| HOW CAN TASMANIA
CARE FOR ITS FORESTS WHEN IT CAN'T EVEN CARE FOR ITS
CHILDREN? |
Tears for the little children
By ELLEN WHINNETT 25 November 2004
THE abuse of hundreds of children in state care was
so horrific it reduced Tasmanian Ombudsman Jan O'Grady
to tears yesterday......
HOBART
MERCURY...
Horror story spans 50 years
* Some boys were forced to clean out a cage full of
Tasmanian Devils, despite their terror of the animals
* Punishments including scrubbing the floor at Wybra
with a toothbrush.
* Boys who spoke out at mealtimes were handcuffed
and sometimes knocked to the floor.
* Girls and boys were subjected to sexual abuse, and
girls reported being hit with canes, broom handles,
fists and pieces of wood.
* Some girls were repeatedly raped over a prolonged
period.
* Children were "primed" before a visit
by welfare officers, and were dressed in their best
clothes and given clean bedsheets before the officer
arrived.
HOBART
MERCURY...
Evelyn recalls homes of hell
By MICHELLE PAINE 26 November 2004
EVELYN was made to clean up the blood as other young
women gave birth. When it was her turn, she was tied
up and called a sook when she asked for pain relief
after her 18-hour labour. ....... "When it was
my turn to be in the delivery room, I was doped up
and couldn't move my hands. I was tied up, my legs
were pushed up and they were forced open. "I
spent 18 hours like this. This was part of my punishment
for being pregnant." ........ Later she was sexually
abused by the rural Tasmanian family who employed
her. ....... "I think the State Government's
terrible for not having a commission of inquiry. There's
still abuse going on now," Evelyn said. "No
guts and no glory. They've got a cheek not to have
an inquiry. I lost a son because of this.".......
HOBART MERCURY...
Paul Lennon Insensitive Prick
"I fail to understand how a full and open public
enquiry actually helps the victims by forcing them
to go back through the details of a very traumatic
experience" ....[Premier] Paul Lennon, (Mercury
24 Nov 04).
TasMailbag.com...
(Have Your Say) |
|
Why plastic bags got hung out to dry
November 25, 2004
Winds of change ... campaigns to reduce the use of plastic
bags and to save old-growth forests have reached "tipping
point". ....... The most popular environmental campaign
in Australia does not focus on the melting polar ice caps,
the hole in the ozone layer or even the imminent collapse
of our inland river system under the weight of irrigation,
salinity and drought. ......... Why? When polar ice is imperilled
and water is becoming a precious commodity, why do green
bags and old-growth forests win? Small groups of activists
sporadically blockaded areas, most Tasmanians continued
to express their abhorrence of clear-felling old growth
trees through opinion polls, and public figures such as
the writer Richard Flanagan kept speaking out. Over the
past year, particularly, popular sentiment began to change.
Signs came when other industries, such as tourism, spoke
out against old-growth logging......
SYDNEY
MORNING HERALD... |
| TASMANIAN
CONTRIBUTION TO GLOBAL WARMING |
Climate change strategy:
State already suffering greenhouse effect
By DANNY ROSE - 19 November 2004
DRIER summers and a rising sea level were clear signs
in Tasmania of the worldwide greenhouse effect, says
Environment Minister Judy Jackson. Ms Jackson announced
yesterday her department was drafting a strategy to
deal with climate change, caused by rising pollution
levels in the atmosphere. She said clear proof its
impact could be seen in the weather bureau's records
of rainfall, particularly during summer. ........
Nick McKim said a recent government-backed climate-change
project did not include the impact of land clearing.
"The Government was
able to estimate the greenhouse effect of cow flatulence
but left land clearing out of the analysis to protect
the forest industry," he said.
HOBART
MERCURY...
Australia Faces Weather Blitz from
Warming-CSIRO
November 16, 2004
Australia could expect more frequent droughts, heatwaves,
rainstorms and strong winds because of greenhouse
gas-induced climate change, the country's main science
research body warned on Monday. The report, by the
federal body the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial
Research Organization, forecast a doubling of the
number of hot days above 35 degrees Celsius (95.00F)
over 25 years in Australia's most populous and productive
state, New South Wales (NSW).......
PLANET
ARK...
Greens Paint Grim Picture of Future,
Warmer World
November 19, 2004
BANGKOK - Environmentalists forecast a grim future
for planet Earth on Thursday, predicting that droughts,
heatwaves and hurricanes will become increasingly
common and more severe if global warming is allowed
to continue unchecked......
PLANET
ARK...
Melting Glaciers Threaten World Water
Supply
BANGKOK - Mountain glaciers, which act as the world's
water towers, are shrinking at ever faster rates,
threatening the livelihoods of millions of people
and the future of countless species, a scientist said
Thursday......
PLANET
ARK...
Warming In Antarctica: cause for concern
November 05, 2004
In Antarctica the ocean food chain is crashing due
to the loss of ice shelves around the Antarctic peninsula
caused by climate warming. The breakup of the Larsen
B ice shelf in 2002 has also released several glaciers,
increasing their speed eight fold, and dumping their
loads into the Weddell Sea contributing to a rising
sea level, according to new research......
MELBOURNE
INDYMEDIA...
• TASMANIAN
CONTRIBUTION TO GLOBAL WARMING... (5 March 2004) |
|
|
Out of devastation
Nieka-based Marcus Tatton creates statuary from the
debris of the forest floor after careless man with
his indiscrimating chainsaws has ripped down the trees......
By
PATSY HOLLIS @ LEATHERWOOD ONLINE... |
 |
|
| TASMANIAN STUPIDITY,
DISLOYALTY, CORRUPTION & DOGGERY |
Albanese rejects MP's attack
Friday, November 12, 2004
Labor MP Dick Adams
described Labor environment
spokesman Anthony Albanese as a 'mangy dog'.
Federal Opposition environment spokesman Anthony Albanese
has rejected suggestions that he snuck into Tasmania
this week to see old-growth forests first-hand, without
telling the State Government. Mr Albanese says he
met many people during his three-day trip to the state,
including the Resources Minister Bryan Green, the
Environment Minister Judy Jackson, the president of
the party, David O'Byrne, and state secretary David
Price. Federal Labor member
for Lyons, Dick Adams, described Mr Albanese as a
"mangy dog" for making the unannounced visit,
and describing old-growth clear felling as environmental
vandalism. Mr Albanese says Mr Adams' abuse betrays
the fact that he is not willing to debate the issues.
"It was a constructive visit and I'm pleased
that Tasmanian Government ministers and ALP officials
were much more constructive than Dick's chosen to
be," he said.
ABC
NEWS ONLINE...
Internal brawl over ALP forests policy
November 12, 2004 - 5:54PM
A federal Labor MP has labelled his party's environment
spokesman a mangy dog
for backing the ALP's electorally disastrous Tasmanian
forests policy, and wants him expelled. Labor's newly-appointed
environment spokesman Anthony Albanese said after
visiting the island's Styx Valley that the party would
stick to the key principles of its forestry policy.......
SYDNEY
MORNING HERALD...
===============
WHO'S THE REAL DOG ?
.....You have gambled the future three years of this
country's future with your stupid, selfish, and treacherous
statements. Expect to be accountable for your actions.
Start woofin' down those free cases of plonk Dick,
'cause your time as a representative of the good people
of Tasmania is coming to an end. Sadly, not from the
Liberals or the Greens as you have been so keen to
bleat about lately and forever, but from loyal supporters
you have betrayed for the likes of a few matey moneyed
contractors umbilically connected to Gunns.
"Well may we say Dick does a good job, but nothing
Dick's done has saved our jobs, God help us."
- Words of another dudded
timberworker.
"DEAR
DICK ADAMS"... FROM A TASMANIAN
TIMES CONTRIBUTOR
• "I
DON'T GIVE A FUCK ABOUT YOUR OPINION", from Dick
Adams earlier this year
===============
Labor to stick to forestry principles
November 12, 2004 - 8:19AM
Labor would stick to the key principles of its forestry
policy despite the unpopularity of the plan in Tasmania,
newly appointed opposition environment spokesman Anthony
Albanese said. Mr Latham announced in the last days
of the election campaign Labor's plan to save up to
240,000 hectares of old-growth forests and create
an $800 million fund to protect forest jobs. .......
Mr Albanese, who has just returned from visiting Tasmania's
old growth Styx valley forests, said Labor's policy
was right. "I think Mark Latham got the principles
absolutely right," he told ABC radio. .......
Mr Albanese described his
trip to the Styx as emotional and described the forests
as some of the most precious natural resources on
earth. "We simply can't allow the sort of approach
which is clearfelling, woodchipping and exporting
- it doesn't make economic sense either,"
he said......
SYDNEY MORNING HERALD...
Albanese sticks with forestry policy
principles
14 November 2004
ANTHONY ALBANESE: Well, I have no intention of engaging
in a slanging match with Dick Adams or anyone else.
That level of personal abuse, I think, betrays a lack
of substance in the argument. I went to Tasmania.
I certainly didn't sneak in. I met the Forestry Minister,
Brian Green, I met the Environment Minister, Judy
Jackson, I met the president of the party, David O'Byrne.
I met the secretary of the party, I met other union
officials, I met the heads of Unions Tasmania, I met
conservation groups and I had a tour of the Styx Valley
with the organisation Timber
Workers for Forests. So I don't think I was sneaking
around and I, certainly last time I looked, you didn't
need a visa to go to Tasmania. I was doing my job,
I will continue to do my job. But as for Dick's expulsion
motion, which he said he'll move on Friday, well,
I'll leave that to the judgment of colleagues as to
who's been loyal to the Labor Party and who hasn't.
..........
BARRIE CASSIDY: But you said you went down there and
you met Labor politicians, you met trade unionists.
Did you meet any workers?
ANTHONY ALBANESE: I certainly did. I met artisans
from Timber
Workers for Forests. I met people such as Kevin
Perkins. Kevin is a timber worker who has just put
the pews and the timber panelling from Tasmania in
St Patrick's Cathedral in Parramatta. People like
Kevin are concerned that their access to that resource
will be restricted in future years and I certainly
spoke to a number of timber workers while I was there
and it was a first visit.
ABC
INSIDERS... |
|
| TASMANIAN STUPIDITY,
DISLOYALTY & CORRUPTION |
Latham lashes out at forest workers
By Misha Schubert - Canberra / Andrew Darby - Hobart,
November 2, 2004
As Federal Government ministers converge on Tasmania
to finalise the detail of which old-growth forest
to protect, the fallout and recriminations within
the Labor Party and the forestry union continues.
Labor leader Mark Latham has accused the union of
mounting "false and
unnecessary" protests against his
forests policy in the end days of the campaign. In
Sydney yesterday the Labor leader, addressing the
mining and energy divisions of the Construction, Forestry,
Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) took a swipe at Tasmanian
Premier Paul Lennon, saying he wished the State Government
had revealed sooner that its new pulp mill would use
plantation timber
- not old-growth forests.
"I wish the Tasmanian government had released
that information prior to the election because it
was exactly what we were trying to achieve with our
policy," he said......
MELBOURNE
AGE...
Union couldn't see wood from trees,
says Latham
By Sean Nicholls, November 2, 2004
Mark Latham has attacked as "false and unnecessary"
the forestry union's opposition to Labor's old growth
forests policy during the election campaign, which
he blames for the loss of two Tasmanian seats. .......
The $800 million
policy sought to protect 240,000 hectares of old-growth
reserves and upgrade the
skills of timber workers to compete for
different jobs in a sustainable forestry industry.
Mr Latham said yesterday an announcement that a new
pulp mill in Tasmania, providing 1500 jobs, would
use plantation, not old-growth, timber showed the
union opposition was unwarranted and that job security
and conservation could go together. "We know
after the election campaign, with the news about the
pulp mill, that that is fundamentally true and the
protests by the forestry division were absolutely
false and unnecessary," he said. He said it was
disappointing that Tasmania's
Labor Premier, Paul Lennon, had not chosen to reveal
the mill announcement during the campaign.
"It was exactly what we were trying to achieve
with our policy," he said.....,
SYDNEY
MORNING HERALD...
Unionist in Labor sights
By ELLEN WHINNETT - 3 November 2004
LABOR officials in Tasmania continue to target besieged
forestry union official Scott McLean [of,
" Jimmy Barnes is a working class traitor",
fame]. ........ And at a protest rally organised
by the union and the timber industry in Hobart, Mr
McLean instigated a vote which stated "We have
no confidence in Mark Latham's ability to lead this
country", commenting further: "This meeting
of Tasmanian forest workers condemns Mark Latham's
policy to sell down Tasmanian forest workers to get
cheap votes in Melbourne and Sydney"......
HOBART MERCURY... |
| TASMANIAN STUPIDITY,
DISLOYALTY & CORRUPTION RESULTS IN MORE OF THIS..... |
|
|
|
| FORESTS VANDAL,
ELECTION LIAR & WOODCHIP BARON TO CONDUCT ENVIRONMENTAL
IMPACT STUDY |
Pulp mill move has Gunns shares
firing
By Philip Hopkins - October 29, 2004
Shares in Gunns
shot to a 12-month intraday high of $15.94 yesterday
after the timber giant said it would conduct an environmental
impact study into building a pulp mill in Tasmania.
The share price eased slightly, but finished 22 ¢
higher at $15.90 as more than 225,000 shares changed
hands. The value of trading was more than $3.5 million......
MELBOURNE
AGE...
Woodchip exports still at near-record
levels
By NICK CLARK - October 30, 2004
WOODCHIP exports have exceeded five million tonnes
for the second year in a row, figures from Tasmanian
ports' reports reveal. ...... At the request of Gunns
Limited, woodchip export figures are not disclosed
by the Australian Bureau of Statistics.......
NEWS.COM.AU...
• THE
BOOK OF GAYGUN |
|
| FORESTS VANDAL,
ELECTION LIAR & WOODCHIP BARON TO ENTER TASMANIAN
TOURISM & HERITAGE |
Gunns `best' for Entally
By MICHAEL LOWE , Sunday, 17 October 2004
Entally
House would become a showcase for using commercial
sponsorship to preserve historic buildings, Heritage
Minister Ken Bacon predicted yesterday. ....... Gunns
has been confirmed as the best of seven expressions
of interest in taking over the lease from the National
Trust to run the house and 37ha estate. The timber
company plans to spend $500,000 over five years on
restoring the house in return for permission to run
a commercial venture, possibly a wine centre. Mr Bacon
said Tasmania had about a third of Australia's surviving
historic buildings but only a small tax base. "For
a small State like us, it is nearly impossible to
find the dollars (to spend) in the manner they need
to be maintained," he said......
THE
LAUNCESTON EXAMINER...
• GUNNS
ELECTION LIES...
Another grubby Gunns deal
By Gretel Green @ Crikey
The ability of giant Tassie tree-slaughterer Gunns
to pull off sweetheart deals continues apace as they've
even got the Tassie National Trust under their spell,
as Gretel Green explains.....
CRIKEY...
AND MORE FROM CRIKEY....
• GUNNS,
PROFITS, MATES and the NATIONAL TRUST & GUESS
WHO'S THE BEST MAN |
|
| AND TASMANIA'S
POISONED WATER DISGRACE CONTINUES |
|
Calls for Tasmanian pesticide probe
By Claire Miller - October 17, 2004
A group of doctors and concerned oyster farmers
in Tasmania is seeking a federal investigation into
aerial spraying of timber plantations amid claims
of damage to human and environmental health. The
request follows a mysterious mass oyster death in
Georges Bay, in north-east Tasmania, in January,
and a cluster of unusual neurological and other
illnesses among residents in the small town of St
Helens. Oyster farmers, a local doctor and others
have pointed the finger at pesticides sprayed over
plantations in the water catchment to control weeds
and insects. ....... Michael Aizen, president of
the Australian Medical Association's Tasmania branch,
said the department's record-keeping was poor, and
it was difficult to obtain information on the chemical
use. Forestry
Tasmania is exempt from freedom of information
laws, while the timber company Gunns does not make
its test results public. Gunns
controls 70 per cent of sawlogging, exports 95 per
cent of the woodchips, and is engaged in the mass
conversion of native forests to plantations. "My
concern is public health," said Dr Aizen. "If
oysters are affected, then humans could be at risk
as well. We feel the procedure for assessing the
risk to public health needs to smarten up."
Dr Marcus Scammell, a marine ecologist with the
Sydney Water Corporation, investigated the oyster
deaths for the shellfish farmers and raised the
alarm about heavy pesticide use.......
MELBOURNE
AGE...
===============
Doubt over trout tests
By SIMON BEVILACQUA - October 17, 2004
A LEADING American scientist has slammed a report
into cancer-causing chemicals in Tasmanian trout
and eels. The Tasmanian Government report failed
to find consistently high levels of a range of toxic
man-made chemicals in trout and eels. But New York
researcher David Carpenter says the Tasmanian report
into trout and eels was designed to fail........
SUNDAY
TASMANIAN...
===============
Mystery killer concern over mass oyster loss
By LUKE SAYER - October 27, 2004
A BIG oyster kill at Smithton has sparked fears
that an unknown source of pollution could devastate
the industry......
NEWS.COM.AU...
• MUCH
MORE ON TASMANIA'S POISONED DRINKING WATER...
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