Issue No.1 October 2002

Wood Spits Chips
DANIELLE WOOD says Greg Barns was barking up the wrong tree when he called her a "deep Green fanatic".

The difference between Santamaria and Brown
Greg Barns has drawn political equivalences between the Groupers and the Greens, by pointing to zealotry in their leadership and fanaticism in their following. Whilst some of Barnsí observations are fair and accurate, his conclusions miss the mark, writes NATASHA CICA.

A greener shade of emerald
When the worldwide environmental movement steps outside its area of expertise, it is hard to take it seriously, writes born again Democrat GREG BARNS.

The Groupers and the Greens
What do the Greens have in common with the defunct National Civic Council? More than you might think, according to Republican Movement chief GREG BARNS.

Still waiting, Paul
The only sight sadder in Tasmania than the stuffed thylacine in the Hobart Museum is that of a desperate politician reworking the oldest trick in the island's politics.
RICHARD FLANAGAN reports

Cinderella misses the ball
A SECOND high-profile Tasmanian writer has pulled the plug on the Tasmanian Readers' and Writers' Festival, part of next year's 10 Days on the Island Festival.

Please don't forget us. We are humans
REFUGEE Activist JULIAN BURNSIDE QC on the suffering in Australia's detention centres.

Flanagan's terrible choice
RICHARD FLANAGAN tells Tasmania Pacific Prize chair Henry Reynolds why he has asked his publisher to withdraw Gould's Book of Fishfrom consideration for Australia's richest literary award.

The State we're in
TASMANIA hovers on the brink of a golden age – if the Government and its cheerleaders are to be believed.

In the forest of a night
It keeps bubbling away like a stream though an old-growth logging coup. 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.

Bob Cheek - the understory
Bob Cheek has been clearfelled – and his fledgling tilt at the mighty log-train of established foresty industry power has become but a footnote to Tasmanian political history.

Shame, shame, shame
SPEECH DELIVERED BY JOHN HOWARD
IN HOBART Sunday 4^th August 2002
at the Launch of Australia Shamed: A List of Dissenters
Written by Bob Ellis

It could be the Callithumpians
We were once accustomed to hearing people say that Tasmania has the most generous, the most just, the fairest political system in the world. And so it was. But this is not a claim that anyone makes much anymore, writes PETER HAY

Brown on Labor and the Greens
Tasmanian Green Senator Bob Brown included this subjective analysis of Tasmanian political history in a Matters of Public Interest speech to Parliament on August 29 last year. It makes fascinating reading - particularly the stated links between big business and political power in Tasmania.

Hard Truths
HILARY McPHEE, former publisher and Chair of the Australia Council, is Vice-Chancellor’s Fellow at the University of Melbourne. She recently spoke about Hard Truths at the Age Melbourne Writers’ Festival.

NOVEMBER