Issue No.20 May 2004
Return to Iraq
Six months after their first trip to post-Saddam Iraq,
Mary Kaldor and Yahia Said return to find that trust
in the coalition has collapsed. They assess the nature
of the violence and the likelihood of overcoming it.
A catastrophe is possible but not necessary, is
the conclusion to their report, from which we publish this extract ...
OPEN DEMOCRACY, Link
Redneck theology ... ?
Following the political retirement of the Bacon/Crean team, the new look
Labor Government has made a couple of u-turns on a series of issues.
Several of these decisions have been illogical to say the least, leading to
accusations that this government is either incompetent, driven by redneck
theology or both ...
JASON LOVELL
Tasmania remains fertile ground for story-tellers, including Piers
Akerman ...
Yes, Tasmanians have lived with a legacy of lies - lies about where a
people went, how they were treated and what happened to them. Perhaps
Piers, your poorly researched tour of prejudice ...
Piers, you accuse the conservation movement of manipulation. Get it
right. Here are the figures. Tell me which is wrong ...
PHILL PARSONS
The Loss of Democracy in Tasmania ... a response, No.2: On
this point Michael Lester, I disagree ...
It's extremely unlikely that the ALP
would have formed majority government in 1998 had the system not been changed ...
It actually happens that the 25-seat
2002 result more accurately reflects
voters' wishes across the board than
the 20-9-6 massacre the 35-seat system would have produced on the same figures, but this
is actually unusual. As a general rule,
the more seats per electorate, the better the proportional accuracy ...
KEVIN BONHAM
Rodney Croome ... MP?
The answer to this question depends on your view of Tasmanian
politics. Is it irredeemably riven by tensions, resentments and
rivalries which can't be reconciled? Or is there hope for an
island-wide unity of purpose?
RODNEY CROOME
The people you see ...
As I shambled incoherently through Salamanca ...
HAG
Piers Akerman spray, Greens preferences, The Uniting Church on the
forests, and Out of Left Field ...
FOR many years, Tasmanians have lived with a legacy of lies – lies about a policy of genocide.
The genocide issue has effectively been resolved. There simply never was a policy of genocide ...
If one listens to Senator Brown alone, one might well come away with the
impression that Tasmania is down to its last tree ...
The only state industry with a negative impact on jobs was
wood and paper manufacturing in Tasmania where for every 100 jobs in this sector, 39 jobs are lost nationwide.
......"He pressed his manly thighs against her wilting loins."
LINKS
The rally at Albert Park...
Monty and Mrs Monty at Albert Park ...
LETTERS
The big lie ... asylum seekers, Iraq ...
Truth overboard ... why my son isn't in Iraq ...
VIDEO, LETTER, LINK ...
The Loss of Democracy in Tasmania ... a response, No.1
Most of those bemoaning the loss of democracy
take as fact that reducing the size of parliament
was a Liberal-Labor strategy to get rid of
the Greens and ensure that majority
government is always the outcome of an
election. This is Green spin which has been
adopted by green-leaning commentators
without question and denies the history of how it came to pass.
Moreover, it is demonstrably
wrong to say that the reduction
from a 35 member to 25 member
House
of Assembly reduced the ability
of minority parties to win seats
or that it reduced their voice in parliament.
MICHAEL LESTER
When a government starts to stifle debate by attacking
those who ask questions, it is the first sign of a government
starting to lose the plot ...
... I feel that I was bullied, vilified and subjected to a smear campaign.
The next day the State Government media office
released a statement on behalf of Mr Lennon.
It was an example of modern spin-doctoring
stretching the truth on two particular aspects ...
When a government starts to stifle debate by attacking
those who ask questions, it is the first sign of a government
starting to lose the plot. Those who publicly criticise
its decisions and direction are made to feel out of step, branded
un-Tasmanian or un-Australian ...
When a government hides behind secrecy
you cannot but feel it has something to hide
from its people and when a government business
enterprise does likewise, using exemption from freedom
of information procedures to cloak its actions, its
shareholders, the taxpayers, rightly become suspicious.
KERRY FINCH, MLC
The Loss of Democracy in Tasmania
A subtle fear in consequence has entered Tasmanian public life; it stifles dissent, it avoids truth, and it is conducive to a shocking abuse of power ...
To question or to comment is to invite the possibility of ostracism and unemployment ...
PETER HAY, LINDSAY TUFFIN, RICHARD FLANAGAN
Why we need Rodney ...
Tasmania, again, needs Rodney Croome ...
JAMES BOYCE
Of course, hurting people to make an example of them works ...
Every country can
benefit from hurting people and achieve wonders for a certain view of the national interest.
Hurting people to send a message is
remarkably efficient. Killing someone
as an example also works spectacularly ...
I am so sorry, Dr. Bonham.
I will cease listening to the
evidence-based arguments of my
scientifically trained friends and family ...
In my view the main in Paddle's
work is the Tasmanian
government pandering to a
sectoral interest leading to
an extinction ...
Letters
Broken strings ...?
Discord at the TSO ... ???
HAG
BEER, Mary and Malarski ...
Even the Greens were queuing up to send off a present to
Mary Donaldson (their colleagues in Denmark at least had the guts to call for a Danish
republic last week) and Paul Lennon and Richard Butler have shown
themselves to be nothing more than notional republicans ...
Yet how often do people expressing similar views claim that
we need an elected president "with vision" to inspire us dumb,
uncultured, insensitive schmucks out of the slough of our suburban lives ...
etc, etc ...
Letters
A land brimming with monarchs...
Is it that our law and polity are built around an absent monarch,
creating a vacuum that can't be filled? Or do we need someone to
hoist above us, to bow and scrape to, to smile knowingly about, to
quietly mock and quickly forget, all because we hate ourselves
...?
RODNEY CROOME
Bring the troops home now, Mr Howard, Christmas is too late...
Brutalising Australian soldiers by having them live side by side with
mass torturers is too big a price to pay. Even if they don’t care about what’s happening to the Iraqis,
let Latham and Howard spare a thought for the bastardisation of our troops
...
JOCELYNNE SCUTT
The X Factor ... uncovering the pulp fiction
I've interviewed people, particularly retirees,
who have moved to Tasmania from the mainland,
who find themselves facing tribunals and legal battles to prevent
the establishment of plantations, right to their boundaries. Landowners find themselves without
any rights under the law, regardless if it is a State forest or a private timber reserve ...
One glance at Forestry Tasmania's and Gunns'
figures underscores the economic imbalance of current revenue.
It is the bottom line. The national heritage of 20,000,000 Australians, plus the State's
assets and future that half a million
Tasmanians say that they want, for the sole benefit of 3,000 Gunn's shareholders ...
All of our investigation over the last two years has
led us to finding a consistent breakdown in legislative
arrangements in Tasmania and essentially,
97,000 hectares have disappeared off the state asset register and turned into freehold land ...
ERIKA FORD
Bruce, I will show you the Blue Tier ...
... when you were in the History Room you should have identified yourself as a journalist;
it was unethical of you not to do so. It would not have changed my view ...
... Clearfelling/logging is not compatable with tourism on the
Blue Tier as the Blue Tier is our icon ... our outdoor
museum, it is our water catchment, and water is more precious than gold.
... everyone has a right to put forward
their view or story even if it is not what you or I want to hear;
we all have a right to have an opinion - it is called freedom of speech ...
... The Forests belong to the people and the people have
every right to say what we think about the logging issues. Everyone has to be heard. ...
GLORIA ANDREWS
The way the world sees us ...
TASMANIA prides itself on a clean, green image.
More than 1.3 million visitors travel to Australia’s island
state each year to see its rugged landscape and indulge in its famed outdoor pursuits.
Yet the island’s idyllic, eco-friendly image has been shattered
in a bitter environmental controversy, which has caused a major political
row in Australia, and even led to calls for UK tourists to boycott Tasmania ...
THE SCOTSMAN, LINK
It's no longer a matter of good versus evil ...
The torture pictures from Abu Ghraib have destroyed George W. Bush's
hopes of projecting American power as good versus evil ...
LINK
In case you missed us ...
You may have missed us yesterday ... because our domain name provider decided to "transfer data" ...
in the process wiping us out for a day ... but we're back, more dangerous than ever ...
TASMANIAN TIMES
Is this ethical journalism?
This free kick aside, there are some serious ethical questions raised:
* the media being relied upon to leak to protest groups
* the media treating stunts as the real story
* the media being prepared to use supplied footage, shot by the protest groups,
but now also prepared to use interviews of protesters quizzing each other ...
BRUCE MONTGOMERY
PLUS
Letters ...
Der Weltgeist
I had no idea that bearded academic was Mary's dad, and despite the
evidence before my eyes it took a few minutes to sink in. It's not
every day someone you know from cardio appears on the same balcony as
the anointed heirs of the Viking kings ...
The Donaldsons have challenged this. They've brought the froth and
bubble right into my safe and perhaps slightly conceited little
world ...
RODNEY CROOME
In need of a little counselling... and what shall we call the Empire of Hacks?
Hag has been told ... and she does not believe a word of it ... then again ...
that the Lennon Government is considering re-opening Willow Court as a counselling institution for
all those poor lost souls who do not appear to be following the Holy Writ of Government lore.
If this is true - and Hag really believes it must be an absinthe dream - the institution is
going to need considerable expansion
...
And, the Liberals came to the conclusion the Government was employing enough journalists to put out its own
newspaper and radio/TV news bulletins ... So, what shall we call this Empire of Hacks?
THE HAG
We must never trade
our treasures for trinkets. To do so would be a betrayal of this island and our future ...
...
This was no better demonstrated than a week ago
today when that maestro of "whatever it takes",
Graham Richardson, flew into town with his multi-millionaire mate, Lang Walker,
and walked straight into the Premier’s office.
What a trio they must have made up there on the eleventh floor,
looking out over our harbour: Paul Lennon, Richo and the developer who says,
“To understand me, look around you.” ...
I wonder, did Lang Walker have a good look around him during his
Tasmanian visit? Does he understand what makes this place so precious to us,
a place we’ll fight to protect again and again from the forces of greed?
If he had, surely he’d recognise how toxic his project is to our
sense of place and community, and say,
"Sorry Paul, I see the error of my
Corporation’s ways in seeking to trash a Conservation Area,
and rob Tasmanians of a piece of their coastline. We’re pulling out."
CASSY O'CONNOR
What it's like ...
What it's like in Iraq ...
What it's like to be a teacher in the UK ...
Indigenous policies in Canada and Australia ... GREG BARNS
LINKS
Thank you, David Leaman
What a great resource David Leaman is for the
water users of Tasmania. It is not everyday that
one comes across a respected scientist with decades of experience who is prepared to give his time,
free of charge, to help us understand what is happening to our precious water supplies...
LETTERS
Water flows and forests
In summary, my original intention was to question the
bases for many claims presented in the media - always
hungry for apocalyptic stories - so we can have a productive
discussion about the best way to manage our forests for the benefit of Tasmanians ...
LUIS APIOLAZA
Questions for Drs Volker, Apiolaza
Given that a couple of forest scientists have been posting onto this site, I
would like to ask a few questions about the impact of plantations on
Tasmania's soil resources. I would be grateful if Doctors Apiolaza and
Volkers could answer them to the best of their ability
...
JASON LOVELL
In to bat for Malarski
The bloke in the main bar at the Globe Hotel has an opinion on Watson
and
an opinion on many other matters and we allow him to express them as he
blows the froth off a few coldies ...
NIGEL TAPP
Paradise lost ... and water
The implications of that work so shocked me
that I have worked hard since to get some changes
enacted to the Water Management Act. Or, Tasmania is not just napalmed - it is dead.
My so-called claims are therefore not shallow and
have already been scrutinised - because they are not mine.
Mr Rolley has recently invited people
with information to present it. What does one do?
He has been told twice in writing that such info exists.
Has anyone picked up a phone or written to ask to see it or talk about it? NO.
DAVID LEAMAN
Not so Mary moments...
...
What I’d like to see is the Merc doing its own costing of fares to Copenhagen,
London and back, or whatever is planned for
the Governor’s itinerary, plus likely hotel accommodation
costs, estimates of food and entertainment, etc.
I wonder what they would come up with –
surely it wouldn’t take the whole $50,000.
And if there’s anything left over do they have to give it back to Premier Paul?
Oh, by the way, I have a message for the Premier’s mouthpiece, Matthew Rogers ...
HAG, The Roving Eye
Malarski Malarkey ...
...
Indeed the cricketer's almanac Wisden
remains devoid of any references to 'celebrated Australian player, Paul
Malarski.' ...
HAG, Warren Perso
Pokies, Gunns, the Ancient Mariner ...
Cloud over pokies deal, Gunns shares sold, that albatross ...
LINKS
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
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 ...