Missing Mary ...
Mary, Mary
Our Merc seems quite contrary
about covering your Royal wedding show.
You may have silver bells and Tasmanian scallop shells,
but not Mercury reporters in tow!
HAG, The Roving Eye The moment David Flint made steam come out of my ears ...
I can't remember much about it because I was so angry at
his particular comments on one issue that if he did have anything of any
depth to say about law in a modern society it was blown away in the puffs
of steam coming out of my ears ...
LETTERS Populate or perish ...
We would therefore have a population of 600,000 which,
given a current labour force participation rate of approximately 60%, would
give us a workforce of 360,000. If we apply the national average unemployment
rate of 6% to this figure we would have 21,600 unemployed. This means that after
all the effort to increase our population we would have 6,600 more unemployed,
and therefore unhappy Tasmanians, than we have at the moment ...
PETER STOREY Stop and listen ...
In putting its case to Prime Minister John Howard and
Opposition Leader Mark Latham, the Byron association
says that people throughout Australia are saying the same thing about truck noise – and when it comes to Tasmania we need look no further than the noisy round-the-clock log truck operations down the Southern Outlet at Dynnyrne, a problem that
has existed for four years and there are still no signs of effective remedial action ...
ALAN CHURCHILL Paradise lost?
Finally, in my opinion we have not lost a paradise because
there was never one. Tasmania is a great place to live, with
normal people working hard to make the best of the opportunities and challenges we face.
You may call that a paradise if you wish; I just call it home
...
LUIS APIOLAZA A terrible travesty ...
It is a terrible travesty that the powers that be are doing their best to
undermine him because he expresses opinions contrary to the "party line."
What a sad indictment upon these old school union hacks that comprise the
majority of state cabinet that they lack the vision to remove their heads
from their collective arses and listen without condemnation, to consider
alternative thoughts or to embrace Flanagan as Tasmania's voice ...
WARREN PERSO, Hag James Boyce replies to Rene Hidding ...
So, Mr Hidding, when you say that the
Liberal Party is the "champion of sovereign risk", be aware of what you are really saying.
That one giant private family company, owned exclusively by the Farrell siblings,
has more rights than the Tasmanian people, who have been locked out
of their democratic right to participate in policy making on this matter since 1993 ...
Your contribution to the debate has been welcome Mr Hidding and
stands in stark contrast to the stifling of informed discussion on this matter
by the Premier who was, until recently, the Pokies Minister.
But if ripped-off public monies are to be returned and problem gamblers,
small business, and the disenfranchised Tasmanian public, be offered a
better practical alternative, you will need to do much more ...
JAMES BOYCE Richard Flanagan replies to Peter Volker ...
I never said rivers 'had dried up', Peter. That's you verballing me with your facts ...
What artists, where, and when, Peter? What you write is not fact ...
Where did I ever say those who work in the timber industry are corrupt,
Peter? I know many people in the industry and I get on well with them.
They are decent people doing their job. What I have done in the past is
report what a veteran forester, Bill Manning, said in his evidence
to a Senate committee, that forestry management had been corrupted ...
RICHARD FLANAGAN The secret state ...
I utterly endorse Richard Flanagan's views on
the political atmosphere in Tasmania. Having recently returned
to the State to live, I feel I am not being excessively paranoid
in finding I have returned to a 'Secret State'....where deals are
done behind closed doors between the government and
corporations and the hapless public are left to live with the
consequences after the deal is all sewn up. The latest attacks
on Richard Flanagan (and they are by no means the first) only strengthen my belief ...LETTERS Blind Freddie and Rene ... and Rene's eyes begin to open
... or do they? ... and the Greens' theory
And Blind Freddie could see that the biggest
political wedge to be inserted
in the sensitive rump of Tasmanian Labor is forestry ...
HAG Which rivers have dried up?
I am always amused by the statement about “monocultural”
tree plantations. What about monocultural grass paddocks, poppy fields,
vineyards, fish farms, potato fields, apple orchards, herds of dairy cows etc. etc.?
Are they any better?
PETER VOLKER Flanagan in the firing line ... the writer's response
Tasmanians ought beware; if you care about this island and stand up to those who are destroying
this island’s natural heritage for profit, if you take a position the evidence repeatedly shows is shared
by the majority of Tasmanians, this government will seek to destroy your reputation, it will seek to
intimidate you, and you will be made appear an enemy of our society.
Not since the days of Bjelke Petersen’s moonlight state, have we seen a government
of such dubious intent behave with such thuggery toward its own ...
RICHARD FLANAGAN Paradise lost ... with napalm, the article
Of course, it can be argued that in an ever more ubiquitous,
bland world the destruction of one more unique piece of our
natural world, while regrettable, is at times such as these small
change next to the horror of Madrid, or the tragedy of Iraq.
But in the lineaments of the struggle in a distant island it is possible to see a larger battle,
the same battle the world over, of that between truth and power ...
RICHARD FLANAGAN The most honest campaign Forestry ever ran
In the last few weeks the still and clear autumn weather
at my place has been ruined by Forestry's burnoffs.
The smoke from these burns is regularly inverted and sits
in the valley bottoms overnight before dispersing
the next morning. Six thousand people live in the valleys near my property ...
JASON LOVELL Like pulling the plug out of a filthy bath ...
Political strategists, picture the scene, election year 2006.
Ralphs Bay is a giant sandpit full of earthmovers and dump trucks.
The roads are chaotic. The air riven with the noise of construction.
The birds nowhere to be seen. Franklin MPs line up to face the people
as part of their four yearly performance review. Lara Giddings -
carried in to office on less than half a quota by Paul Lennon and Paula Wriedt –
shares the ballot paper with Will Hodgman and Nick McKim. Oh, for a gypsy’s crystal sphere…
CASSY O'CONNOR Paradise lost ... with napalm
I am writing this in our autumn, once Tasmania's most beautiful season.
But the china-blue skies are now nicotine scummed, as smoke from the burning of
old-growth forest floats over Hobart, an inescapable reminder that the destruction of ancient woodland - like no other in the world - is accelerating
...
RICHARD FLANAGAN, The Guardian, UK That deal with Federal Hotels ...
If anyone took the trouble to get these
minutes of this particular inquiry, they
will show that I moved motions to extend
the inquiry to acquire professional actuarial
assessments of the real value of the deal,
compared to the miserable $2 million extra
per year that the secret negotiations achieved.
I failed to convince the committee of this need ...
RENE HIDDING PLUS Rene was the only one ... LETTERS Another victim... The real New Tasmania... No luxury...
Was Shakespeare a tosser?... Magnetic and inspired... Pretending not to hear...
Tasmania's Liberals have called Rod Scott's appointment jobs for
Labor boys. The Greens are outraged that Scott's strong anti-green
editorial policies have been rewarded.
In my mind an equally grave concern is that the appointment signals
this Government's attitude to local political debate: as little as
possible. If I'm right it will be the task of all the state's social
and environmental activists to make sure the Government doesn't get
its way
...
RODNEY CROOME If you're passing by The Hope and Anchor ...
The Loss of Democracy in Tasmania ... AN INVITATION Tears ...
On a probably otherwise lovely autumn day in the North
Eastern Tasmanian Highlands, I am sitting inside, gasping
for air and try to penetrate the 150m visibility outside in the early afternoon.
The smoke haze is not only mentally depressing, it is physically debilitating.
Weather conditions compressed the enormous FT emissions into the valleys ...
ROELF ROOS, Letters Tasmania has been singled out ...
It is unacceptable to treat Tasmania with such apparent disinterest.
Judy Tierney filed regular reports to the national 7.30 Report,
bringing an important local insight and perspective to Tasmanian issues.
Since her retirement, all Tasmanian-sourced stories have
been packaged interstate by reporters a long way from the flow of events
...
THE FOURTH ESTATE Erogenous zones ... Geelong v Hobart ... Tatchell goes Green...
One
thing governments and the media are sure about is that it contains
lots of gays and lesbians. Indeed "creative class" is rapidly
becoming the latest in a long line of politically expedient
euphemisms for homosexuality ...
RODNEY CROOME Inside Falluja...
Under fire ... getting the wounded out ...
OPEN DEMOCRACY, Link The Liberal circus ...
Warren Perso's vitriolic take on the Libs ...
HAG We saved the Franklin but we lost Tasmania ...
And I did 264 film stories of Tasmania and I got angrier and angrier and angrier.
I said buy a politician, sell a politician but never be one.
Now you’ve got your job cut out for you trying to be a
voice of reason anywhere, but the Tasmanian Parliament of
those days was really a bear pit.
I said Moss there’s one
thing I would like to know. Would Hawke have stopped the Franklin
if this had been a Labor Government because as you recall Whitlam
would not stop the flooding of Lake Pedder because of the Reece
Labor Government down here. And Moss Cass said No, Hawke wouldn’t
have moved if it had been a Labor Government. So I said oh thank God.
You know my conscience is eased. There are still bits of it that sticks today.
When we went into the areas that hadn’t been logged it was the same old magic.
It really brought tears to my eyes getting down in there and looking at that
water, you know the brown water, the Peter Dombrovskis swirls on it. NORM SANDERS Premier Lennon's latest appointment ...
Tinpot mediocrity continues to abound unchecked in Tasmanian
politics as premier Lennon belligerently shapes government in his own image ... LETTERS And What the Greens reckon What the Libs reckon
The loss of control ...
We are witnessing a loss of control by government in its ability to
regulate effectively coupled with huge financial drains as bureaucrats
try to compensate by throwing more resources at their own methods ...
Our ‘health care’ system is killing around 10,000 Australians each year by accident
while huge medical bureaucracies suck money from
service delivery ... We are all in serious trouble as there is no solution in
sight and our governments cry ‘poor’
and tell our retirees that they’ll have to work until they die ...
MIKE BOLAN and PAUL WILSON Noisy, in any language...
... Consider the report of one angry resident who had a bad start to a recent
working week by counting 19 log trucks down the Outlet between 3.40am and 5.45am -
“belting along” the highway as they went through. Perhaps it was a coincidence this happened not too many days after the pro-forestry rally held in Launceston!
THE ROVING EYE The "F" word gets a workout...
Scientists query Forestry Tasmania's watery knowledge ... Nippon Paper writes to the Premier
... and Hollywood angsts over the Tasmanian devil
Excerpts, links A mates' deal: The cost of the Tasmanian
Government’s special relationship with Federal Hotels
The Parliamentary Accounts Committee Report makes painful reading. Look for yourself and see
what democracy in this state has sunk to.
If this is our elected representatives' idea of accountability, then something
has gone horribly wrong. There is no research, no analysis, no judgment, and no scrutiny. ...
However the Hansard record survives to shed significant light on the corrosion of
public policy-making processes that resulted from
the Government’s "special relationship" with a large corporation. ...
The Tasmanian Government has pulled off the worst of both worlds, a low tax return and little regulation.
None of us knows how much money has been lost, how many urgent social, health, educational issues
could have been addressed if standard government tendering guidelines had been followed.
Nor do any of us know how many human victims there have been from the proliferation of poker
machines and how much harm could have been prevented with
tough regulation, because the research has not been done ... JAMES BOYCE Richard Butler, Tasmanian hero ...
If letters to the editor are anything to go by, Bush critic and State
Governor, Richard Butler, is rapidly transforming into a Tasmanian
hero.
My take is that it's less his politics and more his style which has
popular appeal ...
RODNEY CROOME, Letters Can't see the wood for the trees
The health of Tasmania's forests is important for the state's future,
but it is important to remember that the island is home to a living,
breathing and isolated community, which is facing some extraordinary
challenges to lift itself out of widespread poverty and cultural narrowness.
An international and local focus on Tasmania's forests which ignores these other challenges and opportunities is missing
the point. Saving tall and ancient trees is worth nothing if around them exists a declining and decaying social and economic fabric ..
GREG BARNS, Guardian Online Welcome to Tasmania, Richard
Welcome to Tasmania Richard ...
a State that for some is still seen through the morning Midland mists of the 1850s
HAG The Ralphs Bay cowpat
And no matter what form this proposal takes, it will still be a cowpat. A
blight on Lauderdale and the Eastern Shore; an enclave for the very wealthy
whose 800 new homes and 400-berth marina will sit uncomfortably alongside
Lauderdale's more humble dwellings and beachside cottages
.... CASSY O'CONNOR Now Eu know
So, said Rolley, every time there was a conversation about trying to introduce
Tasmanian eucalypts into China’s market, the Chinese would look aghast ...
THE OLD BEAR Peter the Great
When will the apparatchiks in the Liberal Party realise that they are
letting the greatest chance to take power since the Franklin dam slip
through their fingers?
JASON LOVELL The meat in the sandwich
...
We can start questioning the end result of big business
controlling the distribution system. Check out the prices
at your local butcher and see how they compare. And make
sure you are comparing apples with apples. Beware
when supermarkets offer cheap meat - more often than not,
it is old tough cow beef, which these days is called “budget”.
ANNE ASHBOLT Australia’s Post-Occupation Blues
Where does this leave Australia? The
answer is far too clouded in the complexities of ending
this controversial occupation to be certain of anything ...
RICHARD HERR PLUS: THE GOVERNOR GAGGED, The Mercury BUTLER'S BARRAGE, The Mercury The Media Ball in absinthe ... The Gov at the Ball ...
What the Governor said about Saddam etc ... PLUS: But why two awards ... why couldn't they be separated. The "F"
for forestry word doesn't have anything to do with it does it, Federal????
HAG Stirring the possum
Well done, Don ... If you don't yet appreciate Australian flora, at least
you've learned the great Aussie tradition of stirring the possum!
PETER GRANT Peter sees the light
".......I'm sure all those people who know my history with Forestry
Tasmania might find the following a bit difficult to believe, but
confess I must and set the record straight...." Peter AdamsHAG Post Occupation
Blues or Furphy's Lore in Iraq
... truth is the first casualty of war and election year partisanship ...
RICHARD HERR PLUS: The Senate Position Andrew BartlettAfrica's scourge
Victoria Kakoko-Sebagereka, a stunning woman in traditional dress had more
than 600 women around the world hanging on every passionate word
.... MARGARETTA POS Destroying Tasmania’s Built Heritage through Political Correctness
The vandalism that has been visited on our beloved
Town Hall in the name of equal access for all should have
the aldermen of the Hobart City Council hanging their collective heads in shame
.... CYCLOPS I don't recognise it anymore ...
When we said goodbye to Mohammed and Mustafa last week I knew it was not
just another newspaper story. My photographer colleague and I drove away
from the interview in silence. No words were needed. We knew our nation's
leaders had failed Mohammed and shamed us all ...
JOHN BRIGGS Weld Valley ... the facts
The report is of such a standard that a first year science student would
receive a fail if it was submitted for assessment
.... PETER VOLKER Blind Freddie and Rene
And Blind Freddie could see that the biggest
political wedge to be inserted
in the sensitive rump of Tasmanian Labor is forestry
.... HAG Remarkable myrtle or just another dead old stump?
No matter where you stand in the forestry/logging/clearfell and tourism debate,
this is a story of how intense the debate can become
.... FRANK STRIE Letters, letters, letters
... The media awards, Monty, Ralphs Bay, forests, Orange Day
.... LETTERS Ban Tasmania ...
The Guardian, UK, report on a call for a ban on Tasmania ....
LINK Kudelka goes bush
Jon Kudelka watches pollies on the stump ....
KUDELKA Research Challenges “Scientific” Basis of Clearfell Forestry
The study demonstrated that logging old
growth forest in the Weld Valley significantly
alters the diversity and abundance of plants
and invertebrate animals. Poor soil structure and loss
of soil organic matter, following the clearfell-burn and sow treatment, appears to
adversely affect forest health and its ability to produce good timber
... NEIL CREMASCO Well off Centre
I’ve lamented before on the absence
of information on the progress of the Huon
Wood Centre in our media. I even once
suggested it would be a useful exercise
for the scribes to have a nice picnic day
out in the country and pay a visit there
to see what was happening. It fell on deaf ears (probably not sexy enough as an idea).
But I really would like somebody to bring me up to speed on this enterprise...
THE OLD BEAR The Tasmanian Forest Charter
...
The Forest Charter demonstrates there is a path out of the present
debate that makes sense economically, socially, and environmentally. It
shows we can have jobs and trees, and with it, a better future. All we
need is the political will to make it happen
... The Tasmanian Community Alliance Australia's Inhumane Plantation 2020 Vision
... The industry's Plantation 2020 Vision equals man's further expulsion from
'the
garden'. In an era of mass extinctions - heralding an environmental crisis
of
enormous magnitude - here in Australia wild, unmanaged stands of trees are
forbidden, lest the nation's paper economy be hurt. Change is painful for
politicians but the other option isn't worth considering
... BRENDA ROSSER Journalism it is NOT
...
I am an avid reader of, and occasional contributor to, your website. I find
it informative, entertaining and amusing, BUT JOURNALISM IT IS NOT.
You make no pretence to investigation, truth, balance, fairness or
independence. According to one's view, tasmaniantimes.com is an e-mail turnaround outlet
for the loony Left or the rabid Right, depending where on the political
spectrum you place environmentalism
... BRUCE MONTGOMERY, Letters tasmaniantimes.com is one site where
(at present) the editorial policy does allow for the kind of debate where the
truth can come out in debate over a realistic timeframe, and where the balance
and fairness can be there if enough people from different movements
want to use the forum for that purpose... What Mark Latham should do
...
Just as Beattie decided to end broad scale tree clearing in Queensland and
in the end go it alone without Howard, federal Labor should, with or without bipartisan support,
move to save the Styx
Valley and place the environment on the national agenda as a Labor issue
... CAMERON MILNER, Queensland state secretary of the ALP, The Australian Dancing on the edge of the world
...
As the speeches, relayed by public address system, rang out through the
forest, all around the birds were singing loudly as if trying to compete: a
Tasmanian thornbill took on Bob Brown, a yellow-throated honeyeater
accompanied Richard Flanagan and a grey shrike-thrush stuck up a duet with
TV gardening personality Peter Cundall
... DONALD KNOWLER Dialogue of the deaf
...
I, for one, am weary of being a bit-player
in the dialogue of the deaf ... DUNCAN KERR Protect Tasmania's ancient forests ...
The Australian Democrats are supporting
today's rally for forests, and call on the Tasmanian
Government to end export wood-chipping, stop
clear-felling in native forests and ban the use of
1080 poisons in forestry operations. Both Coalition
and the Labor Government's have
continued to refuse to act to protect our forests... ANDREW BARTLETT Thousands of letters
...
... from the Gov on the media, to waterfront development .... LETTERS What Essie told the thousands
...
As I travel this world with my work I cannot believe
that places as magical, as beautiful as the old growth
forests of Tasmania are being destroyed to make a few rich men even richer.
It is obscene, it shames us all, and it must end ... ESSIE DAVIS Thousands tell Latham: IT'S TIME
...
Thousands - estimates ranged from 7 to 15,000 -
packed out State Parliament House lawns today to hear ... LINDSAY TUFFIN
The Bulletin on the
forests, tourism or woodchips?, Alistair Cooke
... The fate of Tasmania's old-growth forests looms as the slow-burn issue
for this year's federal election ...
Now Mark Latham must choose between Tasmanian Labor votes
and Greens votes on the mainland ... The economic value of tourism in
forested areas is considerably greater than the value of logging or woodchipping .
Typically between 10 and 30 times greater ...
In Tasmania, you have your forests on wheels ... Sydney Morning Herald analysis ...
LINKS To be fair Nigel
...
Cigarettes, Whisky and Wild Wild Forests
Suitably qualified and knowledgeable
Shrill, knee-jerk dismissal
LETTERS Virtual Deputy Leader
...
Aged care and young people The Passion of the Barns Blue Tier Notes
Come to the forum
... and the festival
... and the seminar
... by the way, Tassie LETTERS Will we be masters or victims of the boom?
But we are now in the eye of a property boom. We have been
discovered and there is only a snowflake's chance in hell that we will be
forgotten again. The boom could be good - very good -
for us if we took charge and made it work for us. But will we? When a proposal comes up that is dull and lifeless
we need the courage to say no, and a legal framework to
allow that. Otherwise the developer tail will wag the Tasmanian dog. The pups will be ugly and will leave
their excreta in public places that even great wealth should not be able to buy ... DUNCAN KERR It's hard to be a hack
...
In servitude to Rupert, stroked by spin doctors and pilloried by pundits at
Tasmaniantimes and guilty as charged on all counts...
JOHN BRIGGS Jim Bacon, deep thinker?
...
Pesticides in our drinking water tanks, most of the native forest gone,
repeated collisions with log trucks (on roads never designed for the
purpose), housing now far less affordable, almost the highest rate of cancer
in the world, plantation trees in our fire breaks, the end of secure
well-paid employment, a corporate bought-out press, family farms destroyed
en-masse, wildlife systematically poisoned and landownership now dominated
by multinational corporations ... It's understandable that Mr Lester, as a former Bacon staffer, should want
to defend his erstwhile boss ...LETTERS When Polly heard Nicole
...
... just what is happening in the comrades ranks?
...
HAG Jim Bacon, deep thinker
...
Greg said to me: "Mate,
you’ve got to convince Bacon to
sell the Hydro, its Tasmania’s only chance" ...
Jim Bacon is much more than an excellent marketer; he is a deep thinker.
I believe history will judge the Bacon Government very kindly
... MICHAEL LESTER OUR Place
...
This process is not being driven by people's visions
of the future of the Cove, but capital's, and that's
not good enough. There are parts of the Cove
that have the near-status of sacred site to me, and I reject capital's presumed
prior right to impose its disrespecting hand upon those sites ...
PETE HAY Seduced by the drama ...
Jim Bacon sought to be Premier of Tasmania. It was not forced upon him.
It is the way of the world that the political leader of a state - his
views, his actions and his health - are of major public interest. He has,
or should have, fewer expectations of rights to privacy than members of the
general public ... ...
is it treachery to assume that decisions that have
always been made by the ALP parliamentary caucus
regarding cabinet positions continue to be made by caucus
or was the departing Premier suggesting that from now
all cabinet positions are
the gift of the departing leader or should that be Caesar ... THE SILVER FOX, POLLY WATCHER, Letters
Polly Watcher on the pace.... Get a job
...
Those hoping for generational change and overdue
progressive thinking in the Tasmanian Parliamentary Labor
Party would be sadly disappointed, if the attitude conveyed in an email sent to me - with
the address of the office of Labor minister Steve Kons on it -
is anything to go by ...
NEIL CREMASCO The Mercury report New Zealand's humanity
puts the Australian government to shame
...
Such a massive change to the lives of a family because of a single, simple
decision! The same transformation from despair to joy, from hopelessness to
freedom, can be provided for all the people on Nauru with a simple exercise
of political will by the Australian government ...
ANDREW BARTLETT Jim Bacon and the media debate
...
Was it right for Tasmanian media to delay publication
of the terrible news of Premier Jim Bacon's battle with lung cancer?
What you think
...
Reader opinion on the decision to delay publication ...
THE DEBATE THE LETTERS So Mac that’s a “Gotcha!”
...
Equal space ...
I support the Tasmanian media
There is no such thing, at this date of the world's history,
in America, as an independent press. You know it and I know it ...
Forests rally, March 13
Basics break the budget
Insolent sting of the undemocratic
By another name
Call for volunteers
... THE AGORA Controlling the Pack
... Journalists are herd animals. Conventional wisdom
sometimes turns on a dime, even though the basic
facts were hidden in plain view all along. Robert Kuttner, writing in American Prospect
...
LINDSAY TUFFIN Dear, dear, dear
Dear, dear, dear! It's bad enough that former Examiner senior political
writer Barry Prismall stuffed it up. Along comes Mike Lester,
former senior political reporter with The Mercury ...
My real concern is that a situation can be reached where if something is
repeated often enough, others will start to believe it must be true or have
some basis in truth ...
IAN McCAUSLAND Barry, it's bollocks ... total bollocks
While, for the moment, steering clear of the discussions on the delayed
publication in the Tasmanian media of the reports on Premier Jim Bacon's
illness and retirement, I wish to correct a claim in Barry Prismall's
letter.
Actually, I'm not correcting or even rebutting it - I'm saying Barry is
talking total bollocks.
IAN McCAUSLAND AND, ... Tell me instead that I do not see journalists too timid to think, let
alone
speak out. Tell me the main agenda here is the welfare of the people,
not
the man. Tell me I do not hear hypocrisy, hand-wringing schmaltz and
simpering sanctimony.
Is the media empowered when it is "trusted'' with b-i-g secrets, or
does
Macchiavelli hold the media to these secrets to disarm it? AND,
Tim Cox had already asked some hard questions
about the Premier's health on ABC radio some time ago.
I think the job of the media
is to ask the question not to stage-manage the answer. LETTERS Managing the news ...
It is the most awful and unwanted of news stories ... the revelation that Premier Jim Bacon is
facing a major health battle. This hugely significant story was known about
by Tasmanian news executives before it was broken in Saturday's Weekend Australian.
Is it the role of the Fourth Estate to suppress this enormously significant
information or to publish, dispassionately and irrespective of the sensitivity
of the subject? RODNEY DELTA-POST Reaction: I congratulate the
editors of the State's three daily
newspapers for showing some heart and
integrity in the coverage of the Jim Bacon story
- Barry Prismall LETTERS Stop the developers, or our beauty will be lost
...
Think Hobart waterfront ... PAUL KEATING says
Sydney's harbour and many iconic sites are up for
grabs because of the senseless pursuit of a fast buck ...
We owe Sydney a greater legacy than privileged
Lego blocks occupying the important points of Sydney
Harbour defended by archispeak and self-interest ... We should
be supporting the people who want to put a ring around the public
domain and lift the bar on the political system so people
can't touch these things without getting burnt ... Read the ABC's Editorial Charter, Mr Perso
...
Huge forest rally, Hobart, March 13 ...
Where's the money coming from? (2) ...
Don't kid yourself (2)
...
It's delusion, George
...
Forum on water ...
... THE AGORA Royal Commission ... why not? Crikey goes beserk.
The full Gay, Lennon transcripts...
In October, 2002, tasmaniantimes wrote,
It keeps bubbling away like a stream though an old-growth
logging coupe. And despite the best efforts of the spin doctors who
say the stream is still clear and fresh and beautiful it is getting
increasingly brackish, muddy and unpalatable ... It is of course the forestry debate; the debate that won't go away ... LINDSAY TUFFIN Earlier ... The Rape of Tasmania, RICHARD FLANAGAN The Manning beef, THE TRANSCRIPT The Manning Beef, GRAPHIC PICTURE EVIDENCE AND The Greens make much of the vast profits of Gunns and apparently
tawdry profits of Forestry Tasmania but I have yet to see, hear or
read what an end to logging will cost the Tasmanian economy ... LETTERS Four Corners in the forests...
Read for yourself ... THE TRANSCRIPT
PLUS, LETTERS PLUS, Earlier ... Stop the whole log exports ...
Why are we continuing to export
whole logs when our neighbours have admitted that it is no longer viable. Is
this yet another example of our forest resources being flogged off to allcomers while
the people of Tasmania are left to pick up the tab? GRAHAM GREEN Four Corners in the forests...
Bob Brown on Timber Communities Australia ...
WMDs ... Schools...
Trams ...
Trees ...
Doctor Know-It-All ... THE AGORA
PLUS, BEER! Titles fight
It could be advantageous to stop looking
at the frequently discussed dominance of
timber interests in Tasmania through the
"corruption goggles" and start exploring the Tasmanian
forestry experience in the context of overseas examples.
EDWARD GATTY The indirect proposition ...
When we are impatient to reach a goal, we deny the important role of
process, says Kay, underestimating the complexity of the system and
neglecting the value of traditional, inherited knowledge. In order to fully
prosper, we must recognise that the universe is "too complex and
unpredictable for any of us to fully understand"
... REQUIRED READING Just another gap in the wall...
The Urban Design Framework approaches the
development of our waterfront with buildings as
a priority. It assumes that developments on our waterfront
are going to attract people simply because
they exist but I suggest that this is a serious misunderstanding ...
ANNA PAFITIS EARLIER, Links to, The Fatal Flaw Imagine The Bill Neilson Park Breathing again ... The Fatal Flaw ...
The Urban Design Framework is more about proposing building sites
than it is about spaces for people and this is a fatal flaw ...
Paul Johnston EARLIER, Links to, Imagine The Bill Neilson Park Breathing again ... Why I voted No...
Mrs Dawson's lamington stall ...
Rene's visit...
Parents insulted, Yulia ... Letters Growth industry ...
The debate over forest definitions grows faster than a GM eucalypt ...
Letters
and, What's on ... Diary of a long night ...
Woke with waves of nausea. Dreamt about
Paul Lennon in shaved head, saffron robe
in a cloud of incense, chanting the calming
mantra
“40% of the State is locked up….40% of the State is locked up"
... NEIL CREMASCO Clearfelling Bacon's angst ...
Lost in the wilderness... Out in the sticks
...
MARGARETTA POS Why I resigned ...
... I love the BBC and I am resigning because I want to
protect it. I accept my part in the crisis which has befallen the
organisation. But a greater part has been played by the unbalanced judgments of Lord Hutton
...
ANDREW GILLIGAN It (still) doesn't Connect with me...
... Now that the demutualisation issue has been
put back on the agenda I feel I should further
explain why I feel so strongly that it would be so
detrimental
...
PAT SYNGE The Economist does Tassie...
It begins under the heading,
The convicts would be astonished. The island has always been burdened by its past. Under
its old name, Van Diemen's Land, it was notorious as Australia's
most violent British colony, a place where convicts were brutalised, and Aborigines hunted down
... LINKS The Great Divide...
Mr Howard's comments on Australia's public education system last week sent a
very clear message to the 70% of students attending public schools - that he
only values students whose parents can afford to pay exorbitant private
school fees
...
YULIA ONSMAN Working class traitors...
As
the global woodchip market increases its stranglehold
on the major Australian players, the flow-on effect
is that workers at the bottom of the feed chain are
suffering enormously ... The few remaining decent operators are beginning to
buckle under the pressure, and leave the industry
rather than stoop to illegal practices ... To say that this industry
is on the cusp of a crisis that may very well see it implode within
this decade is not an exaggeration from where I am sitting
...
MICHAEL COOK The True-Blue Gov...
Richard Butler is a true-blue Republican who spurns titles
...
APHRODITE DRINKWATER PLUS Butler sparks politics storm; The Butler speaks Working class heroes...
Yeah right, Mr McLean. The logging industry
in Tasmania really is a working class utopia!
...
NEIL CREMASCO Labor's naivety...
Labor’s support for the government
ASIO bill was dangerously naïve
... The least charitable reading is the Tampa debacle
still stalks Labor like Banquo’s ghost, and that its key personnel learnt
nothing from that in terms of either strategy or principle ...
NATASHA CICA More bad news ...
A national debate; Beekeepers last stand; Rising Aussie$ adds to Southwood doubts;
What the Premier told Nippon
...
LINKS The bad news just keeps coming, Jim
It is the type of adverse publicity about Tasmania that enrages the Premier
...
THE OLD BEAR The TSO is out of tune
... It includes the Mayor of Launceston - a sop
to the ridiculous parochialism of this small state. Why isn’t the Orchestra
putting Tasmanian ex-pats like Ms Watkins, who are major business
and/or cultural figures
on mainland Australia or in the Asia- Pacific region on the Board?
...
GREG BARNS A cry from the heart ... our nightmare
...
Industrial "forestry" (read clearfell/plantation industry) began to quickly
dominate the West Calder/Takone region. We began to notice planes and
helicopters a hundred plus feet in the air spraying several kilometres away
several times a year
...
BRENDA ROSSER