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Tuesday, July 31, 2007
Gunns, Part 1
The Four Corners program last night was a report about the proposed Gunns pulp mill. The proposal is very controversial – as any and all forestry proposals in Tasmania are. Over the last couple of decades, forestry debates have been one of the major issues of Tasmanian politics, and so any proposal like a pulp mill was always going to be controversial.
The program was aired to coincide with the final approvals for the mill, which were due to be passed through parliament today, and it documented the whole sorry saga. Apart from the fact that any proposed mill would annoy the Greens, there has been the mess that is the approvals process. That’s the main heart of the controversy. It looks like the mill has been given an easy run around the proper approvals process, and that there is a political fix in place to make sure the mill goes ahead.
That’s the main concern for me – that the approvals process has been compromised in such a way that it looks like it was fixed. The proposal was supposed to go to the RPDC (Resources Planning and Development Commission) which is an independent body. That independence is supposed to ensure impartiality, and so inspire trust in the general community. The initial Gunns IIS (integrated impact statement) that was presented to the RPDC was sent back as being flawed. The RPDC found holes in the IIS, which was around 10,000 pages long and presented late. Holes included failing to address odour emissions, for example.
Instead of re-doing the IIS and re-presenting it to the RPDC, Gunns went to the government. This is where the political fix came in. Premier Paul Lennon has always been a supporter of Gunns, and the forestry industries. He’s a Labor premier, so supporting industry and union worker is fair enough, but he is seen as being too close to John Gay (CEO of Gunns). Gunns withdrew the pulp mill proposal from the RPDC, saying that the process was too long. Gunns said that if the project wasn’t approved by August 2007, then it would not go ahead.
Paul Lennon then announced that the parliament would pass a special bill allowing the mill to go ahead anyway, despite the fact it was no longer going to go through the regular state planning procedures. The new procedure would allow parliament to approve the project, and hired outside consultants to provide a report on the impacts of the mill. The consultants were allowed six weeks to provide this report, aiming to meet the deadline announced by Gunns. The RPDC had taken over a year to reach the stage it did – partly because of Gunns delay in providing information.
The consultants report was favourable, allowing Paul Lennon to say that it would be a good project for Tasmania. But the terms of reference for the consultants report were much tighter than those given to the RPDC, and so didn’t address all the concerns raised previously. So it is pretty much certain that the mill will be built, after the state parliament allowed it to get around the normal planning approvals.
That whole saga is a disgrace, in my opinion. Now that the planning requirements have been relaxed for this project, how can we really know that it is going to meet the world-best standards? We just have to take the word of Gunns and government that it will be so? On a project the size of this one, we shouldn’t have to take it on trust. Allowing the RPDC to complete its study would have given the proposal much greater credibility.
Gunns should have answered the RPDCs’ criticisms, rather than trying to go around it. They raised valid questions, pointed out holes in Gunns arguments, and gave a voice to community concerns. All of these issues have been side-stepped, which just allows distrust and anger to grow. Personally, I think the government was really stupid to allow this to happen.
There were always going to be political issues around the pulp mill. The Greens got their first foothold in parliament due to an earlier pulp mill proposal in the early 1990s (?). They were always going to protest the new proposal – that was a given. People are used to the Greens protesting by now, since it seems to be their main way of operating and getting attention. But the government has just given the Greens much greater credibility by the way it has handled this proposal. If the government had really wanted to address the environmental concerns, this was definitely not the way to do it. It just gives more ammunition for the Greens to work with in the future. The government should have expressed its support for a pulp mill, but also for its independent planning procedures. That way it would have been pro-industry and workers, but also could have answered the critics who say it doesn’t care about environmental issues. And it would also have looked good in standing up to big industry. But that’s just my opinion…
The mill will go ahead, and will continue to be controversial. And there are still lots of environmental questions that, in my opinion, haven’t been properly answered.
Links : The Dead Roo, 4 Corners
Monday, July 30, 2007
Pulp mills and politics...
4 Corners, on ABC, tonight had a good overview of the Gunns pulp mill debate. It's been going on for a couple of years now, and is coming up for final approval by the Tasmanian government in a few weeks. It's all very controversial. Too tired now, but will write a bit more about it later.
Here's the 4 Corners website, which has lots of information about it all.
Saturday, July 28, 2007
Brisbane days...
It's a beautiful, sunny day here in Brisbane today. It's a bit windy, but that's fine. A great day to be out and about - this the sort of weather I moved to Queensland for! It beats the freezing winters back home, that's for sure.
The Doctor is free
So - the charges against Dr Haneef have been dropped. They probably shouldn't have been brought against him in the first place, since the evidence has now turned out to be slim to non-existent. But that's what happens when politics get in the way of justice - i think it's pretty obvious that there was political interference in this case. I think that's incredibly sad, though, that the government would interfere in a case like this. I'd love to be able to trust the government to do the right thing, to let the justice system work, to uphold the law. But after seeing the way John Howard and friends have operated over the last few years I just can't believe anything they say anymore.
Anyway - the case started out well enough. Dr Haneef was linked to the terrorists in the UK, so questioning and investigating him had to be done. It would have been irresponsible not to take him in for investigation.
The investigation did drag on for a while, but that's reasonable too. Sometimes it is hard to work out what's going on, and the process was overseen by a magistrate.
It all went wrong, though, when charges were brought and Kevin Andrews canceled his visa. Canceling his visa would have been fine, if he was found guilty. But to cancel his visa just because he's been charged is crazy. At that point, politics trumped justice. That's when I started to really think that this case was more about political advantage than facts and justice. Kevin Andrews was a bit of an idiot canceling Dr Haneefs visa before he was found guilty of anything.
And now Andrews and the whole government look like a bunch of idiots. The charges have been dropped. But they haven't apologised to Dr Haneef, or reinstated his visa.
I don't think the police really need to apologise over this case. They were just doing their job, although they should probably explain why the investigation seems to have been bungled. The prosecutors should explain why charges were brought on such flimsy evidence that they had to be dropped. And if they can't offer a good explanation, then they should apologise. But the government has the most explaining to do. The decision to cancel the doctors visa seems to have been purely political. They need to explain in detail why that was done, and apologise. For conducting a trial by media, if nothing else. The way this whole situation was handled by the government was just wrong. Again, politics trumps justice.
I don't actually expect them to do this, though. They'll just keep maintaining that they have "secret evidence" that justifies canceling Dr Haneefs visa. I hate the thought that we now have a system that relies on secret evidence and suspicion for making decisions; decisions that we can't check for ourselves. The government keeps asking us to trust them, on so many things, but they've proved themselves untrustworthy time after time. And in any case, I don't think they know that the word sorry even exists.
Other links - Barista, Larvatus Prodeo, Blogocracy.
Thursday, July 26, 2007
Listening to... part 1
This has been playing on the radio for the last few weeks and has got stuck in my head. Very catchy.
"Heavyweight Champion of the World" by Reverend and the Makers.
Harry Potter
Well, I went to see the latest Harry Potter movie last night. I was impressed - this is a good movie. It's definitely the best one of the series so far.
Since I haven't actually read any of the books, I didn't know what to expect from this movie. I've managed to get all the way through the series so far without getting hold of any of the books, and that's probably not going to change. After seeing the first couple of movies, I decided that they really were just books for kids. While the movies were fun, I couldn't see any point in reading the books then. But as the series has gone on and Harry & co. are growing up, it's getting more interesting.
The story was mainly responsible for that, I think, but the acting is getting better too. The story is more complicated, darker, and more mature than the earlier ones. The kids are growing up and becoming better actors (except for the guy who plays Draco Malfoy - didn't think he was much good at all, but since he only had a few lines in this movie it wasn't a problem).
The main characters have developed quite a lot through the series, which is great. Hermione in particular has become a much more rounded character.
And Harry learnt some important lessons in this story, too. In the previous stories, it's all up to Harry to save the day. The kids are the heroes while the adults and everyone else stands around looking helpless. This time, the kids all work hard, try their best, but in the end they can't do it all on their own. They need the backup of the adults/teachers to survive and win. There's a very impressive magical battle at the climax of the movie, which shows the kids being out of their depth and lucky to survive. That's one of the things that annoyed me about the earlier stories - Harry won almost too easily. Sure, he was lucky, too, but he seemed to win just because he was Harry. This movie isn't like that. He wins not just because he's Harry, but because he has people like the Order backing him up.
He also learns more about his parents - in particular he learns that his parents aren't perfect. He's always idolised them (natural enough) but this time, when he gets to see some of Professor Snapes' memories, he learns a few things about his dad that I think shocked him a bit. That's a tough lesson for anyone to learn - that the people they idolise aren't perfect. But it does make them more human.
I think the movie was technically really good, too. All of them have been good in that respect, though. The sets, scenery, effects - I guess they've got plenty of money to spend getting it right, though, so they should be good. It certainly gives the film the right atmosphere to make the story work.
Anyway, I thought it was the best Harry Potter movie so far. Definitely worth seeing. I hope they can keep it up with the remaining movies...
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
Forest Fights
Yesterday Kevin Rudd was in Tassie (my home state, even though I live in QLD now). He was talking about forests, of course. Tasmanian politics has largely been about forest management for a long time now. Old growth logging, plantations, pulp mills, wood chipping - all have been on the agenda. It was another pulp mill proposal, back in the early 1990s (? I think ?) that gave the Greens their first entry into the Tasmanian parliament, and set up Bob Browns political career. And now Kevin Rudd has been in Tassie announcing his forest policy for the state.
I guess that makes sense. Mark Lathams' policy at the last election cost him quite a lot, and gave John Howard some wonderful photo opportunities with union members. Labors policy (see here) seems to be exactly the same as John Howards from that election. Although - I don't think that policy was ever implemented by the government? I'll have to check that out, but I think it was another non-core promise once the election was won. Anyway...
Personally, I don't like the way that Tassies forests are being managed. Turning our old growth forests into wood chips and shipping them to Japan seems almost criminal to me. I think the forests are worth much more than what we can get for them as wood chips.
Also - if the Japanese can turn these woodchips into pulp and paper and make a profit, then why can't we do it? But the whole pulp mill story is a saga in itself... some other time.
Is it a good policy? Well, it'll probably win him some votes back in northern tassie. The Greens dont like it, but that was pretty much guaranteed, no matter what he announced. So it's probably good politics.
Is it good for the forests and Tassie in general? Probably not, in the long term. I think we should have a plan to stop clear felling old growth or native forests completely. That should be the aim. Clearfelling plantations, of course, isn't a problem since they were specifically grown for that purpose. But native forests should be managed in such a way that they are not clear felled, but selectively logged for high value timbers. I don't know how practical or economic that would be, but it should be something to look into. As always - to be really informed I need to get a lot more information... oh well...
Other links to this subject.
Blogocracy, The Mercury, Tasmanian Times
More to be added later...
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
Lets start with some good news
This story is great. Its a real feel-good story, that makes me just smile when I read it.
Hope you like it.
Starting Out
So - here goes post one. I can't say there's much to write about at this point, but hey, it's got to start somewhere. It's all a bit experimental at this point.
Why "The Winding Track"? Well, mostly because the name was still free. Like everything else in life it seems that all the good names are already taken. Every other name I thought up was unavailable. Guess it's hard to be original these days. But the winding track isn't too bad. It could go anywhere...
And it all starts here...
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