FT a millstone around Tasmania’s neck. The Green crisis mission
Dr Gordon Bradbury, Senator Christine Milne, Lara Giddings, Nick McKim, Vica Bayley MRs
04.02.12 5:22 am
• Dr Gordon Bradbury in Comments: One of the interesting aspects here is that Vicforests has 130 staff to manage their forests and harvest 1.7m cubic metres of material annually and still can’t make a profit. Forestry Tasmania (page 10 URS report) wants 350 staff to harvest 2.0m cubic metres annually. Why does FT need so much staff? How can it compete against the much more efficient Vicforests? Clearly these two organisations have very different business models to do the same job, neither of which works successfully. And the Tasmanian hardwood sawmillers say they are the innocent victims. Hmmm! I don’t think so. Why aren’t they calling for FT to be reformed to become more commercial? Instead they want more political support and interference. Why? This hasn’t worked for them in the past. It has only bought them time, and more community hostility. Is this what they really want?
• Christine Milne: The report also shows Forestry Tasmania lost $8.8 million and $9.2 million in the past two financial years, confirming that Forestry Tasmania is sucking millions of dollars out of the state budget which is money that could be spent on hospitals and schools. If it was a private business, Forestry Tasmania would have been in receivership years ago.
• What Lara says: URS strategic review confirms market challenges
• What Nick says: Abolish FT
• Read the report: HERE
• Vica Bayley: Crisis driven trade-missions to lock in a short-term native forest fix have been a hallmark of the government response to the industry downturn for many years. This trip would be total waste unless Minister Green takes a long-term view and explores options for plantation products that can be made from our existing plantation base.
• Bryan’s trade mission, by Davo, here
• Earlier John Lawrence analysis on Tasmanian Times:
Dr Amos, it’s just plain nonsense
All John Lawrence analysis, HERE
Tasmania’s farm sector needs investment
Jan Davis, TFGA CEO MR
04.02.12 2:10 am
Agriculture has long been the backbone of the Tasmanian economy,” the TFGA said in its submission, and that forms the context for farmers’ advice to the government for the future.
Threat to vocational education and training
Greg Brown TEA President MR
04.02.12 12:40 am
The Tasmanian Education Association has condemned the Tasmanian Skills Institute (TSI) CEO and Board for their plan to retrench 55 full time equivalent teachers.
The Assange case means we are all suspects now
John Pilger, johnpilger.com
03.02.12 5:56 am
With American courts demanding to see the worldwide accounts of Twitter, Google and Yahoo, the threat to Assange, an Australian, extends to any internet-user anywhere. Washington’s enemy is not “terrorism” but the principle of free speech and voices of conscience within its militarist state and those journalists brave enough to tell their stories.
Miranda Gibson breaks Tasmanian tree sitting record today. Broken ...
Still Wild Still Threatened MR
03.02.12 2:45 am
I am here to highlight the ongoing logging that is occuring in Tasmania’s high conservaiton value forests. This tree that I’m sitting was ear-marked for protection. Now is it due to be logged. This ongoing destruction is being driven by Ta Ann. It is great to see a new cyber action launched on Tuesday , which is demonstrating to the cusotmers of Ta Ann’s products that the community does not want to see these forests destroyed to make flooring.
• Rob Blakers’ picture-essay on the Mt Mueller forests, including pics of discarded cerlery-top pine: HERE
John Green
03.02.12 2:30 am
Michelle O’Byrne, Lara Giddings at a protest rally against PS cuts. Pic: Rob Walls: http://robertwalls.wordpress.com/
So with a little bit of courage and imagination the State Government can get itself out of the hole it has dug itself into. It is in a deep, desperate, dark, poisonous place because the popularity of the Premier is 16%, even less than Lennon. The extinction of the Labor Government is almost a certainty unless there is a change of course and Labor principles adopted and implemented.
• Alice Claridge, Mercury, Friday: Healthcare condition critical
TODAY, TOMORROW: Tasmania Over Five Generations: Return to Van Diemen’s Land?
John Biggs
03.02.12 2:07 am
Lieutenant-Governor George Arthur ‘was delighted with someone who could deliver such a thunderous declamation about the evils of alcohol ...’
“… a narrative, placed in its social and economic context, which beguiles and entraps. Why have we not learnt from the past? Why repeat avarice, stupidity and abuse of position?”
— Justice Pierre Slicer.
Tasmania’s social and political progress is seen through the eyes of five father-son generations, starting with Abraham Biggs who arrived in 1833 down the years to the author. After 40 years abroad, John Biggs returned to Tasmania to find a tapestry of Byzantine complexity, woven with the warp of government and the woof of corporate power. Abraham Biggs might well look from that distant shore, smile, nod and murmur: “Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose.”
And a discount for Tasmanian Times readers! Click the ad on the right hand side of the TT homepage for a discounted order form.
Gunns Supreme Court bid dismissed
Peter McGlone Director Tasmanian Conservation Trust Inc MRs
02.02.12 4:24 am
A Code Green protest late last year on the mill site
Today the Supreme Court of Tasmania dismissed Gunns Ltd’ s application for a stay or postponement of the case and the TCT now expects the case to proceed to trial as soon as possible.
Environment Focus for State Budget
Phill Pullinger, Peter Skillern Environment Tasmania
02.02.12 4:00 am
Weld Valley. Pic: Rob Blakers
Tasmania’s peak environment body, Environment Tasmania has called for a stronger funding model for the Parks & Wildlife service, progression of marine and coastal policies, and initiatives to support sustainable agricultural landscapes in its submission to the Tasmanian government’s 2012-13 State budget.
• Download Budget submission:
Cassy O’Connor MP Greens Environment Spokesperson
02.02.12 3:59 am
Declare a Ban on Duck Shooting! We need an end to the annual slaughter of native water fowl, which most Tasmanians agree is cruel, senseless and damaging to the environment
Ta Ann customer campaign launched. McKim. Colbeck. Bryan’s begging-bowl to Asia
Peg Putt, Markets for Change, Jenny Weber, Huon Valley Environment Centre, Ula Majewksi, The Last Stand
02.02.12 3:59 am
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Pic: Matt Newton http://www.matthewnewton.com.au
A new campaign targeting Ta Ann Tasmania and their ongoing use of Tasmanian high conservation value (HCV) forests launches today. Taan.com.au is a partnership between Markets for Change, Huon Valley Environment Centre and The Last Stand.
• See http://www.taann.com.au
• Nick McKim: Hodgman’s woodchip trade mission a waste of time
• Richard Colbeck: The forestry negotiations process has been a complete failure and this is demonstrated in a number of ways.
• ABC Online: Workers fight sawmill shutdown
• ABC Online: Bryan Green to visit woodchip buyers in Asia
• Nick McKim: The Problem is the Product, Not the Pitch
• Pilko, in Comments: Colbeck is either breathtakingly ignorant and failing to grasp this most obvious aspect of the sawmillers failing business model or being deliberately dishonest.
$900 million Korean suburb gets nod
David Killick, Mercury; Greg James
02.02.12 3:59 am
• David Killick, Mercury: Billed as an “integrated lifestyle, education, and residential development”, ParanVille will be one of the biggest residential subdivisions developed in the state and promises to give the struggling building industry a massive boost. It is expected to attract residents from Korea, China and Japan who are keen to escape harsh northern winters and the threat of nuclear accidents, its backers said yesterday
• Greg James: For those of you who think 5,000 people will come to Paranville in 1,000 houses, there is nowhere in any Tasmanian Suburbs that approaches that type of density. The average is 1.86 people per housing unit (ABS). I do believe that if Damon Thomas LM of Hobart is their adviser/consultant that he needs to have a rethink and a quick look at their web-site that like the failed Huntingfield development advertises that the Tasmanian Government will expedite visa entry. This is either false or there is a new paradigm occurring that no one but the Tasmanian Government knows about, (would this surprise anyone).
Hobart office vacancy the highest in eight years
Mary Massina, The Property Council of Australia’s Tasmanian Executive Director MR
02.02.12 3:58 am
The Property Council of Australia’s Tasmanian Executive Director, Mary Massina, says the office market and investor confidence will be further affected by the State Government examining public service job cuts.
Life Imprints: Living in a Contaminated World
Dr Alison Bleaney
02.02.12 3:55 am
The current Australian approach at the regulatory level resembles that of an ostrich, or three monkeys on a wall-deaf, blind and dumb, though this analogy unnecessarily denigrates ostriches and monkeys. I think the authors are spot on. I hope you all spread this knowledge far and wide to educate your profession, the public, and thence the politicians, that the status quo is a dumb choice for the future.
Libs still taking Big Tobacco’s blood money ... Heat on Wightman. Paul Barry analysis
Nick McKim MP Greens Leader MR
01.02.12 7:41 am
But Voters Still Denied Full Details of Party Donations “As the only state party still accepting tobacco company political donations, any credibility the Liberals might have sought on public health policy has gone up in smoke,” Mr McKim said. “British American Tobacco, Phillip Morris and the Tasmanian Liberal Party continue to be friends-with-benefits, which explains the Liberals’ reprehensible stance against a ban on tobacco company donations.”
• Nick McKim, Thursday: The Tasmanian Greens today have called for a state-based political donations scheme to be in place by the next election, in light of the millions donated to the Liberal and Labor parties in 2010-2011 by vested interests, revealed by the Australian Electoral Commission’s latest political donations figures,
Health and Community Services Union (HACSU) Acting State Secretary, Tim Jacobson
01.02.12 4:26 am
We now call on the Premier Lara Giddings to join with the Prime Minister and commit to fully funding this outcome.
Ad men rejoice but Coles shonky claims have farmers offside again
SENATOR THE HON RICHARD COLBECK Senator for Tasmania
01.02.12 4:00 am
At least this time Coles openly admit this is an advertising ploy.
HCC: Ancanthe ... and all that ...
Margot Giblin
01.02.12 2:26 am
Irritating homilies, rabbit hole pursuits, statements of the bleeding obvious, unedifying wrestling with the English language, entirely predictable grandstanding along with nasty little personal spats had combined to put this meeting well beyond the realms of efficiency or relevance by 8pm.
It was enough for this writer, who left.
Brickworks closure creates housebuilding opportunities
Greens Alderman Helen Burnet, Hobart City Council MR.
01.02.12 2:15 am
To subdivide and create a housing estate would be a good move for Kemp and Denning, and would also help stimulate the building industry, thereby creating jobs beyond the life of the brickworks.
Gunns’ Pulp Mill lifeline extended – community will protest
Anne Layton-Bennett, Friends of The Tamar Valley MR
01.02.12 2:00 am
The ANZ continues to state it will not provide funding for the pulp mill, yet the pulp mill is now all that Gunns has left. So who is telling the truth, Gunns or the ANZ? Gunns has no retail outlets. It’s sold its vineyards and hardware stores;its sawmill at Forest Enterprises Australia is up for sale, and apart from a stagnating woodchip facility in Portland Victoria, the company has no other real income.
Education: Change is easy – it’s improvement that’s difficult. Report released
Jean Walker*
01.02.12 1:58 am
Firstly I want to summarise what has happened to Tasmanian education in the last fifty years. Was there ever a better era, educationally speaking? Probably not if you look at it in a very general way, but perhaps there was for some students. As the debate has to start somewhere, let’s make it the 60s when “comprehensive” education was introduced. This was probably the most radical change in public education, with the greatest impact for the future, to occur since its inception.
• ABC Online: Premier confirms school closures
• Wednesday, Mercury: Report tips 40 schools to fail: The report will be available on the education website http://www.education.tas.gov.au under latest media releases.
Today
• Travels around Tasmania with some latte sippers • Bobby-z ... and the Miners of Potosi • MIS growers felled again • Ancanthe ... all that will be lost • Writers, artists, journalists ... how to foment a (peaceful) revolution
• Coalition to support local surf clubs • CARBON TAX A RISK FOR TOURISM OPERATORS IN TASMANIA • STAFF TO BE BRIEFED ON SKILLS INSTITUTE FINANCIAL RESTRUCTURE • AUSTRALIAN ADVOCATES WELCOME CRUCIAL U.S. VOTE FOR MARRIAGE EQUALITY • Reading Culture With Scribe publisher, Henry Rosenbloom Fullers, TONIGHT 5.30pm
• Bryan’s trade mission • Julia, you are safe with me ... and LATEST NEWSPOLL poll • Brand Tasmania • Dr Karl’s Flaccid Pill • Gunns’ new logo
Nobody with any sense takes advertising too seriously. Always check the facts for yourself rather than relying on ads.
…
• How epigenetics will transform our understanding of health and disease • Post-modern novel reveals opulence, scandal and tragedy ... • Launching Flight • Tasmania Over Five Generations: Return to Van Diemen’s Land? • Send the Love party