|
|
|
|
|
|
| GEMS
@ THE TASMANIAN PARLIAMENTARY GUTTER |
29/09/04....
LABOR PREMIER PAUL LENNON TO THE PRESS
GALLERY - "you report adversely on
my government especially in the area of
forestry and I will use privilege to besmirch
your reputation."
30/09/04....
"RENE HIDDING [leader of the Liberal
opposition] has us gobsmacked by claiming
he wants more cosiness with Gunns
Ltd and would love to go to dinner
with John Gay every night.”
TASMANIAN
GREENS MEDIA CENTRE...
|
|
ACCC
COMPLAINT : against Gunns Ltd (Gunns)
and Bryan Hayes
made 29th September 2004
....."I assert that the advertisement is
published in trade and commerce by virtue that
its purpose is to protect the commercial interests
of Gunns
Ltd.......
.....I refer to section 52 of the TPA regarding
misleading or deceptive conduct.
http://scaleplus.law.gov.au/html/pasteact/0/115/0/PA002180.htm
I also refer to section 51A of the TPA regarding
representations as to future matters which are
taken to be misleading unless supported by reasonable
grounds and unless the corporation adduces evidence
to the contrary, the corporation is deemed not
to have had reasonable grounds for making the
representation.
http://scaleplus.law.gov.au/html/pasteact/0/115/0/PA002170.htm
I allege that the following representations
in the advertisement by the Gunns
Ltd corporation engaging in trade and commerce,
is in the exercise of particular knowledge and
certain expertise, to a target audience understanding
the representations to be assertions of fact
based on, that knowledge and expertise:-".......
FULL
COMPLAINT HERE...
Join the queue to make your
ACCC complaint
ACCC
COMPLAINT FORM HERE...
or Ph: (03) 6215 9333 / Fax: (03) 6234 7796
|
THE CHEMICAL
BOY'S CLUB
Briefing Note - Tasmanian Premier and Minister
for Forests
How the Tasmanian Government, Forestry
Tasmania & North Forest Products (since
purchased by Gunns)
colluded in assisting Ciba-Geigy
to keep the carcinogen Atrazine on the shelves
in Tasmania, when in the USA, the EPA was under
pressure to review Atrazine.
|
| DISGUSTING
CONDUCT BY A TASMANIAN GOVERNMENT DRIVEN BY
CORRUPTION, CRIMINAL NEGLIGENCE.... OR BRAIN
DAMAGE FROM THE WATER |
Tasmania:
name your poison
Sunday 26 September 2004
SUNDAY
- CHANNEL NINE TV
• TRANSCRIPT
OF THE EXPOSURE OF DISGUSTING & CRIMINAL
POLITICAL CONDUCT IN TASMANIA
Video copies of the program should be available
for sale at TV Archives in Sydney - 02 9906
9999 / international +61 2 9906 9999
• PREVIOUS REPORT
by Sunday Feb 2003, TASMANIAN
FIRE SALE |
|
The poisoning
of Tasmania / Tasmania: name your poison
SUNDAY - CHANNEL 9, AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL TELEVISION
Reporter : Graham Davis / Producer : Nick Rushworth
/ Executive producer : John Lyons
Sunday penetrates a
veil of secrecy in Tasmania to investigate the
use of chemicals in the forestry industry and
their effect on human health. In
a story that's prompted an angry response from
Labor Premier Paul Lennon even before it goes
to air, we talk to
some of the scores of people who've contracted
mystery illnesses downstream from forestry activity.
What is making them sick? Some experts
are pointing the finger at pesticides and herbicides
used in forestry, some of which have been linked
to cancer. How widespread is the use of these
chemicals? Incredibly, no information is available
and the forestry industry is not obliged to
divulge it, having been exempted from Freedom
of Information legislation. Sunday's enquiries
stem from a helicopter crash last December that
resulted in a chemical spill near a water source
for the north-eastern coastal resort of St Helens.
A month later, the biggest flood in living memory
swamped the Georges River leading through St
Helens to the sea. That produced a massive oyster
kill on leases in Georges Bay, destroying a
crop worth nearly two million dollars. Were
those oysters "canaries in the coal mine"
pointing to a wider risk to human health? ..........
We reveal that the "chemical load"
on St Helens is far greater than at first thought.
And that chemical exposure is a state-wide problem,
with poisons linked to cancer present in a number
of town water supplies. The response from the
Tasmanian Government and the forestry industry
is to deny any problem and accuse the critics
of a "beat-up". Premier
Paul Lennon has written to Sunday saying none
of his ministers are prepared to be interviewed
by reporter Graham Davis. ........
The forestry industry
too is refusing interviews. But in
another clear sign of intense sensitivity to
our story two weeks out from the federal election,
a spokesperson for the Tasmanian forestry giant,
Gunns,
said any link made
between the use of chemicals in the industry
and human or animal health would result in LEGAL
ACTION. Sunday's report will dramatically
increase pressure on an industry already beleaguered
over the destruction of old growth forests.
For this is no longer
just an issue of saving trees but of saving
people.
FROM
TASMANIAN TIMES... @ TASMANIAN
TIMES
• TRANSCRIPT
OF THE EXPOSURE OF DISGUSTING & CRIMINAL
POLITICAL CONDUCT IN TASMANIA
Video copies of the program should be available
for sale at TV Archives in Sydney - 02 9906
9999 / international +61 2 9906 9999 |
Toxin tests under
wraps
By SIMON BEVILACQUA 26 September 2004
THE State Government
is withholding results of a testing program
for highly toxic chemicals in Tasmanian trout
and eels. Trout and eels statewide
were tested for man-made PCB chemicals which
have been shown to harm humans and animals.
PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls) were detected
in local fish but attempts by the Sunday Tasmanian
to have the results released last week were
refused by the Tasmanian Government. The
Government has been sitting on the preliminary
results of the testing program for more than
three years.......
SUNDAY
TASMANIAN...
===========
• TASMANIA'S "CLEAN
GREEN IMAGE" HAS A LONG HISTORY
HERE...
(below)
===========
• SUPER ARROGANT
KONS DENIES TASMANIAN GOVERNMENT SHOULD ACT
ON POISONED WATER
MORE ON TASMANIA'S POISONED
WATER WITH ARROGANCE... (below)
===========
• THERE'S POISON IN
YOUR DRINKING WATER, BUT HEY..... IT WON'T HARM
YOU!
MORE BELOW... |
|
Chemical
spray 'ruined' sea-change dream
30/09/04
MICHELLE and Howard Carpenter moved to Tasmania 18
months ago to pursue a "clean, green" dream
of an organic hobby farm and healthy lifestyle. Today,
their dreams - and their health - are in tatters.
Instead they have become national symbols of what
some say is the "dirty" reality of forest
industry practices..... legal advice on action against
Gunns....
And more from Chemical Kons.
THE AUSTRALIAN...
Senator slams aerial spraying
29/09/04
"I think it's a disgrace what's been allowed
to go on and I have continued to say that," he
told ABC Radio.... it was
unfair for Tasmanians to "live in fear of what
they are drinking"....
NEWS.COM.AU...
Business chiefs warn against 'commercial
insanity'
29/09/04
Several of Australia's business leaders today united
in a call for the major parties to protect Tasmania's
old-growth forests.... They include Flight Centre,
Fantastic Furniture, Australian Geographic, Spotlight,
Thrifty, the Body Shop, Nudie Foods, Video-Ezy, Jurlique
and Mediacom.....
SMH...
Gunns' spraying 'contaminated' drinking
water
28/09/04
Ms Putt asked Premier Paul Lennon .... "Are you
further aware that when the representative of Gunns
Limited was informed, his response yesterday was to
drive around to Mr and Mrs Carpenter's house and give
them two bottles of spring water and say he would
be back in touch today?"......
ABC
NEWS ONLINE...
Couple 'knocked for six' by
chemical
....lured by the State's "clean, green"
reputation.
HERALD
SUN...
Devout call to abandon logging of
old-growth
28/09/04
THE Tasmanian and Victorian Synod of the Uniting Church
has backed conservationists and called for an end
to clearfelling of old growth forests....
MERCURY...
Church takes stand on forestry
THE AUSTRALIAN...
Don't let the good life cost the Earth
28/09/04
Our demands on the environment have a greater impact
than draining rivers and destroying forests - it's
a fight for survival, writes Stephanie Peatling....
SMH...
A hostile environment
27/09/04
Brown's forthright behaviour had tapped into traditional
Aussie values of integrity, irreverence and humour
that cut across all political divides....
UK
GUARDIAN...
Greens demand inquiry into forests
26/09/04 - 3:34PM
The Australian Greens have
called for a royal commission into the abuse of Tasmania's
forests by the state's timber industry......
MELBOURNE
AGE... |
|
Devils cancer spreads
Matthew Denholm - September 24, 2004
THE disease killing Tasmanian
devils is more widespread than feared,
with cases confirmed in the island's southern forests
for the first time. The bad news emerged after a tip-off
to the Tasmanian Greens, who
accused the state Government yesterday of keeping
the public in the dark about possible links between
the animals' facial tumour disease and forestry practices.
"We've received confirmation the disease has
been found in the state's southern forests in high
percentages," Greens environment spokesman Nick
McKim said.......
THE
AUSTRALIAN...
Devil disease over most of State:
Greens
By CHRIS JOHNSON , Friday, 24 September 2004
The facial tumour disease inflicting the State's Tasmanian
Devil population appears to be more widespread than
the Government has reported.......
LAUNCESTON
EXAMINER...
|
The Tasmanian Devil
Disease? Cancer?
or just Poison?
Courtesy
THE SCAMMELL REPORT
Dr Marcus Scammel, is a senior scientist for the
Sydney Water Board |
|
| FRENZY OF FORESTRY
VANDALISM PLANNED FOR AFTER THE ELECTION |
Forestry frenzy poll compo bid,
says Law
By DANNY ROSE - 21 September 2004
FORESTRY Tasmania has been accused of trying to ramp
up a possible multi-million-dollar compensation package
from the next federal government. The Wilderness
Society said Forestry
Tasmania's latest three-year
activity plan had outlined an intended "frenzy"
of new logging roads and plantation establishment,
statewide. ......... Mr Law said Forestry
Tasmania's latest plan included 1400 proposed new
logging coupes, 13,000ha of native forest converted
to plantations and 750km of new logging roads. .........
"The level of logging inside the areas proposed
for protection is huge........
HOBART
MERCURY... |
|
| FOLLOW UP TO
NEWS TASMANIA QUESTION... "WILL GUNNS
SHARES TAKE A DIVE?" |
Forestry speculation unsettling
investors: Gunns
Monday, September 20, 2004. 1:54pm
The Tasmanian timber company, Gunns,
has warned that investors are getting very nervous
about putting money into Tasmanian forestry projects.
The general manager, John Gay, says any changes to
the regional forest agreement would endanger the development
of the Tasmanian economy. "Any negativity that
comes into an industry always makes investment very
very nervous," he said. "People that are
looking to do investments always are saying, 'Is this
a long-term sustainable industry?'.
ABC
NEWS ONLINE... |
|
| FACTUAL RUNDOWN
OF THE RFA (Regional Forest Agreement) FAILURE IN
AUSTRALIA |
Why the heat is on logging in Tasmania
By TIM BONYHADY director of the Australian National
University's centre for environmental law and policy.
September 20, 2004
.......This emphasis on science - with the implication
of a neutral, objective process - was implausible.
The RFAs were always going to be political agreements
brokered between Canberra and the states, which all
had only limited interest in science........
The RFA process began to break down in Western Australia
where the extent of old-growth logging authorised
by the RFA resulted in community outrage even before
the agreement was signed in 1999. The protests of
tens of thousands of West Australians including Mick
Malthouse, Liz Davenport and Janet Holmes a'Court
failed to stop the Liberal government of Richard Court
from proceeding with the agreement.........
Victoria shifted next, although not as dramatically........
NSW followed, with another election as the catalyst.........
That leaves Tasmania. It is the state with the crudest
RFA, the one most biased in favour of wood production.
It is also the state where the flaws in the RFA process
have gone uncorrected, resulting in woodchipping on
an unprecedented scale. Many of its most significant
old forests including Australia's largest temperate
rainforest in the Tarkine
and Australia's tallest forest in the Styx, are being
logged........
THE
MELBOURNE AGE... |
|
| SIMPLE SIMON
COULD HAVE GOT THAT ONE RIGHT... |
Timber and tourism in it `together'
Monday, 20 September 2004
Premier Paul Lennon said the
Dismal Swamp attraction was proof that timber and
tourism industries could work together........
Dismal Swamp showcases blackwood and other Tasmanian
quality timbers growing in their natural environment........
LAUNCESTON
EXAMINER...
• TIMBER
WORKERS FOR FORESTS OBJECTIVES (20/1/2002) |
|
Sawmill proposes end to native forest
clearing
20 September 2004
Tasmania's largest sawmiller
is calling for an urgent meeting with the Premier to discuss
a proposal it says would stop the clearing of native forest
for plantations. Auspine says the five-point plan will also
ban the export of whole logs and invest in processing plants........
ABC
NEWS ONLINE... |
Howard branches out to get the wood on
Latham
September 19, 2004 - MICHELLE GRATTEN
........."You talk about the 'doctors' wives,"
says Virginia Young of the Wilderness
Society, a reference to the fashionable term for Liberal
voters who care about environment, war and refugees. "In
Tasmania there are 700 members of Doctors
for Forests" - health professionals committed to
the cause of protecting old-growth forests. ......... Within
Liberal ranks, a passionate opponent of logging Tasmania's
old-growth forests is Howard's friend, NSW
Senator Bill Heffernan. He told The Sun-Herald:
"I've always had the view
that what they're doing down there is wrong. They are putting
too much pressure on the landscape." A lot of politicians,
Heffernan said, from both sides of politics are intimidated
by the industry. There
is no doubt that a web of close relationships and finances
bind the interests of the logging company Gunns
Ltd
and state politicians of both sides.
Environment Minister Ian Campbell says: "The
expert advice is that the regional forest agreement is not
achieving what it is supposed to." Large areas of Tasmania's
native forests are being turned over to plantations. "Most
Australians are not impressed with the cutting down of native
forests to have them replaced with plantations. It's the
replacement of a complex ecosystem with a monoculture."
The rub, of course, is buying off the logging and other
interests, financially and politically. Logging company
Gunns
makes very large profits from the old-growth forests. And
there are several hundred jobs involved. ......... One interesting
wrinkle is that conservationists and the "specialty"
timber industry are on common ground. The
Wilderness Society accepts
the need to have limited use of old-growth trees for specialty
furniture-making and other woodcraft. And
Graham Green from the lobby group Timber
Workers for Forests says:
"The
industry-scale forestry is wiping out our sector. We're
all workers with wood, but we don't like what's going on."
Green also accuses those politicians who talk about jobs
of cynical misrepresentation. "The industry has shed
thousands of jobs in 20 years through mechanisation and
rationalisation. It's really about
Gunns'
windfall profits.".........
SYDNEY
MORNING HERALD...
• WILL GUNNS
SHARES TAKE A DIVE ?
• The Timber Jobs Scare Campaign Cup HERE
By NEIL CREMASCO @ TASMANIAN
TIMES |
| TASMANIA'S
"CLEAN GREEN IMAGE" HAS A LONG HISTORY |
Bush toxins on wild side
By SIMON BEVILACQUA - 19 September 2004
HIGH levels of toxic man-made
chemicals have been detected in Tasmanian wildlife.
Organochlorides, including the banned pesticide DDT,
have been recorded in platypuses statewide.
The poisons are believed to have entered the Tasmanian
eco-system from transformer oil used in hydro power
operations, farm use and factories including pigment,
pulp and paper mills. The toxic chemicals are known
to hinder immune systems and disrupt sexual development
in some species. Organochlorides were found in platypuses
from Cressy in northern Tasmania to King Island, off
the state's North-West Coast, to Lake Pedder in the
Southwest National Park. ........ "Although
Tasmania prides itself on having a clean and green
image, the presence of moderately high levels of PCBs
in Lake Pedder, a large lake in a wilderness area,
suggests the image is based primarily on ignorance,"
Dr Stewart said in the study. "The
presence of some animals with very high levels, especially
PCBs, is of concern. "Further work is needed
to determine whether levels represent a risk to platypus
populations." The pesticide DDT was used throughout
Tasmania until banned in 1987. Lindane,
a farm insecticide, is still widely used. PCBs are
found in plastics, paints and coolants. Organochlorides
can cause brain damage
and intellectual impairment in children exposed to
high levels. Children exposed to low but persistent
levels of PCBs consistently score lower than non-exposed
children on some psychological tests..........
SUNDAY
TASMANIAN...
================
•
Organochlorides - PCBs (PolyChlorinated
Biphenyls) IN TRANSFORMER OIL
CANCER-HELP.org
• THE MOST DANGEROUS CHEMICALS
IN THE WORLD
ISLAM
ONLINE...
================
Plague on our platypuses
ALARM bells rang when a man and his dog found a sick
platypus on the edge of the Elizabeth River at Campbell
Town in the autumn of 1982. ........ Infected animals
turned up in natural dams, as well, with sick animals
at Woods Lake, Arthurs Lake and Gunns Lake, which
all drained into the Lake River, a central highlands
tributary of the Macquarie/South Esk catchment. .........
Dr Stewart theorised that since fungal infections,
like thrush in humans, were often linked to a weakened
immune system, there may be something operating to
make the Tasmanian platypus more prone to infection.
He instantly thought organochlorides. The persistent
man-made chemicals had been found to impact on the
immune systems of other species. He discovered there
was a total lack of information on the levels of organochlorides
in native wildlife. He went into the field to test
for DDT, PCBs and Lindane
-- and he found them in platypuses
in surprisingly high levels. ........ Dr
Stewart hypothesised the high levels resulted mainly
from the use of transformer oil in hydro dam operations.
The oil was also used extensively throughout Tasmania
to settle dirt roads. Persistent run-off had found
its way into the eco-system. He also considered
farms, pigment and pulp and paper mills may be the
cause of contamination. ....... There
was no money in wildlife research in Tasmania.........
SUNDAY
TASMANIAN...
================
• SUPER
ARROGANT KONS DENIES TASMANIAN GOVERNMENT SHOULD ACT
ON POISONED WATER
MORE ON TASMANIA'S POISONED WATER
WITH ARROGANCE... (below)
• THERE'S POISON IN YOUR DRINKING
WATER, BUT HEY..... IT WON'T HARM YOU!
MORE BELOW...
Water audit
push grows
By MICHELLE PAINE - September 20, 2004
THE presence of banned pesticide DDT and other
toxic chemicals in Tasmanian platypuses has
triggered more calls to audit the state's waterways.
Dangerous levels of organochlorines in platypus
populations across the state were a major concern,
said East Coast doctor Alison Bleaney. "What
instantly comes to mind is whether this is relevant
to the Tasmanian devil [disease] investigations,"
Dr Bleaney said. The scientific research
revealed in the Sunday Tasmanian was
triggered by concerns over a fungal disease
in platypuses. In 2001 researcher Niall Stewart
found levels of DDT, polychlorinated biphenyls
(PCBs) and the pesticide Lindane.......
NEWS.COM.AU...
|
|
|
|
FROM BRAIN
DAMAGED THUGS OR THE DESPERATE RICH?
HERE IS SOME OF THE FRANTIC PROPAGANDA TO RETAIN THE
CONVERSION OF PUBLIC ASSETS INTO SELECT PRIVATE BANK
ACCOUNTS...... |
Lennon dust-up looms on logs
By ELLEN WHINNETT Chief Reporter 16 September 2004
PREMIER Paul Lennon is heading for a brawl with federal
Labor leader Mark Latham over logging of Tasmania's
forests. Mr Lennon yesterday warned he would "protect
Tasmania from allcomers" in the battle
over old-growth forests. ........ Mr Lennon hit out
at news reports that Prime Minister John Howard was
considering a compensation package worth billions
of dollars to buy out the rights of timber
companies to log old-growth forests in Tasmania. ........
Mr Gay also attacked the Greens and warned of dire
financial consequences if logging in 390,000ha
of publicly owned
old-growth forests was stopped. "This business
of shutting up native forests in Tasmania is
a problem for all Tasmanians," he
said. "If it shuts the
sawmills and veneer mills we will lose
8000 jobs in Tasmania. "People
will leave Tasmania to go to the mainland for jobs.
"Houses (prices) in
Sandy Bay (in Hobart) and Newstead in Launceston will
halve in 12 months because there will only
be sellers, not buyers.".........
HOBART
MERCURY... |
| TO SOME FACTS,
EQUITY FOR ALL AND CALM COMMON SENSE..... |
Greens announce Tas forestry policy
15 September 2004
The Greens have released their Tasmanian forestry
policy, which they say would end old-growth logging
at a cost of $92 million, while creating 720 forestry
jobs. The policy would see an extra 389,000 hectares
of Tasmanian old-growth forest protected and the provision
of logging zones to allow for single-stem logging
of specialty timbers. The Greens say a transition
away from old-growth forestry would see 65 jobs lost
but the creation of 785 others. Tasmanian Greens leader
Peg Putt says another 175 jobs would be created in
the tourism industry. "You would think from the
rhetoric and indeed people say that the forest industry
is the biggest industry in Tasmania," he said.
"Three per cent of the current workforce is in
forestry whereas 20 per cent are in tourism."
"Tourism is actually threatened by the way forestry
is currently conducted, with the obnoxious clearfelling
practices and poisoning of animals as well as the
log trucks on the road," he said.
ABC
NEWS ONLINE...
Greens rescue plan for forests
16 September 2004
THE Tasmanian Greens have put forward a $92-million
proposal to end logging in Tasmania's old-growth forests.
The forest transition strategy was released a day
after the forest industry claimed an end to old-growth
logging would cost more than $9 billion. Greens leader
Peg Putt and Senate candidate Christine Milne launched
the policy, which promotes forest tourism and high-value
industries such as sawmilling. They said their figures
had been properly researched and costed, and the strategy
had been peer-reviewed.......
HOBART
MERCURY... |
|
Tasmania
By RICHARD FLANAGAN
September 12, 2004
I was going to head up the dreamlike Gordon River, rain
forest all around me, with old Denny Hamill on his fishing
boat, and we would sit around fires of a night and talk
of the power and magic of the river country through which
we were journeying. But Denny was ill in the hospital, and
so instead I began my journey around Tasmania by walking
outside my front door in Hobart on a cold winter's night,
and heading down a hillside of 100-year-old clapboard houses
toward the Georgian warehouses of Salamanca, a district
down by the wharves where Antarctic icebreakers and crayfish
and squid and tuna boats berth and where pubs and people
have always come together. Suspended between melancholy
and dreaming, Hobart, Tasmania's capital and Australia's
second-oldest city, unravels like a fraying ribbon between
the foothills of Mount Wellington and the banks of the River
Derwent. A beautiful colonial town in summer, with people
spilling out around the port bars, restaurants and cafes,
it is a more moody city in winter, as life retreats into
the pubs. I am undertaking an unusual thing, going traveling
in my own country at a time of year almost unknown to tourists:
the heart of winter. In the warm pub, standing around a
log fire, my friends are skeptical. The weather forecast
is bad: rain, cold, snow. Summer on the island is variable,
but Mediterranean. Winter though, unlike the benign season
that passes under the same name in Australia, is decidedly
wintry. But then Tasmania is not so much a state of Australia
as another country, an island the size of Ireland separated
by hundreds of miles of ocean and a vastly different history,
culture and natural world from what Tasmanians call the
mainland. ........ Yet, like much of Tasmania's rain forests
and ancient wet eucalypt forests, these trees are being
destroyed; most end up as paper and cardboard. It is an
ecological tragedy, the scale and sadness of which are difficult
to convey. A mile farther on, we come on a large clear-cut
area that looks like a World War I killing field. I sink
calf-deep in a scrabble of broken branches, mud, ash, great
shards of burned bark 50 and 60 feet long, puddles, manfern
trunks. Where once was forest are now gargantuan blackened
stumps pocking the churned-up mud and ash, frozen witnesses
to an apocalypse. Though fired several weeks earlier, smoke
still rises from the charred earth.........
NEW
YORK TIMES... (with pictures) |
POTENTIAL
TOURISTS & VISITORS TAKE NOTE!!
SUPER ARROGANT KONS DENIES TASMANIAN GOVERNMENT SHOULD
ACT ON POISONED WATER |
Greens
call for ban on poison
By CLAIRE KONKES - 10 September 2004
CLAIMS Labor's policy to ban carcinogenic
chemicals from Tasmanian drinking water
was "an aspirational goal" and not binding
the Government to act has prompted the Greens to ask
what other Labor policies are just "aspirational".
In response to the discovery of Simazine in the Prosser
River which supplies Orford's drinking water last
month, Greens environment spokesperson Nick McKim
MHA called yesterday for the Government to ban the
use of the poison. Mr McKim said the state Labor policy
adopted in February "promises to ban the use
of the Triazine group of chemicals where detected
in drinking water catchments". Mr McKim said
the positive results taken in the Prosser River should
be enough to start the process of banning the herbicide
in line with government policy. However, Primary
Industries and Water Minister Steve Kons denied the
Government should act. He said the reference
to a ban on triazine chemicals in government policy
was an aspirational goal
only......
HOBART
MERCURY...
============
• THERE'S POISON IN YOUR DRINKING
WATER, BUT HEY..... IT WON'T HARM YOU!
MORE BELOW...
============
|
|
FEEDBACK
COMMENT:
"The picture tells it all" |
• "GET
A JOB", SAYS CARCINOGEN KONS (NEWS-TASMANIA
Feb 04)
| EMAIL TO KONS
- Subject:
4 Corners this Monday - [from a trainee
doctor at the University of Tasmania] |
| •••••••• |
Parliamentarians,
The rampant clearfelling and woodchipping of
our high conservation value native forests in
Tasmania is receiving world wild attention and
the issue is now at ignition point! More examination
of this issue will feature in the long anticipated
ABC 4 Corners story on Tasmanian forestry which
will go on air this Monday the 16th of February
at 8:30pm. The programme will then be replayed
on the ABC tv the next day at 1pm.
Neil Cremasco |
| THE ANSWER FROM
KONS: |
| •••••••• |
From: Steve Kons <mailto:Steve.Kons@dpac.tas.gov.au>
To: Neil Cremasco <mailto:---------@southcom.com.au>
Sent: Saturday, February 21, 2004 5:45 PM
Subject: Re: 4
Corners this Monday
"get
a job"
|
|
|
Old-growth logging
in Tasmania must go: poll
By Melissa Fyfe Environment Reporter September 10, 2004
Australians overwhelmingly support
an end to old-growth logging in Tasmania and want the poisoning
of native animals stopped, a survey has found.
The poll comes as more than 100 of Australia's environmental
scientists and scholars wrote to the Federal Government
urging immediate action on Tasmania's forests. Taken before
Prime Minister John Howard declared last week that "most
Australians" would like the practice stopped, the Roy
Morgan poll put the figure at 87.8 per cent. Commissioned
by green group Planet Ark, it asked 504 people: "Large
numbers of Tasmania's 200 to 300-year-old trees are being
cut down for wood chips. Do you think that this should be
stopped?" Victorians
were most emphatic, with 91.8 per cent saying it should
be stopped, while 78.6 per cent of Tasmanians did. About
84 per cent of Australians said the practice of poisoning
native animals with 1080 poison should stop.
Late last month, the Tasmanian Government admitted that
in the 12 months to June last year nearly 100,000 native
animals died from 1080 poisoning, carried out because animals
such as wallabies eat saplings . The tarnishing of Australia's
reputation was an issue, with 55.7 per cent of people expressing
concern. More than 100 British MPs have called on Britons
to boycott Tasmania because of its poisoning and logging
practices. The scientists who signed a statement yesterday
urged politicians to act quickly, as the forests were being
felled with unprecedented intensity. Spokesman Tony Norton
said: "We can't afford to wait for another federal
election for action to be taken because as we speak these
important areas are being cleared and logged for plantations."
THE
MELBOURNE AGE...
Australians want old-growth logging stopped:
poll
Friday September 10, 2004
Environment group Planet Ark has released the results of
a survey showing most Australians want an end to old-growth
logging in Tasmania. Of those surveyed,
87 per cent wanted old-growth trees to be left alone, while
83 per cent supported a ban on the use of the chemical 1080
by the forest industry.........
ABC
NEWS ONLINE...
87pc 'want end to old-growth logging'
September 10, 2004
NEW research today showed 87 per
cent of the Australian public wanted an end to old-growth
forest logging in Tasmania. Plant Ark, which
commissioned the research by Roy Morgan, said the results
backed up claims by Prime Minister John Howard last week
when he said everybody would like to see old-growth logging
stopped. "Importantly, 83 per cent of people also said
they wanted the Tasmanian logging
industry's deliberate poisoning of the state's native animals
to be banned," Planet Ark's Jon Dee said
in a statement.......
THE
AUSTRALIAN...
Huge vote to save trees: Poll finds 88%
want old-growth logging stopped
By MICHELLE PAINE - 10 September 2004
A NEW poll says 88 per cent of Australians want Tasmanian
old-growth logging stopped. ...... The
figures are higher than the January Newspoll,
commissioned by Doctors
for Forests, that was criticised for having skewed questioning.
The Newspoll of 1200 found 85.4 per cent supported Federal
Government intervention to end old-growth woodchipping........
HOBART
MERCURY...
Academics call for protection of old growth
forests
Wednesday, 15/09/2004
In election news, a group
of more than 100 Australian academics has called for urgent
Federal intervention in the Tasmanian forestry industry.
In newspaper ads today, the group says Tasmania's Regional
Forest Agreement has failed to adequately protect the state's
environmental, wilderness and heritage values.......
ABC
RURAL NEWS... |
|
Logging may wipe out wedge-tailed eagle:
study
By Natalie Kotsios - Wednesday 8 September 2004
The wedge-tailed eagle could
be on the brink of extinction in Tasmania if logging of
the state's old-growth forests continues, and
other species may not be far behind, a study says. The
Melbourne University report says logging and
the replacement of native forests with plantations have
badly damaged the bird's habitat. Prepared by university
researchers for Forestry
Tasmania to use for planning purposes, the report
was brought to public attention yesterday by the Wilderness
Society. The study predicts the
eagle's risk of extinction could reach 97 per cent if
logging continues. Wilderness Society spokeswoman
Virginia Young said the bird of prey already faced danger
because of habitat loss and other problems. "Even
if logging stops, it still faces a 62 per cent chance
of extinction," she said. The report predicts the
impact of different levels of logging on 11 animal species
in Tasmania's north-east, the area where most logging
takes place. One of the researchers, Brendan Wintle, said
since there were at least 10,000 forest species, it was
likely many others were also at risk. "If you convert
a lot of forest into plantation, then you are going to
detract from the habitat," Dr Wintle said. Forestry
Tasmania general manager Hans Drielsma said the study
was based on possible scenarios to guide decisions. .......
Threatened Species Day yesterday, which marked the death
of the last known Tasmanian tiger.
MELBOURNE
AGE...
Forestry study cited as animal threat
evidence
By ROHAN WADE
THE Wilderness Society has released what it says is the
most damning evidence yet that forestry practices will
contribute to native animal extinction if they continue.
The society yesterday released a report commissioned by
Forestry
Tasmania predicting impacts on animals under various
forestry levels in the state's North-East, with wedge-tailed
eagles and spotted-tailed quolls considered the species
most at risk. Releasing the report on Threatened Species
Day, society national forest campaigner Sean Cadman said
it showed the wedge-tailed eagle would become locally
extinct in the region and spotted-tailed quoll numbers
would be reduced by half if planned logging occurred.
"The report shows that current forest management
in Tasmania is seriously unsustainable," he said.
Forestry
Tasmania general manager Hans Drielsma rejected the
interpretation of the report, saying in a statement that
it was being misleading by focusing on "worst-case
scenarios"........
HOBART
MERCURY...
• INTERESTING RELATED STORY http://www.nefa.org.au/drdeath.html
|
| NATIONAL THREATENED
SPECIES DAY WAS MARKED AROUND THE WORLD ON TUESDAY |
Rising threat to native species
6 September 2004
LANDCLEARING is the single biggest threat to Tasmanian
native species, says a World
Wide Fund for Nature report. The
report said more than 650 species are now on Tasmania's
threatened species list. The list includes
the wedge-tailed eagle, tiger quoll and sub-antarctic
fur seal. More than 120 of
the threatened species are unique to Tasmania.
The report said landclearing had forced many species
into the threatened category for the first time. Forestry
Tasmania gained exemption
from threatened species laws in November 2001, when
Parliament passed an amendment to the Threatened Species
Act. Forestry activity in relation to Tasmania's
657 threatened species is now governed by management
plans certified and policed by the Forest
Practices Board. Also named as major threats to
Tasmanian native species were pests, weeds, diseases,
degradation of water systems, inappropriate and illegal
harvesting and the impact of livestock. National
Threatened Species Day will be marked around Australia
tomorrow. The annual awareness day coincides
with the anniversary of the death of the last Tasmanian
tiger in captivity........
HOBART
MERCURY... |
|
| THERE'S
POISON IN YOUR DRINKING WATER, BUT HEY..... IT WON'T
HARM YOU! |
Water poisons alert
at Orford
By CLAIRE KONKES - September 5, 2004
A HERBICIDE linked to cancer has been found in the
water supply of a Tasmanian coastal town. .......
Simazine is a herbicide, in the same family of triazines
as the controversial atrazine, and is carcinogenic
in larger doses, Dr Taylor said. ....... The Scammell
Report linked chemical sprays used in plantations
to oyster deaths, and even the disease decimating
the Tasmanian devil populations. ........ Glamorgan-Spring
Bay mayor Cheryl Arnol said she received a letter
yesterday from the health department about the river
poison incident. She denied
there had been a cover-up of the JULY test results.
....... Meanwhile, the Tasmanian Greens yesterday
repeated calls for a precautionary ban on aerial spraying
of chemicals in Tasmania's water catchments and a
ban on the use of atrazine and simazine. Greens MHA
Nick McKim said any level
of simazine in drinking water should be considered
unacceptable.
NEWS.COM.AU...
============
AND TASMANIA'S POISONED WATER CONTINUES
NEWS-TASMANIA
- July 04
============
AND TASMANIA'S POISONED WATER GOES
NATIONAL
NEWS-TASMANIA
- July 04
============
TASMANIAN GOVERNMENT WHITEWASHING
NEWS-TASMANIA
- August 04
|
|
============
Greens calls for aerial spraying ban
Sunday, 5 September 2004
The Tasmanian Greens have renewed calls for an immediate
ban on aerial spraying after a herbicide was detected
in Orford's drinking water, on the State's east coast.
The Tasmanian Government says the party is being alarmist.
The Greens say the herbicide, simazine, is a recognised
carcinogen and no level is acceptable in drinking
water. Greens environment spokesman Nick McKim says
the chemical's use should be banned and aerial spraying
halted as a precaution. Mr McKim says there also needs
to be a full audit of chemical use in Tasmania's water
catchments. "Not only which chemicals have been
used, we need to know where they've been used and
we need to know how much of them have been used,"
he said. The Government says there is no public health
issue and recent samples of Orford's drinking water
contained simazine at levels considered safe. A Government
spokesman says numerous reports show calls for spraying
bans are alarmist and not based on science.
ABC
TASMANIA...
============
'Data Quality' Law Hinders Atrazine
Regulation
8/16/2004 - Copyright 2004 WashingtonPost.com
Things were not looking good a few years ago for the
makers of atrazine, America's second-leading weedkiller.
The company was seeking approval from the Environmental
Protection Agency to keep the highly profitable product
on the market. But scientists were finding it was
disrupting hormones in wildlife
-- in some cases turning frogs into bizarre creatures
bearing both male and female sex organs.......
NATURAL
RESOURCES DEFENSE COUNCIL... |
|
The man who might
put Latham in the Lodge
Saturday, 4 September 2004
This week the Greens were pilloried in the media but
up in the polls. James Button profiles their leader, Bob
Brown.
"Listen," says Bob Brown quietly, raising a hand.
From the faraway gum trees, bird cries rise in the cold
air, and Brown calls them one by one. "That's currawong,"
he says. "That's thrush . . . that's black cocky .
. . that's thrush again. And all from the one bird."
It's a brilliant mimic, the lyrebird. Brown says it can
even imitate a chainsaw. ...... "People don't understand
how dire global warming is," he says. "When you
see all the debate about Tasmanian forests, you just despair.
I fear there won't be a debate about the forests because
there won't be any. The reef is dying from global warming,
there will be no Kakadu." ....... I ask Lindsay Tuffin,
editor of the website Tasmanian
Times, whether the hostility to Brown is political or
personal. "It's the same," he says. "Most
politicians have a public life and a private life that they
try to keep to themselves. With Brown there is no separation.
Everything he does is a seamless whole, dedicated to the
one cause." Christine Milne, Tasmanian Green Senate
candidate and Brown's longtime colleague, agrees. She says
Brown will sit for hours by the Liffey River just waiting
for a platypus to surface. In the middle of an intense round
of work, as the Greens were finalising their position on
the free trade agreement, Brown dashed into the office carrying
a film canister. He had found a bug he had never seen and
wanted it taken to the museum for identification........
THE
MELBOURNE AGE...
PM moves to protect old forests
Sid Maher and Dennis Shanahan
September 04, 2004
JOHN Howard has signalled a challenge
to both Labor and the Greens on forest policy by declaring
there would have to be an end to the logging of old-growth
forests. The Prime Minister is aiming to shift
the Coalition's forest policy towards the protection of
old trees but, at the same time, not abandoning forestry
agreements and timber workers.......
THE
AUSTRALIAN...
Howard signals Tassie forests deal
September 3, 2004
Prime Minister John Howard has signalled a new package to
win over loggers and environmentalists in Tasmania. .......
Australian Greens Leader Bob Brown
welcomed Mr Howard's comments as a leap forward in government
environment policy.......
MELBOURNE
AGE...
Australia's PM reveals policy plans on old growth logging
Australia's Prime Minister, John
Howard, has revealed the Liberal-National Party Coalition
is developing a policy which could stop logging in old growth
forests........
ABC
RADIO AUSTRALIA... |
| POLITICIAN'S
FORESTRY ENQUIRY CALLS FOR FORESTRY ENQUIRY |
Senators
call for forestry inquiry
BY CHRIS JOHNSON , Friday, 3 September
2004
An inquiry into Tasmania's forest practices and the
environmental impact of forest plantations was called
for yesterday, with the tabling of the Senate Inquiry
into Plantation Forestry. ........ The report sparked
calls for a moratorium on new plantations in Tasmania
and a full-blown judicial inquiry into forestry practices.
Inquiry chairman and Democrats Senator Aden Ridgway
supported calls for an independent judicial inquiry
and said the extensive report reflected a need for
urgent and substantial changes in the way Tasmania's
forests and plantations were managed. ...... Ms Milne
condemned the report for not recommending the removal
of current exemption of
Tasmanian forestry practices from Commonwealth environmental
laws. Greens Senator Bob Brown, who sat
on the committee, said any further inquiry had to
have judicial power to compel witnesses to give evidence........
LAUNCESTON
EXAMINER...
Tas forestry probe vital: Senate committee
Thursday, 2 September 2004
A Senate committee on plantations has recommended
an inquiry into Tasmania's Forest Practices Code within
12 months of the Federal Government's review of the
Regional Forest Agreement. A report by the six-member
committee says if such a review does not get the cooperation
of the state and commonwealth governments, it would
recommend an independent review "with more compelling
and drastic powers". The chairman of the committee,
Democrats Senator Aden Ridgeway, says the report reflects
the need for urgent and substantial changes to the
way Tasmania's forests and plantations are managed.
"It's been, I think, significant to note that
the full members of the committee have all agreed
that there is a need for some sort of inquiry, he
said. "I've gone further, as the chair and the
Democrats representative on the committee, to suggest
that there needs to be a judicial inquiry - one which
has the capacity to have the power to subpoena people
to appear and to issue warrants or documents."
Liberal Senator Bill Heffernan, the deputy chair of
the committee, says clear-felling of high-value old-growth
forest needs to stop immediately.
ABC
TASMANIA...
Inquiry recommends brake on forest
plantations
Canberra - September 2, 2004
A Senate committee has recommended governments put
a brake on forest plantations. The report called for
joint venture research to study environmental benefits,
especially the impact of plantations on water quality
and quantity ......... Inquiry chairman and Democrats
Senator Aden Ridgeway said the extensive inquiry report
reflected a need for urgent and substantial changes
in the way Tasmania's forests and plantations were
managed.......
THE
MELBOURNE AGE...
Heffernan calls for end to old growth
logging
PM - Thursday, 2 September , 2004 - Reporter:
Annie Guest
MARK COLVIN: A senior Federal Liberal has called for
an end to old growth logging in Tasmania. Senator
Bill Heffernan, a close associate of the Prime Minister,
made the demand in a Senate report on plantation forestry
released this afternoon, which raises concerns about
the industry's sustainability and transparency. The
Senate committee criticises the Tasmanian industry's
failure to enforce regulations but stops short of
calling for a judicial inquiry, as demanded by the
Greens and Democrats.
Annie Guest reports from Hobart.
ANNIE GUEST: It's taken two years for the Senate Rural
Affairs Committee to complete its inquiry into plantation
forestry, hearing evidence from foresters through
to a whistleblower. A former employee of Tasmania's
Forest Practices Board, Bill Manning, told the inquiry
the industry and its regulatory bodies promote a culture
of intimidation, deception and a lack of transparency.
BILL MANNING: The problem is that these Forest Practices
officers are often faced with a conflict of interest,
as virtually all of them work for the commercial forest
industry. The fact that Forest Practices officers
are so hopelessly compromised leads to Forest Practices
plans that are drawn up to maximise the area of land
to be logged and that ensure the maximum number of
woodchips. This is not in the interest of long-term
sustainable silviculture........
ABC
PM... |
| THE
| | | |
VOTE
ENVIRONMENT
