Having lived and breathed this issue for more than two years now, Tragedy, the tragedy is that I know that democracy HAS been trashed here by Lennon's 'fast-track' process - the people who stand to lose most from this development (namely most of the population of Tasmania, and especially those in the Tamar Valley) have not been listened to at all, which is why we are 'bleating' as you put it. I don't know how au fait you are with the Pulp Mill Assessment Bill 2007, but it is pretty awful stuff, if this development gets approval and then something goes wrong. There is absolutely NOTHING that affected parties can do in this case - that is written into the legislation. There are all kinds of exemptions for smells and airborne particulates.
This issue is much more than simply a pulp mill development in an inappropriate place. It goes to the core of democratic principles, when the majority of the population (as shown by EVEY PUBLISHED POLL) can be so arrogantly ignored on such a vital issue. And don't come back with the 'mandate' issue: what people voted on in the last state election was not this monster, but a smaller, closed loop chlorine-free mill in an appropriate location. There was no 'mandate' for this.
Yes, we WILL fight tooth and nail to prevent this disaster, and this is not simply a 'greens' versus 'development' debate as many try to paint it. We are fighting for our lives, our livelihoods and our beautiful valley.

Sooz; you can’t take my first post too seriously cause I play the devils advocate a lot. Problem is, even my mate reckons I was not my best at that time, switching views all through.

It’s a joke! A lot of stuff written on this pulp mill issue comes from folks who just visit or read books on process plants. I freelanced in major industry as the calibration and commission tech in all sorts of systems. Behind the scene I recruited trades for the boss whoever. Only a handful remained at start up time.

In DC, AC, superheated steam engineering, haz chem. etc just staying smart goes way beyond the books. Clever dicks from academia singed my whiskers more than once while running the plant on pure calculation. In the end, only the same band came in at the end of each new project. Good consultants recruited internationally.

Note: Sudden de-watering of pulp is never mentioned! Trouble shooting a pulp& paper process begins here, science can’t help in the mop up. H2S is your regular companion.

Automation kills jobs but only when it works. Hardly any plants run to their original design on day one. Mods are a big part of an installation stage and this may be due to feedback from a pilot plant. Scaling up can still get ugly though. My last job was in the cross fire before and after our GSM system rollout. When system protection from interference is seen as another art, negotiations are easy. Governments rarely slip into that role properly without a great deal of practical input.

Back to Gunns proposal: This mill is too big for its boots as planned. Tasmania needs several independent operators competing for pulpwood with at least partially guaranteed domestic paper making outlets to secure reasonable volume long term. As the Cinderella state Tasmania can expect a full golden slipper in return for a three way consortium on each.

Tasmania’s vast timber resource is a valuable to the Commonwealth as the old Snowy hydro electric scheme particularly at election time.