Matthew Denholm; 8/1/09; (2 Items)
Timber company Gunns has raised the stakes in the battle over Tasmania’s native forests, lodging a new lawsuit against 13 anti-logging protesters. Gunns is seeking unspecified damages against the young activists, who disrupted work at the company’s Triabunna woodchip mill last month. It is also seeking a court injunction restraining the protesters – who disrupted work at the mill for more than seven hours on December 16 – from entering any Gunns property. Gunns claims the writ follows damage to its business from the “unlawful” protest. The defendants described the writ as “bullying” designed to shut down legitimate protest and stifle debate.
See: http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24885908-5013404,00.html
It’s time to stop and get off the Gunns pulp mill merry-go-round
Bob McMahon; 8/1/09
As the community campaign against the Gunns pulp mill proposed for the Tamar Valley enters its fifth year, federal Environment Minister Peter Garrett has set a new deadline of March 3, 2011, for Gunns to complete hydrodynamic modelling of effluent dispersal into Bass Strait. The extension condemns the people of Tasmania — the communities of the Tamar Valley in particular — to at least two more years of uncertainty and conflict. Investment in the region will continue to dry up because of the continuing threat of the pulp mill. The property market collapsed years ago — an analysis of sales figures for 2003 and 2008 show a 75% decline — and people have held off investing for four years in the hope that the mill plan will be knocked on the head. Gunns has continually failed to meet deadlines and has continually been granted extensions. It’s like playing “pass the parcel” to a cracked record. The music never stops and the parcel goes round and round.
See: http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/its-time-to-stop-and-get-off-the-gunns-pulp-mill-merrygoround-20090107-7byn.html
Tags: Australia, Environment, Human Rights