Articles
Rosebery lead poisoning: Health heads must roll
Isla MacGregor, Tasmanian Public and Environmental Health Network MRs. ABC. Pic* First published*
18.05.13 6:30 am
Friday: Rosebery is now the seventh town in Tasmania with drinking water supplies contaminated with toxic heavy metals. Five of the seven towns have been impacted on by local mines, Whitemark’s and Ringarooma’s water was sourced from areas near where mining has occurred. The seven towns with drinking water supplies contaminated with lead are Whitemark, Pioneer, Ringarooma, Avoca, Royal George, Rosebery and Gormanston. Royal George’s water is also contaminated with arsenic and cadmium and Avoca with cadmium also. These poisoned water results from Rosebery cast serious doubts over the rigour and integrity of the EPA’s 2008-2009 investigation in Rosebery, an investigation which was highly criticised by the Toxic Heavy Metals Taskforce Tasmania. The Department of Health has allowed public health to be put at risk, by failing to act upon high levels of toxic metals in seven towns’ drinking water supplies. Tasmania must now be viewed as a Third World state with over one third of Tasmanian towns failing to provide raw drinking water that meets Australian Drinking Water Guidelines.
Saturday: Last year the Toxic Heavy Metals Taskforce Tasmania also sent the laboratory results to Cradle Mountain Water and requested that they provide all households in Rosebery with a Domestic Reverse Osmosis water filtration system as these are the only filtration systems that can remove both soluble and insoluble metals from the drinking water in Rosebery. Again no reply was received from Cradle Mountain Water. It is inexcusable that Cradle Mountain Water has taken so long to determine that lead is in the drinking water supplies in Rosebery. It is totally unacceptable that Dr Roscoe Taylor has failed to protect public health and ensure the provision of safe drinking water in Rosebery and the other 6 towns in Tasmania now known to be contaminated with lead, arsenic or cadmium. The Premier Lara Giddings should stand Dr Roscoe Taylor down from his position as Chief Public Health Officer of Tasmania, said Isla MacGregor
Politics | Local | National | State | Economy | Environment | Health | SocietyHobart tomorrow: Election issues discussion
Eyal Halamish Chief Executive Officer, OurSay. Pic: of Andrew Wilkie
18.05.13 5:32 am
Foolhardy to risk a fragile peace in forest wars
Lyndon Schneiders. Pic: of Lyndon Schneiders
17.05.13 4:30 pm
Well-known author and anti-pulp mill activist Richard Flanagan was the first to condemn. Writing in the blog, the Tasmanian Times ( here ), Flanagan rejects outright the decision by four of the five Tasmanian Green MPs and environment groups to support legislation which reconciles the protection of 500,000 hectares of old-growth and high-conservation-value forest with the provision of long-term security for a new Tasmanian timber industry based on the logging of regrowth forests and plantations and certified through Forest Stewardship Council accreditation through ongoing negotiation - not protest. For Flanagan, this is an attack on his right to dissent. His perspective is understandable given the past attempts to shut down dissent and litigate against opponents to forestry operations. … But much like France, with its ill-fated Maginot Line in 1940, Flanagan is fighting the wrong war and not dealing with the present reality. The provisions that Flanagan claims silence his voice do not do anything of the sort.
…
But at least Flanagan has lived the experience of the forest wars the hard way and has been deep in the trenches. The same can’t be said of The Australia Institute’s Denniss. Airing his views in the Australian Financial Review and The Canberra Times, Denniss has piled up a soap box so high that perhaps the lack of oxygen has affected his mental faculties. Denniss accuses the environment groups involved in the Tasmanian forest agreement process of selling out for no real outcomes. He claims we are complicit in an attack on dissent and free speech. Surely he knows he is talking rubbish. The naysayers may well be right. The agreement may fail. But there is no Plan B and misrepresenting and distorting what is on the table and what has been achieved is wrong and knowingly running misinformation campaigns to destroy the prospects for peace is culpable.
Richard Denniss on Facebook: Help, I’m under attack from some big environment groups:) Apparently I’m ‘foolhardy’ and my ‘mental faculties’ are in doubt, according to Lyndon Schnieders the head honcho at the Wilderness Society…it seems that he and Don Henry From the ACF don’t like it when people like me explain how their ‘historic forrest peace deal’ seeks to silence dissent. While they say they are proud of their deal they aren’t that proud of the bit that says that if ‘significant active protests’ are held against logging then trees that are in reserves will be stripped of their protections. They call it the ‘durability clause’, I call it blackmail…sad really. If you are members or donors of these groups please ask them to explain the need for, and operation of, these ‘durability’ clauses…you might also want to ask to see their legal advice • Richard Denniss on Tasmanian Times, here
• ABC: New future for wharf wood
• Peter Adams, in Comments: Beautifully written Barbara, #10. (Maybe you’re a ghost writer for Richard Flanagan?). I’ve been pondering on this debate for as long as everyone on TT and elsewhere. A year ago I even wrote in support of the draft TGA 2011 because I, too, wanted peace to occur in our forests and was willing to give the negotiations a fair go. However, what the Upper House did to the legislation was to destroy the legitimacy of the TGA 2011 and the negotiated agreements between the forest industry and the eNGO’s. For the eNGO’s and the four Greens in the Lower House to then accept this egregious act of political bullying and deliberate sabotage, is beyond comprehension. I just do not get it. Nothing I have read by the Wilderness Society or the Tasmanian Greens has given me any assurance that our forests will be protected. Quite the opposite.
• Leonard Colquhoun, in Comments: I’m with Barbara Mitchell’s Comment 10, and it would have got a very high grading in HSC English “Response to Issues”-type exercises (most of which focused on language and how it was used in making a case, rather than on the actual issues themselves [which, I’m sure all TT-ers would agree, is how it should be]). So, therefore I’m also (generally) with Comments 11, 12 and 13.
• Paul Blake, CPSU: The importance of the Australian Public Service
• Tony Abbott: Julia Gillard should stop telling lies to the people of Tasmania
• Andrew Ricketts, in Comments: The regional conservation organisation I represent has “long called for reform” of forestry in Tasmania. We have been working on conservation and logging issues since our inception over two decades ago and have witnessed the inexorable decline of Tasmania’s wonderful natural forests since Tasmanian export woodchipping began four decades ago. Some of our members have been campaigning against export woodchipping for all this time. Schneiders has the temerity to describe the reaction against the Tasmanian Forest Agreement (TFA) as “over the top” when long-term conservationists were actively excluded from a private deal which guarantees more of the same - clearfelling, export woodchipping, habitat destruction, scarring of the landscape and cable logging in catchment headwaters. Alliance of The Australian Greens to the Liberal position? Where? What simplistic rubbish! From the outset of the ‘peace deal’ in 2010, Senator Milne supported and encouraged an inclusive process but the ENGO signatories ignored her sage advice. The Tasmanian Greens however, chose to listen to only a sector of the conservation movement and remained deaf to all other stakeholders. Why?
• Download: 1. Environmental Defenders Office Guide to the Tasmanian Forests Agreement Law. 2. EDO Guide to Creating Reserves under the Tasmanian Forests Agreement Law
Politics | International | Local | National | State | Forestry | Gunns | Economy | Environment | Opinion | Societynews.com.au
17.05.13 2:39 pm
AUSTRALIA’S richest woman Gina Rinehart has been criticised by Prime Minister Julia Gillard for saying the nation’s economy is heading for a collapse like those seen in Europe.
Politics | National | Economy | SocietyWhat a horrible, mean, stingy country we have become
John Rozentals. *Pic: My late father, Arnold Rozentals ...
17.05.13 5:30 am
My how things have changed from the days when refugees were welcomed and treated like human beings, and what a horrible, mean, stingy country we have become under a succession of short-sighted, we’re-tougher-than-you-can-ever-be governments. Anyway, does that mean we’re back to terra nullius?
• Dr Frank Nicklason: I request that the process by which our Government commits the Nation to war be made an prominent election isssue. How young lives were committed to serve in the Iraq war is scandalous. There needs to be full accountabilty for those few involved in making such disastrous decisions. Those politicians responsible, John Howard in particular, must be brought to justice. We were lied to. There must also be legal changes to ensure that this type of tragedy can never happen again. Other countries have made the appropriate legislative changes. Julia Gillard, you desparately need votes, a commitment to tackling this critical National issue would surely give you some. And you would be right to do it, just as you are right to promote the NDIS.
• Simon Warriner, in Comments: On Thursday I rang a mate who just happened to be driving to Cowra, his home town. He was going to the funeral of his best mates son, 22, who had been killed in a workplace accident, and who left behind his young wife and their 10 week old child. Our usual jovial catch up was sombre and reflective. I wonder how we would feel if that young woman and child were forced to travel to a far away land in search of safety and a future, and the people of that land treated her like dog shit on their shoes. Leonard, your argument is so full of ...
Politics | National | Economy | PersonalABC
17.05.13 4:54 am
Opposition Leader Tony Abbott has delivered a campaign-style budget reply speech, outlining some of the cuts a Coalition government would make while pledging to keep existing compensation measures associated with the carbon tax.
Use the TT NEWS Dropdown (top nav bar) for breaking news/comment on tonight’s Budget. And, if the urge takes you, unleash in Comments ...
• Christine Milne: Abbott’s budget reply foreshadows harder, tougher life
• Christine Milne: Direct Action a Budget blackhole
• The Australia Institute: Swan leaves us confused ... and Abbott adds to the confusion: HERE and HERE
Politics | National | State | Economy | SocietyEPA’s half baked assessment farcical. Burke must recall the assessment
Scott Jordan, Campaign Coordinator, Tarkine National Coalition MR. First published Thurs May 16
17.05.13 2:31 am
So far only the Riley Creek documentation has been submitted for assessment, making the proper assessment of cumulative impacts impossible. “This is laughable and the EPA has lost all credibility as a body to assess the impacts of major projects.
• Bob Brown: Riley Creek mine. Forest deal undermined
• Paul O’Halloran: Sum of Tarkine mines is bigger than its parts
SocietyJan Davis' Tasmanian Country column today. ABC pic of Jan Davis
17.05.13 1:28 am
Public consultation on feed-in tariff
Bryan Green Deputy Premier
16.05.13 7:00 am
Energy Minister Bryan Green today released an Issues Paper for public consultation detailing new and transitional feed in tariff arrangements the Government is considering for when Tasmania’s electricity market opens to competition next year.
• Kim Booth: Greens to examine minister’s feed-in tariff proposals
• John Thirgood: A disaster for solar owners
Politics | Local | State | Economy | Environment | SocietyThe ‘blackmail provisions’ in the TFA Act
Andrew Macintosh* Pic: Daniel Haley. First published Wednesday May 15
16.05.13 6:00 am
Arguably, the TFA Act imposes a burden on the freedom of political communication for an illegitimate purpose or in a manner that is disproportionate and not compatible with representative and responsible government. This is because of the ‘blackmail provisions’ contained in the TFA Act, which seek to ensure that, if there are significant protests or opposition to the forestry sector, the Tasmanian environment (to say nothing of the national economy) will be punished by not declaring the reserves and returning the sector to its previous harvest levels. Even if the Act or specific provisions are not struck down, the TFA and the TFA Act violate the intent and spirit of the freedom of political communication.
• Christine Milne: Forest Exit questions unanswered
• Robin Halton, in Comments: Ta Ann cannot possibly expect to obtain FSC accreditation for its ply laminate product as the native forest regrowth resource it is using is not being harvested on a sustainable basis. Ask any of the forestry officers, field and planning staff as the race to cut into mainly areas where threre is prime regrowth, continues out of control. What I am saying repeats itself all over the state. The new CEO of FT too will have to deal with the aftermath of the Gunns, Rolley, Gordon and now the post TFA regime in a resource rundown mode. Unless Ta Ann pull the pin when their $50M Federal freebie runs out prior to 2027 then there wont be much economically accessible regrowth left. By 2027 the remaining resource will either be too young or most likely affected by intervening wildfires; unfortunately it’s a sorry future for production forestry. Remaining areas of good quality timber have already been subjected to the first allotment of permanent reserves.
• Ben Quin, in Comments: It appears that the majority of the Tasmanian public, the ENGO’s, the Forestry Industry and the Parliament have simply shrugged off the loss of billions of dollars of public funds provided over years to the Tasmanian Forestry industry as being of no concern. They have shrugged off the collapse of Gunns together with the collateral damage to the Tasmanian economy. More compensation for forestry is acceptable within the TFA compromise. (I don’t agree. We should have a commission of enquiry as a pre-condition of the TFA). The real test of the TFA will come with the announcement of the re-start of negotiations for the pulp mill permits. Let’s see how the durability clauses stand up then. With the history of these affairs, those who argue that this is not political blackmail of the most insidious type are fooling themselves. We are destroying trust in our fundamental social institutions. Henning, Flanagan and others understand this.
Politics | International | Local | National | State | Forestry | Gunns | Economy | Environment | Opinion | History | Legal | SocietyNew footage of cruelty to Australian livestock
Andrew Wilkie MP, Independent Member for Denison MR
16.05.13 5:30 am
Mr Wilkie said his Bill would phase out live exports in three years, as well as immediately impose mandatory stunning of Australian livestock slaughtered overseas. “The live export industry is systemically cruel, opposed by the vast majority of Australians and not in our economic interests,” Mr Wilkie said. “This latest evidence of horrific animal cruelty in Egypt demonstrates that this trade will never have appropriate animal welfare outcomes and must be stopped. “I have given formal notice of my intention to introduce the Live Animal Export (Restriction and Prohibition) Bill 2013 into Federal Parliament.
Politics | International | Local | National | State | Economy | History | Personal | SocietyPeter Henning. First published Tuesday May 14
16.05.13 5:00 am
Let the Masters of Silence claim us All! “I am not a dictator. I have only simplified democracy.” Adolf Hitler 1936
So it comes to pass that both houses of the Tasmanian parliament have given their imprimatur to an undemocratic and unrepresentative process for the last three years, and then taken the final step on the road to perdition by supporting legislation tantamount to eliminating freedom of speech. They demand silence in the same way that Gunns demanded silence, using the institutions of power and authority to do so. Gunns sued. Gunns dealt directly with the leaders of government to have their goals enshrined in special legislation. Now the politicians seek a more thorough way to ensure silence. For the moment they attack high profile critics like Flanagan with their pens. Will they turn to the law next? We shall probably see soon enough.
In a deeply ironic way the abandonment of due process and the quest for silence from critics runs through the events of 2006-7 to the events of 2009-2013 in an almost seamless way. The notion that silence is golden resonates throughout the halls of power and authority in Tasmania, across all political parties and through the vital processes used to formulate law.
• Barbara Mitchell, in Comments: Tasmanian Times is an excellent forum for dissenting opinion, but after everything was done and dusted, we saw three pro-forestry candidates elected to the all-powerful Legislative Council. The Tasmanian electorate is largely immune to the forestry debate, but those candidates will happily claim their success as a vindication of, and unquestioning support for, their ‘business as usual’ positions on forestry. People who should have known better voted for Jim Wilkinson, ‘because he’s a good bloke’, and this is the true core of the dissenters’ failure to prevail, or even make a dent in Tas Inc’s pervasive authority. Tasmanians need to understand that their elected representatives are a bunch of self-interested seat warmers, and are paid a huge salary to first, shore up their own positions, and second, capriciously jerk the voters around for their own amusement ...
• Isla MacGregor, in Comments: In his evidence to the Joint Select Committee on Ethical Conduct in Hobart in September 2008, Future Tasmania Advisory Panel member Prof Jeff Malpas said: “I think that what we have to do is find a way of getting back to real meaning that is attached to concepts such as trust and honesty and that is not just a matter of going through the motions and ticking the boxes and being willing to sign off on a piece of paper that says everything is OK.” What now does Prof Malpas say about Future Tasmania’s backing of ET’s “going through the motions and ticking the boxes” on the TFA?
Writers | Peter Henning | Politics | International | Local | National | State | Forestry | Gunns | Economy | Environment | Editor's Choice | Opinion | History | SocietyWe sentence you to Ten Days on the Island
The Hag. Pic: of Jo Duffy. First published Wednesday May 15
16.05.13 4:30 am
The stifling, dead hand of bureaucracy ... that is the reason Jo Duffy quit as Artistic Director of culture extravaganza, Ten Days on the Island ... This Hag learnt last night on the Boulevard of Broken Dreams whilst taking a little Green Fairy with culture-vulture mates.
Regulars | The Hag | Arts | Opinion | HistoryTim Morris
16.05.13 4:00 am
“The inappropriate application of the Protection of Agricultural Land Policy of continues to stymie significant development that is not incomparable with preserving the land needed for our current and future farming needs.” Tim Morris here
• Earlier on Tasmanian Times: Is this what our planning schemes are designed to do?
• PAL: Redressing the injustice
Politics | Local | State | Economy | Environment | Opinion | History | SocietyEditor. First published Tuesday May 14
16.05.13 3:59 am
Use the TT NEWS Dropdown (top nav bar) for breaking news/comment on tonight’s Budget. And, if the urge takes you, unleash in Comments ...
• Andrew Wilkie: It’s disappointing “This budget is not good for Tasmania in particular. An urgently needed enhancement of the Bass Strait Freight Equalisation Scheme has not been delivered. Some of the 165 staff being shed by CSIRO nationally will come from Tasmania. And of course there is no mention of funding for the Hobart Northern Suburbs Light Rail because the State Government couldn’t get its act together and get its submission in on time.
• Christine Milne: A Weaker, Dumber, Meaner, Australia 2013 Budget Greens Leader Senator Christine Milne said this is demonstrated by slashing funding to universities and renewable energy, failing to support single parents and the unemployed and delaying, for the second time, our commitment to increase foreign aid to 0.5 per cent of GNI until 2017. “All of this could have been avoided if Labor had the backbone to stand up to the big mining companies and abolish fossil fuel subsidies and fix the mining tax. This year the mining tax collected a shocking $200 million, down from the promised $3 billion,” Senator Milne said.
• Friends of the ABC: Budget funding increase for ABC “The concentration of Australia’s commercial media ownership into so few hands has become a danger to our democracy. Governments must do more to ensure the public broadcaster can thrive as a vital source of culture, independent information and ideas,” said Glenys Stradijot.
• CPSU: CPSU Tasmania welcomes budget announcement “Overall we are pleased that the integrity of the public service is maintained and it’s importance realised. This flies in the face of the coalition’s stated target of reducing the public sector by 20,000 jobs which would equate to 500 Tasmanian jobs disappearing,” Mr Blake said.
• Larissa Waters: Environment looses out in Budget with mining companies the big winners
• Kim Booth: Gambling research centre is no substitute for action on pokies
• Tim Morris: Federal Budget confirms: it’s all about state tax reform
• Rosalie Woodruff: Over $10 billion for big mining companies ahead of the people of Franklin
• Christine Milne: Disappointing Federal Budget Fails Tasmania
• Robin Halton, in Comments: #7 mike seabrook, dont be crazy its the last thing Hobart deserves more unsightly clutter around our waterfront, the CSIRO carpark in question doubles for public use out of hours and weekends as effectively a part time public space! The gross mass of new UTAS Marine Studies building (PW2 wharf shed) now completly overwhelms the site and spoils the general aesthetics of a project that could have allowed for improvements for open areas at the same time. What remains around the waterfront deserves to be some form of open space. Its a pity the Hobart City Council cannot establish a cooperative approach, obtain Federal funding and establish a walkway/cyclepath from the CSIRO car park around the Battery Point foreshore to Marieville Espl.
• Cosmos: Tasmanians with disability welcome funding for NDIS
Politics | Local | National | State | Economy | SocietyBig bank evicts Bill Oddie over Sarawak protest
Bill Oddie's BankWatch
15.05.13 6:00 am
Naturalist and comedian Bill Oddie has been filmed being evicted from HSBC’s London headquarters while protesting against the bank’s business ties to companies that are illegally destroying rainforests and abusing human rights in Sarawak, Malaysian Borneo. The Banker is the most self-destructive creature that has ever lived. And he may very well sow the seeds of his own extinction.
Politics | International | Local | National | State | Economy | Environment | Satire | SocietyThe Four Reports of the Climate Apocalypse?
David Hamilton
13.05.13 3:59 am
In November 2012, four reports relevant to climate change appeared within the short span of about three weeks. Alerted by brief media reports I went and found them online. Even after just reading their summaries I was alarmed. Here is my summary of them, in the order in which they appeared.
• Talk given to the Australian Youth Climate Coalition, 11/5/2013 by Dr Frank Nicklason What is is less well studied, understood, and publicised are the individual mental health effects and the implications for community health, wellbeing, and cohesion, of industrial scale landscape destruction, 24/7 mining and transport noises, and in fly in, fly out employment. In Tasmania we are familiar with broadacre landscape conversion associated to clearfelling of native forests and establishment of monoculture pulpwood tree crops on cleared forest coupes and on productive farmland. The details of the anguish of a man living at Rose’s Tiers in North East Tasmania are relevant. This German (Berlin) born man, Roelf Roos, became increasingly distressed by clearfelling forest destruction, aerial spraying of dangerous chemicals, baiting of browsing native animals with 1080, and so-called “regeneration burns”. Roelf Roos pinned his last hope on the election of Mark Latham in 2004 and the proposals that the Labor party had to restructure the Tasmanian forest industry. With the re-election of John Howard, Roos lost all hope and shot himself, within days of the election.
• Dr Frank Nicklason: Dear (Mercury) Editor Mr Walsh apparently warned of “very adverse” impacts for locals as a result of this reversal of approval. I am not sure what impacts Mr Walsh was considering. Could it be that he was worried that Singleton medical practitioners will suffer as a result of less business treating people with asthma and other health impacts of coal dust inhalation?
• The Guardian: Global carbon dioxide in atmosphere passes milestone level
• Chris Sharples, in Comments: Response to #37: So you are sure that you have dis-proven the consensus of thousands of working professional atmospheric and climate scientists who (no doubt in a concerted world-wide conspiracy) provide evidence that a global anthropogenic CO2 rise over the last two centuries is real and progressive, and moreover that average temperatures are continuing to rise as a result? Then why don’t you submit your research findings for critical review in a professional journal? Citing an unreferenced blurb on a blog simply isn’t a convincing refutation of a global consensus amongst actual professional climate scientists, I’m afraid. Maybe those historic CO2 measurements weren’t accurate or representative of average global concentrations, how do we know otherwise from your assertions? What is certain is that the popular denier claim that you repeat - that there has been no warming for 16 years - is inaccurate cherry-picking of the evidence, and is simply wrong.
• Chris Sharples earlier on Tasmanian Times: Tasmania, Tourism and the Elephant in the Room
• Jon Sumby, in Comments: Also in the news today: A comprehensive assessment of climate change research has found an overwhelming consensus among scientists that recent warming is human-induced.
Politics | International | Environment | Editor's Choice | Opinion | MediaForestry Tasmania will clearfall vital swift parrot habitat on Bruny Island
Dr Louise Crossley, Chair of Spirit of Bruny http://www.spiritofbruny.org
13.05.13 3:52 am
“It is absurd that after all the negotiations leading up to the Forest Agreement, Forestry Tasmania want to clearfell in this reserve area. Their action will place at further risk the swift parrot and 38 other threatened species that have found a refuge here.
• David Obendorf Transcript: Interpreting the Spirit of the TFA Bob Annells: ‘The spirit of the Agreement that I referred to is the very genuine attempt that we are making to try, in fact, and not use transition coupes wherever possible. That’s the spirit of what we are trying to do.’ Airlie Ward: ‘But you can give no guarantees?’ Bob Annells: ‘I can give no guarantees.’
• Gordon Bradbury, http://blackwoodgrowers.com.au/ : All this talk about Forestry Tasmania and certification, sawlogs, regrowth management, sustainability, etc, etc. is a clear indication to me of one of the main reasons why the forest industry is such a basket case. I keep saying it, but very few people seem to understand. Growing trees for wood production is a business ...
Gunna, in Comments: The Rainforest Alliance announces its intention to conduct an audit of Gunns Ltd forestry operations from 13th to 20th June 2013, as required under the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) FM Controlled Wood Standard. Download public briefing document ...
• Richard Colbeck: Labor needs a plan to stand up to green protests, not platitudes and naivety
• Senator Christine Milne: Senate motion: logging in world heritage areas
Politics | International | Local | National | State | Forestry | Economy | Environment | History | SocietyTasmanian Farmer locks the gate on miners
Isla MacGregor, Tasmanian Public and Environmental Health Network. Pic*
13.05.13 3:45 am
The farmer contacted the Tasmanian Public and Environmental Health Network (TPEHN) which recently joined the national Lock the Gate Alliance which campaigns against inappropriate mining in Australia. The mission of the Lock the Gate Alliance is to protect Australia’s natural, environmental, cultural and agricultural resources from inappropriate mining and to educate and empower all Australians to demand sustainable solutions to food and energy production.
• In Tasmania, they came, they mined, they left ... 681 times Board member of the Environment Protection Authority Louise Cherrie told the Tasmanian Minerals Conference today that each mine with the ingredients for acid drainage potentially impacts on soil, groundwater and surface water. Only one of the legacy sites, Savage River Mines, has remediation funding.
Politics | International | Local | National | State | Economy | Environment | Health | History | SocietyMinister needs to show leadership on feed-in tariffs
Jack Gilding, convenor of Save Solar Tasmania, tasmania@solarcitizens.org.au
13.05.13 3:25 am
The 10,000 solar PV owners in Tasmania have each invested thousands of dollars of their own money in their systems. These investments have been made on the assumption that the costs will be recouped over a number of years. They have usually signed Aurora’s 5 year connection agreements on the assumption that the existing 1:1 feed in tariff would remain. How will the solar industry be enabled to continue growing?
• John Thirgood: Download, the Save Our Solar submissions ...
• Kim Booth: No more political games on solar feed-in tariffs
• REneweconomy: Rooftop solar owners vs utilities – the battle begins
• SMH: Sun power advocacy lights up
Politics | Local | National | State | Economy | Environment | Opinion | History | SocietyAuction record for Geoff Dyer painting
Steven Joyce, Despard Gallery
13.05.13 3:20 am
ABC RN Encounter
13.05.13 3:15 am
May marks the 200th anniversary of the birth of the Father of Existenstialism, Soren Kierkegaard. Dr Linn Miller, lecturer in Philosophy and Aboriginal Studies at the University of Tasmania, has approached the vexed question of belonging through the prism of Kierkegaard’s thought. … What Kierkegaard means by ‘truth is subjectivity’ is that truth is being oneself, because it’s tremendously appealing in the modern age; truth is living as oneself in the world, and subjectivity is an ethical mode of being. So the ethical moment, where you come to know yourself, is where you realise that one can’t live one’s life, or one ought not to live one’s life in the light of what’s pleasurable for us, or what makes us happy, or not, or otherwise, but rather in the light of what’s right and wrong. And what’s right is - this sounds awfully circular - but what’s right is living according to your true being, who you really are.
… ‘I think we saw an increased insecurity… in the ‘90s, reaching I think pathological proportions,’ she says. ‘On the right you see the rise in Hansonism, taking refuge in a new colonial manifestation, a rejigging of the pioneer bushman legend, which of course had an enormous following. It spoke to something deep in people. But on the other hand, from the left, was this curious disavowal of their identity and their belonging as Australians, which was equally as radical, saying, ‘We don’t belong here’. And more troubling for me… a suggestion that the only way we could belong was to appropriate an Aboriginal identity.’ ‘I called upon Kierkegaard as the clinical psychologist. What is going on here? And really what I witnessed was groups of people in despair.’
• Lionel Shriver: God help us in a world infused with anger
• Dr Clive Marks: Democratic hemlock: saving earth from our animal selves
Writers | Lindsay Tuffin | Politics | National | Editor's Choice | History | Philosophy | Personal | SocietyAntarctic funding good first step but doesn’t go far enough
Christine Milne Australian Greens Leader. Pic: John Weller
13.05.13 2:55 am
The Australian Greens have welcomed Labor’s $25 million boost in research and development funding for the Antarctic, but warn that Hobart’s role as a science hub still remains uncertain. Tomorrow’s budget is expected to include $25 million over the next five years for the Antarctic Climate and Ecosystems Collaborative Research Centre. While an additional $8 million will start the process of providing a new national ice-breaker to replace the ageing supply ship Aurora Australis.
• Cassy O’Connor: Hobart to remain Hobart Antarctic hub
Politics | International | Local | National | State | Economy | Environment | History | Science | SocietyWikiLeaks Party demand federal shield laws for journalists
Cassie Findlay, Sam Castro, The WikiLeaks Party
13.05.13 2:50 am
In its first major policy declaration, the newly formed Party said current state-based shield laws were inadequate to meet current threats to press freedom. If the WLP is elected to the Senate at the forthcoming federal election in September it will move immediately to introduce a national shield law. The WLP plans to contest Senate seats in Victoria, New South Wales and Western Australia at the September 14 election with Julian Assange, the WikiLeaks founder, standing for one of the six Senate seats being contested in Victoria. “Only a uniform shield law covering the whole Commonwealth is acceptable,” said WLP spokespersons Cassie Findlay and Sam Castro.
• Andrew Wilkie on Tasmanian Times: Shield laws a victory for free speech
Politics | National | Opinion | Legal | Media | SocietyEvan Whitton. Pic: of Evan Whitton
13.05.13 2:45 am
This is the sixth extract from Our Corrupt Legal System by legal historian Evan Whitton. The book fills a gap left by law schools: it details the origins and methods of our anti-truth system and the pro-truth European system eventually reformed by Napoleon. In the public interest, the whole book can be downloaded free from netk.net.au/whittonhome.asp
Writers | Evan Whitton | Politics | History | LegalMandy Jackson-Beverly, Huffington Post. Pic: Rob Walls, http://robertwalls.wordpress.com/
13.05.13 2:30 am
The other day in one of my art classes I put on a Steely Dan CD. While the chorus of “Deacon Blues” drifted through the studio, I noticed one of my students singing along. I mentioned that I was impressed that he knew the song. He explained that it’s one of his grandma’s favorites.
Writers | Mandy Jackson-Beverly | Opinion | History | Personal | SocietyWhy the 5:1 ratio should stay in family day care
Jacqui Darbyshire, CareforKids.com.au
13.05.13 2:05 am
My name is Jacqui, I have been an educator on the Mid North Coast of New South Wales for the past 10 years. The Education and Care Services National Regulation came into force on January 1 2012 and states that family day care educators must operate with no more than four children under school age by 1 January 2014. NSW family day care currently operates with adult to child ratios of 1:5 children under school age. I feel very strongly about the decrease in ratios within family day care. How are we expected to tell our families that they can’t come back next year - that they will have to find alternative care for their child?
Education | Opinion | Legal | Media | SocietyPapuan Voices Hobart Screening - Introduced by Bob Brown
Papuan Voices
13.05.13 1:30 am
John Rozentals
13.05.13 1:20 am
I’m with Patina’s owner and winemaker, Gerald Naef, when he expresses a desire to build greater palate depth and complexity into sauvignon blanc and make a more food-friendly style.
Wine | John RozentalsCompiled by John Rozentals. Pic: APT’s Amabella ... a very relaxed way to see Europe
13.05.13 1:11 am
Travellers’ Good Buys for Week beginning May 13
• Gabi Mocatta, BBC Travel: Hip Hobart
Travel | John Rozentals
