Hodgman’s “renewal” threatens to doze Florentine
Sunday, April 13th, 2014
For the cause and their honour
Camp Flozza remembered
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New Tasmanian Premier Will Hodgman believes in a headline sense of “economic renewal” somehow and that his vote to power provides a Viking Mandate for him to ecologically ‘rape pillage and plunder’ Tasmania’s natural resources.
With the business community on side, the minerals council, the housing industry association, the developers, the loggers, everything is up for grabs, especially Tasmania’s old growth forests.
Logging trucks are already crossing back over Bass Strait from exile in parochial log state Queensland.
Here we go again…
Tasmanian police escort a log truck out of the Upper Florentine Valley after a week of protests, January 2009.
[Source: ‘Protests have failed to stop the log trucks’, 20090121, ABC News,
^http://www.abc.net.au/news/2009-01-21/tasmanian-police-escort-a-log-truck-out-of-the/273180]
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“We are going to embrace a new way of doing things in this state,” Mr Hodgman said.
Scary. What does he mean by that?
Not one for mature mediation, ham-fisted Hodgman is determined to tear up the $273 million ‘Tasmanian Forest Agreement‘ in what he has off-handedly vilified as a “job-destroying forest deal.” “It only threatened to lock away forever future productive forest.”
But how many Tasmanian loggers got paid out by Canberra’s $273 million Will? How much of that $273 million is left? Are you endorsing two-timing loggers – those paid out and now in for second crack?
So the hated 19th Century wood chip pulp mill is back on the table, with no prospect of profit, just a ‘work-for-the-dole’ scheme for crusted-on loggers.
But Hodgman, like Groom and Rundle before him, is sure short-term market conditions for woodchips will improve. Six hundred year old forests are renewable anyway Will reckons. Will says he has a mandate to follow through on the divisive election promise. “More wood equals more jobs” and “our plan focuses on growing the industry … not appeasing environmentalists.”
Dem’s fightin’ words indeed!
“I can’t do this on my own with these. . . people.”
Hodgman’s heavies are regrouping and more police are being recruited and resourced. Hodgman is prepared for Forest War on the belief he has the endorsement of high-T Tasmanians.
“We will not allow the past to drag us down and stop us from moving ahead. We understand where we should move.” ~ Vladimir Putin.
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Does young Will mean blood?.
Rally to Defend Tasmania’s World Heritage in the Upper Florentine!
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When: Sunday, 27 April 2014
Time: 12 noon for 12:30pm start
Where: Camp Flozza, In Tasmania’s magnificent Florentine Valley World Heritage Area, Gordon River Road, 21 km east of Maydena
(From Maydena drive along Gordon River Road, heading towards Lake Pedder. On the right, 3.3 km from the Thumbs Lookout, there will be signs for rally).
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Tasmanians and Australians this is your time!
The Bob Brown Foundation is hosting a rally in World Heritage listed forests of the Upper Florentine, Tasmania, in response to the Australian Government’s intention to remove 74,000 ha from the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area.
Speakers include Senator Christine Milne – Leader of the Australian Greens, Peg Putt – CEO of Markets for Change and Miranda Gibson – spokesperson for Still Wild Still Threatened.
Bob Brown Foundation Campaign Manager Jenny Weber said, “Tasmania’s globally significant World Heritage Area is gravely threatened by the Australian Government’s request to the World Heritage Committee to remove 74,000ha of forests from World Heritage listing. We are receiving huge support from members of the public who are coming along to this rally, people who love these forests and don’t want to see the listing stripped from forests which have outstanding universal values.”
“We will stand together in the magnificent World Heritage listed Upper Florentine forests to support the world heritage convention and call for protection of Tasmania’s Wilderness World Heritage Area and the maintenance of the current boundary. Standing together among the ancient tall eucalyptus forests, we will prove that the Australian Government is wrong in claiming that it is logged and degraded,” Jenny Weber said.
“The Upper Florentine is pristine. This entire region is proposed for removal from the World Heritage Area, though it is a perfect contradiction of the Liberal Government’s claims that these 74,000 ha are logged or degraded. The Upper Florentine is an extensive area of pristine tall eucalypt forest, part of a corridor of tall eucalyptus forests from the far south to the central west of Tasmania, recognised as World Heritage in 2013. This intact region of ancient forest is again under threat by the Australian Government’s proposal to remove these magnificent intact forests for logging,” Jenny Weber said.
World Heritage Campaign ManagerThe Bob Brown Foundation [Source: ^http://www.bobbrown.org.au/rally_to_defend_world_heritage]
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Sacred Upper Florentine Valley being logged only a few years ago
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For Tasmanians, Tasmania is all we’ve got.
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