The truth ... and Mr Lennon

Paul Lennon makes a number of incorrect assertions in his letter to the public published in the Mercury today (17/9).

This is strange - the Premier has access to over $1 million per annum's worth of advice from former professional journalists and spin doctors and shouldn't be making such basic mistakes.

It seems obvious therefore that he's gilding the lily in his letter by warping and distorting the truth to suit his own bias. There's nothing unusual there, of course.

At least half a dozen of Mr Lennon's claims are contentious at best and downright dishonest at worst:

(1). Forty per cent of Tasmania's area is protected, never to be touched. (1a). Areas "protected, never to be touched" in Tasmania include the Ralph's Bay Conservation Reserve, actually declared under this RFA, which the Tasmanian Government has an "in-principle" agreement to sell to Walker Corporation for development as a canal estate. Another area "protected, never to be touched" is Cynthia Bay in the Cradle Mountain National Park. The Tasmanian Government is currently considering approving a visitor centre catering for 300 people on this site, inside a National Park that is "protected, never to be touched". In reality, there are very few areas in Tasmania that are "protected, never to be touched".

(2). John Howard's plan ... to lock up a further 390,000 hectares of Tasmanian forests would devastate thousands of families in this state if allowed to proceed.
(2a). Mr Lennon knows that the Felmingham report found 1350 job potential job losses from an end to old growth logging. The 1350 figure makes it a bit difficult for "thousands of families" to be devastated, especially given the familial concentration in the forest industry. The true figure is more like hundreds of families. Kodak in Melbourne is about to close down putting 1000 people out of work. Those people do not receive huge subsidies via inadequate royalties, publicly funded road construction and maintenance or the failure to regulate. Instead Kodak's workers, like the majority of Australians, must move with the times; digital cameras have obsoleted traditional camera technology, just as old growth logging has become obsolete in a rich 1st world country.

(3).Only 12 per cent of old growth forest is available for logging. (3a). It is a white lie to claim that only 12 per cent of old growth forest is currently available for logging, as more than 85 per cent of the original forests have already been destroyed. The more truthful statement here is that of the 12 - 13 per cent that remains, only 12 per cent is available for logging. This translates into the industry actually having had access to 87 per cent of the entire old growth resource while the community has been given 13 per cent. Is that fair?

(4). We never hear John Howard or the Greens making an issue of the logging practices in NSW and Victoria.
(4a). John Howard and the Greens don't make much noise about the logging in Victoria and NSW becasue it is miniscule by comparison to Tasmania's logging. Also Mr Lennon, I am aware of Bob Brown regularly involving himself in issues related to NSW and Victorian forests, much to my personal chagrin.

(5). Bruce Felmingham has predicted the loss of 1350 jobs if old growth logging ends. Heaven knows how many more jobs would be lost if the Howard plan was implemented.
(5a).The economist of choice, using Forestry Tasmania's own numbers, says 1350 jobs will be lost Mr Lennon. If heaven is watching then heaven knows that 1350 jobs would be lost if John Howard implements a plan to end old growth logging. Please stop trying to inflate job loss numbers, it's dishonest and only serves to heighten the fear and division in this state.

(6). John Howard personally signed the RFA in 1997 and now he wants to break it just 7 years in.
(6a). People change their minds Mr Lennon. Just like your Government which went to the last election promising to ban noxious chemicals in Tasmanian drinking water catchments, only to decide that the policy was "aspirational only" when chemical contaminations are discovered in drinking water 2 years after the election. It's best not to throw stones in the greenhouse, Mr Lennon. We won't even mention Jim Bacon's appointment of Richard Butler or the widely reported deathbed recant some months later. As I said, people change their minds. It happens, especially to bad policy.

With the Premier of Tasmania now involved in the forest industry's favoured distortion of facts, it's time for federal intervention.

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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Friday, September 17, 2004

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