ask themselves how they can consider an unwanted sculpture when the drains in Sandy Bay and elsewhere discharge rubbish, oil and worse into the Derwent every time it rains? How do they justify going on expensive overseas jaunts when the day-to-day business of maintaining this city are so obviously and shamefully behind schedule? Hobart was, only a few years ago an exemplary city in its cleanliness. Today it fails to meet the standards of even third world cities - it just takes a walk around this city in almost any area to see the neglect, the graffiti, the rubbish and the crumbling of the infrastructure. And then we are told that rates must increase: at the same time services decrease.
The message is clear. Bizarre sculptures and travel jollies are not what this city needs. These are far distant, second priorities to providing the basics. We can all live without detriment to our lifestyle in the absence of quirky public sculptures: we can’t live in safety, and we certainly can’t live with pride, in a city where the basics are so shamefully neglected. Read more, Comment here
July 22 2008
Rating the leaders
Nostradamus Help! Someone’s stolen my thunder
The challenge that I would put before our three young political leaders is quite simple. It rests on a belief that governments govern in the interest of the governed. Not vested interests, shadowy figures in the business community, nor farmers or a particular class but all Tasmanians. Therefore it should be axiomatic that before we export water or any other commodity, the welfare of the Tasmanian population comes first. And bugger those who believe, like a certain former Victorian Premier: “If you see a tree (or trees) cut them down and sell them. Then you have an open space and you can build on it.” The last thing we need in this state is an obsolete 20th-century philosophy. I have said many times that Tasmania is one of the finest places in the world in which to live. It is up to government and opposition alike to ensure that this continues.
Read more here …
Pulp and paper emerge …
Tim Boreham Australian
Gunns, meanwhile, stands to benefit from record prices for eucalyptus pulp, up about one-third (in $US terms) over the past year. But Gunns’ main driver, of course, is whether its contentious $2 billion pulp mill will ever inhabit the Tamar Valley. Read more here
Meanwhile, the Share Price: Here
July 21 2008
Ethics and the Picture of Dorian Gray
Henry Melville
THIS REVIEW into ethical conduct - in my opinion - is the single most important endeavour that Tasmania has undertaken in the past half a century. It forms the basis for public confidence in democracy and Open Government.
Read more here …
Your list of HCC neglect
Honest Broker
On top of all of this, there is now the proposed idiocy of erecting a $300,000 item of dubious artwork at Blinking Billy Point. How about a competition among Hobart based readers of TT? Send in your lists of work that should have been done by the HCC in your area but has not been addressed: there should be no shortage of roads that have required repair for years, broken footpaths, graffiti that should have been cleaned up months ago, footpaths at intersections that do not have wheelchair ramps instead of step curbs, potholes everywhere...it goes on and on. How can a responsible council propose unnecessary artwork at a cost of hundreds of thousands of dollars and spent tens of thousands on aldermanic jaunts while all this is outstanding? The answer seems quite clear: the HCC is not a responsible council. Come on TT readers from Hobart: post your lists of HCC neglect! … Here
State growth fears
Hag
Note the language: Treasurer Aird - fundamentalist pulp mill backer and great Rough Red mate - is subtly shifting ground. Or is the ground moving from under him?
But Treasurer Michael Aird said the uncertainty did not pose a threat to Tasmania’s future prosperity. “While the pulp mill will have significant impact on economic growth, the Tasmanian economy is not a one-trick pony,” he said. Read more here
Tasmanian Water: Where To From Here?
Background: The story, first revealed on TT, elsewhere: Here
Peter Henning
It is why, at a time when official reports show that poor quality drinking water is now the norm in a significant number of Tasmanian towns, notably in the north-east, the Huon Valley, the Fingal Valley, the Meander Valley and elsewhere, such as Lilydale, Poatina, Gretna and Flinders Island, the notion that large volumes of pristine water, unavailable to the Tasmanian public, would be piped across Bass Strait, is likely to be greeted with public incredulity, derision and cynicism. In a water policy vacuum, the black humour of Tasmanian towns on permanent boil water alerts while 350 gigalitres flows from Turners Beach to Victoria, is likely to resonate with even the most apathetic of Tasmanians, that broad section of the Launceston community who sit idly by as their own long-term water supply is gradually but increasingly contaminated, and as Gunns tries to negotiate an agreement with Tamar Valley farmers that will see at least 26 gigalitres pumped from Launceston’s main water storage for a pulp mill.
Read more here …
Permitted
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Lukas
Milne 1, Rudd 0
Mike Bolan Update, of Why not just reduce emissions?
The entire climate situation is far too complex to be corrected with a new tax and if I’m close to right about affordability, he’ll alienate many of his own voters very quickly with needless blows to their’ hip pockets. My analysis confirms that Christine Milne is absolutely correct to call for action now rather than vacillating about administrative schemes (5). We need decisive leadership not pusillanimous managerialism.
Read more here …
HCC: Party to a holey mess
Margot Giblin
This weekend there was a party in L’Aquila, Italy to celebrate 10 years of sisterhood with Hobart, but Rob wasn’t there. Councilors Jeff Briscoe and Ron Christie toughed that one out for their ratepayers. The workload was lightened by the presence of one Council officer. At last week’s open Council meeting Ruzicka, in the Chair, had to tell a group in the public gallery that the item of concern to them couldn’t be debated for lack of a quorum. Before they left she advised them that this situation may still hold at the next open meeting on Monday 28 July. TT later asked what she had meant by this. Ruzicka said there could still be a lot of ‘to-ing and fro-ing’ going on. So it might be a while before we get Rob’s views on the city’s future, delivered, no doubt, with the docks in question behind him. The Myer hole in the ground would be a more relevant backdrop.
Read more here …
You can’t take it with you
Mark
Mill: When will they have the guts…
Councillor Karl Stevens
We now have the ridiculous situation were one property is receiving compensation at 30% above market value, while the property next door has entered the twilight zone of the pulp mill shell game. The driver of these events was Gunns and the arbitrary deadline they had set on securing the easements. Were they really hoping this deal just slipped under the radar? When will anyone have the guts to inform the ratepayers of what’s really happened to their land?
Read more here …
Should we be told?
The Mercury Editorial, July 15, 2008: Snakes and ladders
OUR difficult decision last week not to publish a table of the best and worst Tasmanian schools was based on one over-riding concern - our children.
Read more here …
Bob and the Franklin
Bob Brown at the Franklin celebration
Mass Media’s Global Monopoly and the Legal Freedom to Lie
EconoSpeak
After the Second World War the mass media in Europe, America and Australia developed into monopolies. Generally speaking radio and television in Europe became state services and subject to heavy censorship. In the United States a few giant news services and networks emerged. Read more here
We need inspiring leadership
Christine Milne SMH
Instead we have a Government and Opposition who are both paralysed with fear - fear of what they think will be the short-term political consequences of taking bold action. Nothing expresses this fearful, defeatist attitude better than the fact that the Government’s green paper was entirely focused on compensating anyone who demanded it (and many who didn’t).
Read more here …
Investigate Cardinal Pell
Giles Hugo
SURELY the NSW Police Commissioner must now start an investigation of Cardinal Pell under the new laws relating to causing annoyance or inconvenience to the thousands of young pilgrims expected in Sydney for Catholic World Youth Day.
Read more here …
The missing link in the Garnaut report
Geoff Russell, Peter Singer and Barry Brook July 10, 2008
The real climate change culprit is methane gas from cows and sheep. Read more here
Carbon: the real culprit
David Leigh
I have to admit though, industry was targeted and the article showed various factories belching smoke. That is such a cliché, especially when thinking Tasmanians know that forest practices are responsible for more emissions than most other industries. Does he not realise that clear felling, burning off forest waste and chipping our precious forests emits up to 30% of carbon emissions and that a log-fired power station, to provide energy for this obnoxious pulp mill, will override any carbon credits.
Read more here …
The limits to growth
Jon Nevill
Our human population is already pushing against the limits of Planet Earth, our home. We need politicians, and other community leaders, clever enough, wise enough, and brave enough to start talking about a “sustainable retreat” rather than sustainable development. As citizens of Planet Earth, we need to retreat from continued global population growth, and continued growth in our use of the planet’s resources. If we are at all concerned about global equity or the biodiversity crisis, we need to retreat from the expectation of continued improvement in our material standard of living.
This huge problem highlights an immediate issue: the democratic governance model, used around the world, accentuates short term decision-making. Politicians wish to be re-elected every three or four years, and if one side adopts painful measures to protect the planet, the other side will appeal to the public’s short term and immediate concerns.
We must re-examine our democratic model, and do it urgently. The future of our planet depends on it.
Read more here …
Online dissidents
Asher Moses Australian
An Australian living in East Africa has brought new meaning to the phrase “keeping the bastards honest”. In the past year-and-a-half, Julian Assange and his band of online dissidents have helped swing the Kenyan presidential election, embarrassed the US Government and sparked international scandal.
Read more here
Breaking cotton
Alison Rehn Daily Telegraph
THE cotton industry has “passed its use-by-date” and the rice industry has to prove its worth, say two politicians hell-bent on saving the Murray. Read more here
Startling figures lead to search forum
Julian Punch MR
Young Tasmanian gay and bisexual men are two and a half times more likely to seriously consider suicide than their heterosexual peers.
Read more here …
A concerned Kiwi
Dunbar Sloane Jnr.
This harks back to the short-term mentality last witnessed in New Zealand in the 1950’s, where swathes of forests were felled for short-term financial gain. Those areas are now a loss to future generations, erosion prone and marginal farmland at best.
Read more here …
