What Crikey reckonsFrom the CRIKEY SEALED section4. Labor giving up in Tassie? The signs are not looking good for Labor’s Michelle O’Byrne in the northern Tasmanian marginal of Bass. Premier Paul Lennon seems to have decided the seat is as good as gone. What else can explain his government’s decision to appoint former state treasurer David Crean to the $84,000 a year job as chairman of energy company Hydro - just eight months after he resigned from parliament because of ill health, taking a $650,000 superannuation pay-out with him. Energy Minister Bryan Green says he is delighted Crean has accepted the job. Opposition leader Rene Hidding says he is stunned. “At last count, there were some 65 taxpayer funded positions which had been given to Labor loyalists,” Hidding says, “including the failed appointment of Richard Butler as Governor, former Attorney General Peter Patmore to chair of the Poppy Advisory and Control Board, failed Labor candidate for Bass Jenni Jarvis to the Tasmanian Development Board, Scott Gadd as Secretary of the Department of Tourism, Parks Heritage and the Arts… the list goes on and on.” Stunned? He should say delighted. It looks as if the Tassie Libs are set for a rare win. Don’t say they’re going to stuff it? 5. Logging woes for all parties in Tasmania The Greens still have declared what they plan to do with their preferences for Tasmania. This Libs hope they can win Bass and Braddon. And hot on the heals of the Sunday program’s devastating report on the poisoning of Tasmania comes a hand grenade from a former Tasmanian Labor forests minister. Says Andrew Lohrey: “Historically, Forestry Tasmania, and the Commission before it, have not worked in the interests of the public of Tasmania. They have always worked in the interests of the forest industries. This was clear to me as Minister for Forests in 1978 when I set up the Everett Enquiry. Now 25 years later Forestry Tasmania is working even harder on behalf of private industry to the detriment of Tasmanians. The proposed logging of the South Sister is a dramatic case in point. “This will be a state-sanctioned act of vandalism that demoralises the local community and undermines a healthy tourism and recreational industry. The South Sister is a local icon with magnificent views across North Eastern Tasmania. It forms part of a horse-shoe range of mountains around the historic township of St Marys. Part of this range is St Patrick Head, named on the 17th March, 1773 on Captain James Cook's second voyage. None of this range is safe from logging…”
There’s more on: Meanwhile, Tasmanian Liberal leader Rene Hidding petrified John Howard will interfere in the Tasmanian logging debate. Last Thursday in parliament the Premier Paul Lennon, goaded Hidding with “John Howard has cancelled his visit to Tasmania because he's about to sell us out and he wants to be as far away from here when he does.” Hidding’s only counter was a prayer. He said he "trusted Howard to do the right thing by Tasmania". Trust John Howard? Now there's an optimist. “I've told John Howard on many occasions how important the forestry industry is to Tasmania, how many people are employed in it and what the ramifications of any policy changes could be and it's understood fully,” the press reported Hidding as praying, sorry, saying. Hmmm… it might be fully understood, Rene, but with everything to gain in the mainland marginals, and nothing to lose in Tasmania, we wonder just how caring of the Tassie Libs Howard will be come decision time.
Read how The Burnie Advocate, the Tasmanian daily from deep inside conservative logging country, covered the story on Friday here. It is Crikey's view that something of a stand-off has developed between the major parties on the Tasmanian logging issue. Both Howard and Latham would prefer the other to go first so that they can then tailor a response to fit the public's reaction. Our tip is that it is more likely to be Howard than Latham. Latham already has a pretty good mortgage on mainland Green preferences and the swinging social conscience vote no matter what he does on logging, largely due to his "bring the troops home by Christmas" stand on Iraq. And try to imagine it: how many Green supporters could bring themselves to preference John Howard - jeez, they hate the man. Latham, we feel, as far as his conservation credentials go, would be quite happy with his current position and does not need to act unless a desperate Howard tries to trump him on something big like old-growth logging, the Murray or Queensland land clearing.
RAPID RESPONSE EMAIL: What do you think? Tuesday, September 28, 2004 |