The article deserves better than to be ignored.
Let's hope the financial events of this week divert enough capital away for the thing for it to drown in its own sh-t.

What a load of rubbish.

The closest comparison to the Tamar valley would be the pulp and paper mill built in Tumut in 2000.

The economy and facilities are now booming in a town that was slowly dying.

The reason that no one from the greens ever draws a comparison with that plant is that it is also a modern plant that runs with almost no effluent or pollution. The comparisons are always made with plants 40+ years old.

Give it a break.

Peter Henning

I'm not all that au fait with environmental regulation in Tasmania.

"It then provides for conditions to be imposed on the mill and gives regulators the power to enforce the conditions as if they were made under another Act,"

Over my way, regulators make sure that the conditions of licence are very few and not too burdensome on the polluter - oh yes indeed!

So when the big end of town spews out bucket loads and the department receives a few community objections, appellants are simply advised that the objections are irrelevant because they are not in the conditions of licence and are therefore, unenforceable.

And who cares when the emissions exceed international guidelines? Guidelines aren't enforceable either!

Regulators are also very skilled at manipulating excessively high stack emission levels to "ambient" readings by their own "you beaut" computer modelling. Clearly they don't give a stuff about the troposphere or on whose dinner plate a cup full of dioxins may settle.

One previous Environment Minister, after community outrage, instructed the Department of Environment to enforce a capping of hazardous emissions on a big polluter, however, the senior bureaucrats in her Department ignored her instructions. Oh well, at least we have her apologies in writing.

Don't like your chances Mate - profits before people and all that stuff.

These bureaucratic eco-vandals operate by smoke and mirrors and we sheeple are collateral damage - cannon fodder - aye that's for sure!

By the way, spare a thought for the poor buggers in Kwinana:

http://209.85.173.104/search?q=cache:RRe9rnNjuYcJ:www.sprol.com/%3Fp%3D323+kwinana+pollution&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=au&lr=lang_en

What is interesting about this debate is that it is not just the 'deep greens' or 'greenies' who have taken on the Gunn's Pulp Mill. Business people, their employees and the townsfolk of the Tamar Valley who rely on tourism and who wish to protect the health of their community from emissions, joined forces with Greenies in an effort to stop the pulp mill from going ahead.

Anyone who believes that there will be no toxic effluent into Bass Strait from this mill or that there will be no ill-effects on biodiversity from logging of old growth forests or risk to the health of locals is kidding themselves.

I am not at all surprised that there are built-in protections in the legislation for Gunn's and their contractors. This is just further evidence of the corruption and shenanigans that this debate has seen from its inception.

Forcing people to resign from the Resource Planning and Development Commission after raising concerns about the failure to meet assessment guidelines, fast-tracking approval outside the parliamentary process when Gunn's was found to be non-compliant and the bribery charge against one of the Gunn's managers (can't remember who)are just some examples.

Cronyism, corruption and greed in all their glorious forms from beginning to end. Why has no federal politician from either major party bought Gunns and the Lennon Government to account for these actions?

Pelican - No manager of Gunns has ever been convicted of bribery.

Just shows how shallow your argument is. You are clutching at straws to strengthen your argument.

If you think bribery does not exist "because there are no convictions" you are *extremely* naive. This is a general point that applies to any system in our society.