Thread: Tassie

He along with others arrested broke the law, laws are laws even if you are trying to make a protest point. There would have been no media attention if he hadnt been arrested, they achieved there goal. I dont agree with clear felling forest any where but we have more locked up than any other state. Maybe if you feel so strong about Gunns and tassie forests you should look in your own statew for a start and see what you can do to assist the envoromental cause there. What may that be in your state, I dont know, lack of water, coal powered power stations, we have clean power for the most (hydro) and water is the problem it is in other states. So dont worry too much about Peter but certainly spend a bit of time worring about your own back yard
cheers
blaze

Just looked and seen your are from QLD, think you guys have more to worry about in your over populated SE corner than tassie has with its trees
cheers
blaze
ps
I love to visit QLD, normally on an annual basis but love coming home to Tassie

Logging is an incredible environmentally damaging operation, after all it has to by nature, destroy habitat. That said, it is realistically a lot better than many other forms of agriculture if done properly because it can better create habitat.

Old growth logging is, however, just plain destructive. There is no need for this if cleared forests had been replanted in sustainable manner over the decades of Tasmania's forestry industry. Of course a lot has, but there is also a lot that hasn't been. The same applies to the rest of Australia.

Why we need a another pulp mill is beyond me, especially one that will be using old growth timber. Pulping in a general sense is not value adding, it's just the first step in processing. It's also in general the least energy efficient part of the processing. The Gunn's pulp mill does not seem to be a very sustainable project for the long term and to me that also makes it pointless. Why put short term profit for a company over long term sustainability for future generations.

As to Peter Cundel's arrest as BBlaze said, he was breaking the law and that's all there is to it. Other's also got arrested, did we hear their names mentioned, no, they were not high enough profile. Did they get their point across, possibly. Will it make any difference, doubtful.

Originally Posted by bblaze

He along with others arrested broke the law, laws are laws even if you are trying to make a protest point. There would have been no media attention if he hadnt been arrested, they achieved there goal. I dont agree with clear felling forest any where but we have more locked up than any other state. Maybe if you feel so strong about Gunns and tassie forests you should look in your own statew for a start and see what you can do to assist the envoromental cause there. What may that be in your state, I dont know, lack of water, coal powered power stations, we have clean power for the most (hydro) and water is the problem it is in other states. So dont worry too much about Peter but certainly spend a bit of time worring about your own back yard
cheers
blaze

I agree with most of what you say, but the 'clean power' bit is misleading as the water bodies created to power the dams consist of vast areas of flooded forest most of which were not cleared beforehand. So the carbon store has gone forever, and indeed the lakes release vast amount of harmful gases as the underlying vegetation rots away. But then again we do have lots of forests locked up - perhaps too much for 4wdrivers given the limitations on access nowadays - and Gunns don't like you playing on their vast plantations, much of which was once Crown and in many cases very productive farm land.

The law might be the law, but the law is often an ass used by powerful people to get their own way

The point that should be made here, is that this is a new power given to police to be used for a specific purpose. This power was given by the Tas. Government, on behalf of the people. This power is in this case viewed by a vast majority, as having been misused.

All these people were doing was having a peaceful protest about something they disagree with. Now if you are Australian and believe in freedom, do you think that this right should be taken away??

There is a very dangerous social delima here, if people get this treatment for protesting peacefully, and if you get less or even similar treatment for violent acts then why protest peacefully.
If we allow this precedent to be set, then the next phase in our development will be a negative more aggressive way of expressing ourselves as seen on our TV's every night.

Weather its the pope or john smith, the law should be the law, but in reality it isn't and never has been and never will be.

I believe that no matter the individuals political alliances, Tasmania's Labor Government has to be voted out at the next election, and we need to get a new government in who listens to the people and who brings in an anti corruption element that has retrospective powers.

Even the government agencies are turning on this current government, and in old terms that is the start of a mutiny.

Try not to get into the forests vs the people debate as this is not the issue.

This is my view, feel free to disagree. It would be pretty boring if we all thought the same.

I have no like for the timber industry in most of this country. They have had two hundred years to buy freehold land and grow their own trees and thus control their destiny. Few have, and most of those are not genuine industrial enterprises and were only tax and commission scams.

The industry relies on taking publicly owned trees for which they pay a pittance.

Whilst I agree that the law is the law, a peaceful protest deserves to be, and should be allowed.

Tassie is now run by Gunns, whereas pre this it was run by the Hydro. What gets me is that no state seems to learn from another states previous problems. Vast areas of Sth Aus, NSW and Vic have been clearfelled in the past (not to mention QLD) pulped and planted with green cancer (pine) It is not an environmentally sensible or sustainable way to treat what remains of our old growth forests. And as Brian has said, the "foresters" have had their chances to change these practices in the past.

The same arguments could be applied to the urban sprawl, as lessons hard learned in NSW have been ignored in QLD, which is why we have the problems in SEQ now.

Logging in Australia is a FARCE these private multinational companies set up here and are supplied their raw product by State Governments Forestry Depts. for less than it costs to actually cut down a tree, let alone the cost of debarking, cutting to length and transporting to the pulp mill.
Australian Taxpayers, you and me, are subsidising Multinational companies Billions of $ to Take our trees turn them into paper and sell it back to us, what a CON.
Here on the South Coast of NSW Harris Diashowa (nice Aussie name) pays $9.50 a tonne for LOGS delivered to it's pulp mill in Eden, many of these logs are transported hundreds of klms.
It would cost you more than $9.50 to gather a tonne of firewood from the forest, so, when you pay for paper products that you originally owned in the first place for a second or third time you can feel proud that our Governments are looking after our interests, that's why I hate logging, Regards Frank.