September, October 2004 Change it ... ... This ignores the reality of party politics, where, in the mind of the party, the sole aim is the election of candidates from that party ... ARI SHARP responds to Those preference deals DERRIDA acclaimed ... The importance of (Derrida) is that we should be cautious about certainty and about the meaning of just about anything ... Margaret Throsby talks to Paul Patton DERRIDA derided ... The late Jacques Derrida is heir to an anti-democratic tradition that harks back to Nietzsche ... GREG BARNS Derelict ... Mr. P. Lennon; in my opinion your government has been derelict in its duty of care with regard to the provision of uncontaminated drinking water to many communities ... LETTERS Those preference deals ... This election result is a horrible one and a reflection of the effectiveness of Howard's racist and divisive agenda - one based on fear and lies. Chucking blame, insults and accusations at each other is not going to change that fact ... YULIA ONSMAN Whither Rene ... Tasmanian Liberals need to ponder this fact - a newly installed leader needs a decent amount of time ... JASON LOVELL A letter to all those who may have hoped for a different election outcome And then the answer comes to me ... PETER ADAMS Waxing lyrical Even Greens need clearfelling now and then ... JENNY CRAWLEY The day they tried to turn out the lights Intriguingly, there are two political parties remaining conspicuously silent on this frightening development ... NEIL CREMASCO Paul meets the Bruvvers Bill Shorten ... said Latham had 'stitched up' Lennon. More like Lennon sat on his hands, closed his eyes and hoped for Latham to win so he could have a convenient excuse to throw his arms up in feigned desperation ... EDDIE STORACE Australia is now a damaged and divided land Mr Howard has been able to build his electoral success largely by appealing to a darker side of the Australian character in which narrowness, selfishness, and xenophobia prevail ... GREG BARNS Questions for the Greens Where have all the Green voters gone? CRIKEY A new anthem Australians all let us rejoice/ For we have tasted greed/ LETTERS Dear Dick Adams ... Good luck in your bid for re-election ... 8.2% is undefeatable. You will be returned. A cutting pre-election observation, published post-election ... LEON RUSSO Plus, LETTERS Is Harry right ... ? The lonely emptiness of disappointment ... WHAT DO YOU THINK? Is God to blame ... ? A prayer ... WHAT DO YOU THINK? A powerful Governor dies ... His soul arrives in heaven and is met by St. Peter ... PHIL CROUCH Kingmaker Wednesday night's vision of John Howard shaking hands mawkishly with assorted union types and Timber Communities Australia reps was disturbing to say the least, raising the prospect of one sector of one industry in one state as kingmaker ... JASON LOVELL My dilemma What is a forest conservationist of 43 years and a campaigner of 31 years to do? phill PARSONS Too far ... ... we went too far. TOO FAR. We just didn't know how to stop ... CHRIS SHAW The Vision... and the Wedge Despite the bad noise from apologists and scared workers, Mark Latham's forest statement was one of the bravest policy announcements I've seen, outdone only by John Howard's support for gun control during his first term as PM. ... JASON LOVELL What the hell is going on ... For the record, we stand by our report ... LETTERS Unruly kids... The crew of so-called leaders never responded and always sought to deny, blame, excuse and justify the continued acceleration ... MARK TEMBY What Crikey reckons ... Why isn't someone hitting those cowboys at Gunns to contribute to a reduction in old growth logging? CRIKEY SEALED Remember Brenda (1997)... aerial spraying ... tasmaniantimes.com published this Tasmanian's account of forestry and its spray cocktails way back in January ... A CRY FROM THE HEART It may have captured my vote ... Latham's Tasmanian Forest policy seems so courageous, in light of the entrenched, illogical views of the Tasmanian Labor (and Lib) party and the unions. Having read the document, it also seems chock full of commonsense ... LETTERS Surely this can't be true? This is wild innuendo, scuttlebutt without an ounce of credibility ... isn't it? No, it's true HAG Logjam Tasmanians have seen it all before ... GREG BARNS Latham's forests bid ... Federal Labor plays its hand ... while Premier Lennon plays to the 200 forest workers' faithful ... The Policy ... read it for yourself Letters ... What the Libs reckon ... What the Greens reckon ... What timber workers say ... RAPID RESPONSE EMAIL: What do you think? If you bounce, tuffinlindsay@hotmail.com Flagpoles ... and being up the wrong pole Is this Australia’s movement from educating the values that nurture and inspire a nation to a jingoistic use of symbols? BISHOP JOHN HARROWER The election issue neither side wants to tackle ... In short, both leaders have missed an opportunity to think laterally and recognise mental health as a national issue. GREG BARNS No investigation took place ... Well, DPIWE and Minister Kons, you've haughtily (and inaccurately) claimed that the Scammell Report lacks scientific credibility. Let's see the science behind the pathetic dimensions of your zapped up buffer zones! BRENDA ROSSER Derelict... Mr. P Lennon; in my opinion your government has been derelict in its duty of care with regard to the provision of uncontaminated drinking water to many communities. Dr Alison Bleaney, LETTERS A joke ... 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... JASON LOVELL National disrepute ... Why else would Minister Kons be so foolish and drink a glass supposedly tainted with unknown ppb of Atrazine except in an attempt to restore that confidence. Keep going men and women of Tasmania, make Gunns shareholders rich, never mind that you may suffer cancers and die. ... the damage to the Tasmanian brand can be repaired, all it requires is for the special interest regime to end, for the government to govern for all and not just their mates ... phill PARSONS Monty strikes back ... ... "the modern day equivalent of Frontline and Graham Davis as the Martin di Stasio of his day ... Another $60 haircut on a $6 head" ... LETTERS The Penguin colony ... Just 10 kilometres south a dog was running amok at Baronia Bay, tearing nine penguins to pieces - half of the River Derwent's largest colony. ... DON KNOWLER What Crikey reckons ... Labor giving up in Tassie? CRIKEY What don't we know ...? Thus we can be assured that no study will be done by this government ... phill PARSONS Dear Fellow Australians ... Greed fogs the brain, clouds the vision, impairs the intellect so that the only perceivable thing is the bottom line ... MAX SALE The poisoning of Tasmania (3)... Toxin tests under wraps ... SIMON BEVILACQUA, The Sunday Tasmanian The poisoning of Tasmania (2)... read it for yourself Tasmania: Name your poison ... SUNDAY, The Transcript The poisoning of Tasmania (1) ... Channel 9's Sunday penetrates a veil of secrecy in Tasmania to investigate the use of chemicals in the forestry industry and their effect on human health ... GRAHAM DAVIS, Sunday, 9 My trip to Hong Kong It is 4am in The Bridge and the debate is as fierce as the late summer heat in the Fragrant City ... We are in the Journalists' Agora: The Pub ... LINDSAY TUFFIN Pollies can't see the wood for the trees ... Canberra must look to solutions found elsewhere to help stop Tasmania's decline ... GREG BARNS Click here for the Auspine vision ... ... and the link on the right for The Mercury report of the Lennon response .... For the Lib and Green views hit the The Opposition link under Occasional on the main menu ... AUSPINE The Timber Jobs Scare Campaign Cup ... over the last 10 years the area of State forest logged has increased four-fold while timber manufacturing jobs have actually decreased by nearly 4000 since the 1980s. 10 years ago each 1.25 hectares logged supported one timber industry job, whereas over 5 hectares are now logged to support each job ... NEIL CREMASCO Circles within circles ... a lament We have turned another complete circle, losing in this process, what made Tasmania unique and special. We have no-one but ourselves, the public, to blame. We agreed to it, or did we? ROELF ROOS A serve for the Commentariat (1): Feints dressed up as analysis ... with an UPDATE Come on, buy some statistics from the Bureau, look at the websytes, do some in-depth with the party hacks and your own thinking... phill PARSONS A serve for the Commentariat (2): Mr Barns ... ABC 936 should cast its net a little wider when selecting forum participants in future. Opt for three political scientists next time, not just two and the congealed opinion between them ... WARREN PERSO The truth ... and Mr Lennon 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 ... JASON LOVELL Denial of justice in the Peat Moss Affair ... yet for all that, we still have not had one day in court to present our charges. Every hearing has been to defend legal manoeuvres by Government lawyers ... I’m told the Peat Moss Affair is the longest-running matter before the courts in Tasmania, perhaps in Australia. These delays are a disgrace to Australia’s system of justice and a frightening lesson for anyone, who is not a millionaire, who might dare prosecute the Government ... MIKE TATLOW A letter from Malcolm The ex-PM writes ... and there's poetry, glorious poetry ... LETTERS Tasmania Flanagan writes for the New York Times ... and on Mark Latham RICHARD FLANAGAN The Nurse I have had patients die in my arms, and then had the relatives cry on my shoulder - and this was only in my first few years out of university ... RICK PILKINGTON The sputtering FIAT ... Most commercial operators I know would run a mile from allegations that 85 per cent of their customer base, the Australian population, are "dark green extremists" ... JASON LOVELL Mr Perso, you're not in the same league as Wayne Crawford ... In your stupid letter you said you were not surprised by the talk ... Thousands of acerbic letters ... and tasmaniantimes.com returns to normal service after a brief jaunt to Hong Kong ... LETTERS The Latham ascendancy In the first week of December 2003, Australia witnessed the ascendancy of Mark Latham, MP. I chose the word ascendancy carefully in the hope of 'cutting through' the contradictory images and slogans swirling around in media discourse this week. GEOFFREY HILLS ZAPPED! tasmaniantimes.com's over-zealous firewall zapped some 25 emails yesterday ... if you were one, please send again. XXX Tasmanian politics ... ... What is to be done? MAREE ROBERTS Oils ain't oils ... Have no doubt that the race for the last of the easy energy has begun ... CHRIS SHAW My vision for Tasmania ... This is democracy at its most heartfelt ... "Ordinary bloke" Rob Newitt wants to start a new political party ... ROB NEWITT Tasmanian Media ... A big serve ... Having read the Tasmanian media over the past two weeks I have to say my fears keep being realised ... JANE PURCELL, HAG The Senate reports ... The Senate report : read it for yourself ... and hit the links on the right for the media reports THE SENATE Hotlinks... Palestine, the American Dream, the Rodent ... HOTLINKS The Fox ... a story The man stood in the field watching the clouds race by. His head bent backwards, arms hanging by his sides, his feet slightly apart; there was nothing for him but the sky and the clouds. The mongrel dog lying at his feet had long ago stopped licking them ... JENNY CRAWLEY The dismal state ... John Hayward Tasmanian justice - extinct or just threatened has very precisely set out for us the dismal state of corruption of several layers of life in Tasmania ... LETTERS Tasmanian justice - extinct or just threatened ... Many of us were startled to hear Paul Lennon invoke the term "natural justice" in defending the ex-gratia 650 grand payout to Richard Butler. After all, this is the same state where natural justice principles are trampled ... JOHN HAYWARD It's remarkable just how fast clear photographic evidence can be in the public domain when it suits and how long it can take when political pressure is applied ... A pentathlon of verbosity conducted over 6 weeks of fun and foolery ... let the Games begin ... Election letters unleashed, LETTERS How the media are failing us ... October 9 ... and political news reporting has become little more than the official account of the interminable singles tennis match between John Howard and Mark Latham ... The result is that the simplicities of the parties' sloganeering dominates the news ... MAX SUICH Mind if your mind's in the media? Media often isn't good for mental health. The world is a depressing place and the media tends to remind us of a lot of the depressing things about it. And, I am involved in politics and, let's face it having John Howard as your Prime Minister for more than 8 years would make many people depressed ... ... ANDREW BARTLETT Gutwein can. It's that simple It seems obvious (to me anyway) that the Libs now have the best potential leadership team in Gutwein and Hodgman Jnr, the best potential Treasurer in Whiteley and the best potential forests minister in Hidding. Opportunity usually knocks but once ... JASON LOVELL Accountability overboard... It is not only the traditional idea of the parliamentarian but also of the public servant that is now under serious threat ... ROBERT MANNE Foxes ... Finally, the deplorable changes obvious in our wildlife generally, in particular birds, even discounting the current Devil catastrophe, are not due to fox activity ... ROELF ROOS, Letters Same sex marriage controversy rocks on Some colleagues believe I'm trying to provoke Nicola Roxon and should lay off her for a while ... This isn't personal. It's about highlighting the inequities and injustices inherent in the same sex marriage ban, and exposing the unhealthy electoral embrace between Labor and fundamentalist churches ... RODNEY CROOME replies to Nicola Roxon Bob Brown: the interview ... I'm amazed at how the prime minister can go to church and pray that we be good and kind to each other ... But he can do such things to refugees and he can feel so happy about dividing the world into rich and poor and being part of the world that spends a trillion dollars each year on armaments, while thirty thousand kids a day die because they can't get clean water ... DAVID OWEN interviews BOB BROWN The Secret State? (3) Government, be they Governors, Premiers, Ministers, servants or agents from time to time mislead the governed. That is us. The unkind might say they lie ... JAMES CROTTY Turned inside out ... Why do people come out in their thousands to demonstrate concern for forests, Iraq, and two Australians wrongly imprisoned and mistreated by the USA, yet not for young people caught, trapped in and destroyed by a prison system that does more harm than good? ... YULIA ONSMAN Citizen-funded banditry ... Doubling the annual park fees and nearly tripling the daily rate has effectively closed off a large part of Tasmania to those who most need and benefit from access ... ROB WALLS Hobart High School and Peter Conrad ... I went to HHS (Hobart High School) in the fading days (became Hobart Matric College) with Peter Conrad and Amanda Lohrey (nee Howard), amongst many other interesting people. HHS had a habit of producing interesting people ... ELIZABETH ODWYER No wonder union membership is declining ... When oh when will those in the ALP separate their representative responsibilities from the fate of their personal political parties? ... JASON LOVELL Dear Rodney ... Nicola Roxon responds to Rodney Croome ... As a party of reform, Labor has to prioritise where to start when it comes to undoing the damage of the Howard years. Labor's priorities are on removing discrimination that affects the everyday lives of same-sex couples and giving them equivalent status to heterosexual de facto couples ... NICOLA ROXON An exercise in futility if ever there was one ... ... The principal aim is the conversion of native forests into plantations. There is only the accountant's view animals will survive. On a world scale the Tasmanian Devil inhabits this tiny corner alone. It's demise coincided with the RFA ... MARK TEMBY Ridiculous conflations of corellation with causation ... LETTERS (by the score) We are family ... Geoff Law, the trees and me At the end of the day Law delivered politics and Rolley delivered PR. One can mix, shake and stir PR and politics, one can endlessly combine the two, strange smells may fill the laboratory of the alchemist, and the odours may impact on his conscious and cause him to have visions and revelations, but the facts will not pop up in any of his pots ... ATLANT BIERI Stop the spraying ... While there are numerous points that can be raised and argued with respect to aerial spraying of plantations, the main point to remember is that a significant environmental problem is occurring resulting in impacts to aquatic life and potentially other aspects of the catchment and its inhabitants. No amount of arguing is going to solve the problem. The issue needs to be investigated and action taken as a matter of urgency. In the interests of public and ecological health cease aerial spraying until a proper investigation can be completed ... ALISON BLEANEY, MARCUS SCAMMELL, MARINE FARMERS Green wedge ... and WWF Q&A Hamilton's article poses serious and pressing questions as to the independence and underlying motivation of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), and what many feel is an excessively close relationship with the Howard government ... NEIL CREMASCO ... and ANDREW ... links The Pale Shadow of Machiavelli ... and the Governor Book ... There is considerable speculation that he was not simply the victim of his own ego. Certainly a dark cynic would see the hand of Machiavelli - tho' that association may be insulting to that clever, dark prince - in the demise of Richard Butler and Lady Butler ... HAG The crumbling facade ... ... the rise and fall of Richard Butler reveals much about the so called New Tasmania under Paul Lennon, it's unwillingness to embrace change and its contempt for outsiders ... WARREN PERSO PLUS: Letters The incumbent may not have been top of the pops as a Governor but it takes two to tango and the lack of acceptance of Butler lies with many parties, not just the incumbent ... What many fail to see is that we have failed. We have failed to embrace the opportunity of a high profile person as Governor, we have failed to express our hospitality, one expected by tourists, and most importantly we have shown again the failure of Tasmania to modernize ... And, It's time for the appointment to face the scrutiny of the peopleâs house and the Governorâs appointment to be confirmed by a three quarters majority of the lower house ... phill PARSONS It seems the Butler got the silver ... Letters by the thousand ... LETTERS Is Richard Butler a great Tasmanian ...? ... from the resignation press conference by Premier Paul Lennon, you would think so ... LINDSAY TUFFIN The Butler quits The poor bloke has even made the world pages of The Times today. Why is it that Tassie only makes the international press for tree-lopping and controversial governors? ... CRIKEY While billions are being spent trying to impose democracy on the Middle East, Tassie is busily rolling it back Worse for ordinary people is the ruling by Justice Underwood that the loser pays rule should apply to tribunals as it does to courts, despite tribunals being intended to provide justice without ruinous legal expenses ... LETTERS WWF ... and the vanishing robin ... If it wants to discover the extent of the forestry problem in Tasmania, beyond an obvious scarred landscape and the seemingly endless lines of logtucks clogging Tasmania's main and rural roads, it should go into the diminishing surviving forests and look for Tasmania's four robin species... They are all vanishing, to such an alarming extent that a researcher is conducting a survey to establish just how many are left, and how they can be saved ... ... DON KNOWLER LAST MONTH HAVE YOUR SAY