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The Forum > Article Comments > Get off the Gunns merry-go-round > Comments

Get off the Gunns merry-go-round : Comments

By Bob McMahon, published 21/1/2009

The pulp mill is a symptom of a deep-seated disease: it is looming as a symbolic battleground for Australia’s future.

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Lets not labour any further with the fantasy that reason will prevail, here we are locked into battles of egos. Where egos battle all avenues that might gain leverage are pursued consciously and unconsciously. Defensiveness will only evaporate with self awareness.

Perhaps a more productive strategy is to compassionatley lay open the self alienation of the proponents of these idiocies. Humor and pathos I would suggest be the tools of choice; step up artists, poets, cartoonists and dramatists.
Posted by duncan mills, Wednesday, 21 January 2009 8:07:00 PM
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When will onlineopinion stop republishing such poorly researched and biased articles from Tasmanian Times?

Its credibility is severely tested when you only have to look at the Tamar Valley and realise the Pulp Mill site is hardly Wilderness let alone having the Cultural Value of Bennelong point and the Sydney Opera House.

This nonsense claim has been exposed before almost as many times as the false claims that wilderness or old growth forests will be impacted by the approved value adding environmentally neutral pulp mill.

To check on the mill’s location just check the blog of Online Opinion’s Graham Young at http://ambit-gambit.nationalforum.com.au/archives/002259.html

For a detailed rebuttal on outrageous and unsubstantiated claims in the rest of the activist’s article check the Age at http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/forget-emotion-what-will-the-pulp-mill-achieve-20090111-7ecn.html?page=-1

Another good opinion can also be found in the Canberra Times at http://www.canberratimes.com.au/news/opinion/editorial/general/environment-safe-and-good-for-jobs/1403224.aspx

You could also look up Launceston on google Maps to find that it is 36 kilometers from the pulp mill site and that is where the vast majority of the people of the Tamar Valley live. A CSIRO scientist told the ABC Four Corners Program

“I’ve seen a fair bit of press that’s frankly just scaremongering. The best modelling data that we’ve seen and can do is that there won’t be an issue in Launceston at all due to the pulp mill. Launceston’s got far more concern, should have far more concern over the local domestic wood heaters and motor cars and smoking. They are far more important issues for the public in Launceston than this pulp mill, 36 kilometres away.”

Australia’s Chief Scientist has concluded the pulp mil will be environmentally neutral.
Lets consign this vilification of a Tasmanian company and its employees to the editor’s bin.
Posted by cinders, Wednesday, 21 January 2009 10:16:06 PM
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Examinator, I suspect that we have more in common than with someone like Cinders, for example. Correct me if I'm wrong.
Crossed wires?
F'rinstance, I'd go along with the idea that comments like Cinders'( apt name given the incinerating of logged forests ) are more likely "emotive" than the protests of those drawingg attention to the corruption of the EPA process involved in objective study of the pulp mill.EPA's are themselves components of a real cost benefit analysis that includes costs to the comunity thru environmental damage and loss of biodiversity and productivity, as well as subsidies for another white elephant. Issues that go beyond mere divis thru paper shuffling etc for the vested interests trying to "sell" the pulp mill as a front for accounting tricks and speak to the well being of the Australian community.
Posted by paul walter, Friday, 23 January 2009 2:03:32 AM
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In these times I would imagine a new mill in the Tamar valley with all its jobs would be most welcome, and I would bet that the residents of the area would overwhelmingly welcome it.

The mill if built as designed would be as close to zero emmission as possible, and probably considerable less than most small businesses in the area, and still be profitable.

The failure of the Gunns' engineers to fully answer the questions posed are due almost entirely to the rapidly moving goal posts and technically illiterate nature of the questions.

The fact that the forests are already being logged for pulp mills overseas means that this would have no impact on the logging, and in fact would significantly reduce the pollution world wide compared to the less restricted mills overseas.

When the issues are not clouded by the emotional drivel spouted by the greens, there is very little reason not to proceed.
Posted by Shadow Minister, Tuesday, 27 January 2009 11:15:06 AM
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