A joke, like some lightweight black comedy to be trivialised, two-stepped and ultimately ignored ...By JASON LOVELL"So you're prepared to drink the water on camera to prove the Carpenter's water is safe?" Andrew Probyn, ABC Journalist, press conference, 28/9/04 "Yeah, I'll drink it on camera." Steve Kons, Former National Party member, now Tasmanian Labor Environment Minister, press conference, 28/9/04 "Just want to point out that Steve Kons did not offer to drink the water, he was nudged down that path by journalists." Tim Cox, ABC Radio 7ZR, 29/9/04. "I will preface my answer [regarding Atrazine contamination of the Carpenter's drinking water] by saying that at least I wash, unlike [Greens Member Kim Booth]." Steve Kons, parliament, 29/9/04. "Its a disgrace the way the Greens have set this up as a political stunt" Steve Kons, The Mercury, 30/9/04. "I am not trivialising this matter" Steve Kons, repeatedly, 29/9 - 30/9/04 "... she discovers a cover-up involving contaminated water in a local community which is causing devastating illnesses among its residents." Part of review for the movie Erin Brockovich Ridiculous. Tasmania is on the verge of an unavoidable chemical contamination crisis and the Tasmanian Government's response is to treat the situation like a joke, like some lightweight black comedy to be trivialised, two-stepped and ultimately ignored. This Government's support for shifting forest industry externalities onto local communities is about to come home to roost but, once again, they can do nought but defend their most subsidised mates. Unfortunately for Tasmania, this time the usual cost shifting is far more serious; this time its not just economic costs, this time the potential cost is good health and future reproductive potential for all those exposed ... and any children they subsequently bear. The initial scientific identification of a possible water contamination crisis in Tasmania was made by Dr Marcus Scammell in July this year. The Tasmanian Government responded in typical fashion by attempting, successfully I believe, to discredit Scammell's report during subsequent weeks. However, it has now emerged that hazardous levels of the herbicide Simazine were found in Orford's drinking water supply at the very same time that the government was busily discrediting the first scientist to raise the issue. Instead of publicising this information, so vital for Orford residents, the government sat on the results until it finished the "job" at hand. And the Tasmanian Government, via Steve Kons as well as Premier Paul Lennon, now continues to deny that any problem exists, continues to obfuscate, fails to enforce regulation and in the end reveals that it just doesn't give a shit. Why? Because they are slavishly beholden to the economic imperatives of the forest industry, a focus that has reduced the community's role in the debate to little more than an externality sponge. Economic imperatives dictate that plantation forestry requires a host of agrochemicals to be sprayed onto plantations during their lifespan - without regular agrochemical application plantations are not financially viable. Economic imperatives dictate that aerial spraying is the cheapest and most effective option - without aerial spraying plantations are not financially viable. And economic imperatives are the reason why streamside reserves, where the best timber stands, have been removed from virtually every plantation that I've visited or seen - this government prefers to destroy the careers of people like Bill Manning rather than enforce its own Forest Practices Code, a code that requires streamside reserves be left in place to reduce erosion and ameliorate runoff from the plantation. There are about half a dozen E. nitens plantations within sight of my rural Tasmanian home on three points of the compass, while on the fourth point lies the closest plantation, upwind and hidden from sight by a small scrubby hill. This is not unusual in today's rural Tasmania - plantations are now common outside urban boundaries, especially in the higher rainfall areas. In a fashion that's also very common in rural Tasmania, I not only collect freshwater from my property, I also grow fruit, herbs and vegetables as well as raising beasts for the freezer. So myself, my neighbours and pretty much everybody that I know is now facing the nagging suspicion that regular spraying of nearby plantations may have contaminated water sources and storages, vegetable gardens and livestock. Due to Tasmanian Government intransigence and the related failure to regulate plantation establishment and maintenance, we will never know whether or how much we have been exposed. Never. Something I do know however, is that this entire saga is effectively trashing Tasmania's clean and green image ... and so it should. This state is neither clean nor green - in fact Tasmania has the highest incidence of cancer in a country, Australia, that has one of the highest incidences of cancer in the world. That's right folks - you're living in one of the most cancerous societies on earth. Now why would that be so? tasmaniantimes.com social and political commentator Jason Lovell is a former student of Herr, Kirkpatrick and Felmingham. He also works as a contractor to the Tasmanian Government and several Government Business Enterprises and lives on 20 acres in the Derwent Valley.
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