The Editor,
Dear Sir,

If the Mt Wellington cable car proposal ever gets back on the rails, (Mercury, December 19) and if the member for Nelson, Jim Wilkinson, supports it, then the Greeens might reflect on the fact that he was re-elected in 2001 on Green preferences.

I was runner-up and was, in 2001, the Chairman of the Wellington Park Management Trust which developed the Wellington Park Management Plan through, as Peg Putt says, “years of community consultation.”

By the way, I live inside the Nelson electorate and definitely did not receive Mr Wilkinson’s recent elector survey.

Yours sincerely,
Pru Bonham

Whew!! I was worried but expect Pru’s letter is a good enough cap for that load of claptrap. 

Thank goodness for good planning work done and watch out for deceptive survey claims.

Just a brief list of things wrong with the survey:

* Because it is issued by a specific member of parliament, those who support that member are more likely to respond to it.  Since those who support Jim Wilkinson are more likely to also support the Liberal Party (as witnessed by Wilkinson’s very high vote in Lower Sandy Bay) this could skew the results.

* Any survey that requires the voter to make effort in their own time to participate (such as returning a form) is prone to bias because people of certain political views could be more likely to either feel inclined (motivated response), or to have time to, return the survey.  In particular, retirees, who are more likely to support a cable car for mobility reasons, may also have more spare time to respond to surveys of this kind.

* The response rate is pathetic - less than 10% based on ABC Radio’s reports that around 800 surveys were returned.

* The use of loaded terms like “low impact” (it is questionable whether any form of cable car will factually merit such a description) could also not only create bias but also constitute a very mild case of push-polling.

* Some residents (including both my mother and I) did not receive the questionnaire.  If this is because of having No Junk Mail stickers, that would lead to still further bias, because those having such stickers tend to be green-leaning.  (I guess I’m an exception, but not necessarily on this issue!)

In short, the Wilkinson survey tells us nothing except that about 500 people in Nelson might support a cable car if certain, not necessarily practical, conditions can be met.  This sort of thing is only one level up from the odious push-poll “questionnaires” circulated by certain Liberal Senators.  I challenge Mr Wilkinson to commission an independent opinion poll on this issue.

By the way I am not necessarily totally opposed to the concept, but I am very very sceptical of it.  Furthermore I think any politician who supports the spending of even a single cent of public money on any aspect of the proposal is simply unworthy of public office.  I still well recall the wastage of public money on investigating various harebrained cable-car schemes in the past.

This proposal has been around for what 20 years?

Why not build the thing and get on with it. Imagine the significance of the project in terms of economics, and in terms of the tourist ‘benchmark’ statement it will make.

A cable car is a far more interesting and dynamic tourist event, than driving up the mountain and generating all that pollution to do so!

How many television towers are on Mount Wellington’s pinnacle?

They are quite tall aren’t they?

How many television sets are there in Southern Tasmania?

I’m off to watch the last session of the First Test and I’m really looking forward to the Boxing Day Test too.

I have been given a book of photography of Australian countryside for my birthday today. 

Absolutely fantastic scenery all around the big island and this one.

Looking through the deck doors westward to the block mountain in the silver mist I see it as magical as any shot in the magnificent book set.

I’d hate to think what he would feel if King Billy saw the mountain in the big with cable car paraphenalia clogging it poetry.  Beauty is power.  It’s fuel. If you don’t know, that’s very sad. Extinction of a beauty is forever.  Sure it’s about in abundance but in some places it is supremely valuable.

Add a cable car to the three red elephants, optic fibre cable, gas pipeline, Meander dam, forestry, bass link, southwood, EL’s, rail debacle, ABT railwaiy, support for racing compared to the support for health and the total economic and environmental stupidity of a eucalypt pulpmill. You have a perfect example of how the lab/lib coalition looks after their future rather than ours.

Who would build it, federal hotels, walker corporation, a Kent, Gay, Farrel, coalition. How far back in time do the supporters of these stupid ideas live, there are many better ways to get people up Mnt Wellington without these prehistoric ideas. The same goes for the proposed destruction of the springs, corporate greed ahead of common sense. It’s alright for the minority of those that get their kicks out of holidays that are the same around the world, high rise everything, low mentality. They are a dying race, but still hold power.

Whilst the travellers of the world are becoming more and more desperate to find pristine and natural destinations, the idiot elite are still concentrating on destroying Tasmania as fast as they can.

Pru, Kevin

What about a cable car up Mount Stuart?

Regards

Good Night & Good Luck

No problem. Cable Car in Cape Town is wonderful. Porter Hill would be a great location.  Perhaps Santa will bring us one.
cheers Pru

Not In My Back Yard!

I’d like to see analysis correlating the hatching of cable car proposals with sunspot cycles, El Nino, Christmas week and any other periodical cycles….State elections, perhaps?
cheers Pru

Pru

I respect your opinions and your stance, however, your comments beg the question - is Luna Park in St Kilda an icon, does it add to the glorious and colourful nature of Melbourne’s premier suburb or is it just plain ugly? I have always been petrified of rollercoasters, but surely we all have to face up to life’s realities.

Cheers

Good Night & Good Luck

Hi think this is a good idea for tas it will bring more people to the state and we can show em what tassie is all about. Every one comes to Aus to see Sydney Harbour and all of that stuff well tassie is just as good we are probaly better than that mob on the main land so come to tassie

The original cable car proposal was an excellent idea then, it is even more relevant today if Tasmania is to continue building a viable industry in tourism , also the view from mt,wellington is such as should be taken full advantage of as is done in other cities around the world with similar attractions.
  I believe it should be built by the govt or the Hobart city council @ not privateer’s as it would prove to be a huge earner , keeping the money in the state !
          d.d.

Mediocrity and culture cringe will win the day. There would be sad loss at the mountain top that would diffuse many visits and those who go there by cable car would be blind to what they miss. The distant visual interuptions to the mountains visual poetry would be worsened by the pointlessness of the project. The intrusion to the bushwalker, driver and animal realms on the mountainside would be brutish.

(This mountain is smaller and set differently from Table Mountain in South Africa.)

And what for routine tourist claptrap, litter, queues, facilities, crowds, tramplings and intrusions in something delicate and beautiful ... for politifcal points, the mediocre and money.

... real class Tasmania! ... if you’ll please forgive the sarcasm.

Let the road be adequate.

Contrary to Don I would be seriously concerned if the state or council was to become commercially involved in a cable car project. Governments of all persuasions have a clear capacity to put politics ahead of economic sense and ignore Treasury or other expert advise.

An “Economically Rational” solution would be to determine the most ecologically and aesthetically feasible route, say via Lenah Valley or Tolosa St. Then auction off the rights to operate the cable car for 50 years. The proceeds could then go into a trust fund for a worthy cause .. for example a new Hobart Hospital, light rail etc.

Opponents of the cable car can then put themselves into a grouping, similar to the Investors group opposing the pulp mill, and bid for the cable car rights and then simply not build it. Proponents can put in a bid ... if the proposal is dependent on state subsidies or free access to the land, then it is not worth doing anyway. If on the other hand it is expected to make pots of money (doubtful) as Don suggests then the bids will be high and the public can benefit through improved infrastructure via the trust fund.

Such a process is clearly a little too transparent for a Lennon government but it is a good economic test for both the proponents and opponents of a project.

(15)
        As i suspected, once more the mindless minority start their usual bleating, if we are to stop this goddamn pulp mill, and other propositions of this nature ,we have to put all our effort into the alternative ! and that is tourism ! sure ! it may rank a little of commercialism , but it is far better and less intrusive than the alternative .
        The point is we CANNOT have everything and some compromises are essential !
                d.d.

And for those who can’t/won’t drive.. the disabled, the infirm, .. well, just stand at the bottom and enjoy the un-impeded view of the mountain.

After all, there are plenty of pictures available of the view from the summit. Don’t know why anyone really NEEDS to go up there anyway.. can’t have tourists intruding on our mountain now can we. Fancy that..it just won’t do.

The pinnacle really must be reserved for those special few who feel that becasue they are able to drive to it they should be granted exclusive access to it.

And while we’re at it we really should look at getting some of those tourist boats off the harbour. All that queing and trampling and intrusion is a disgrace. And what about the number of hire cars on the road.. tsk tsk, it’s a disgrace.