MY fellow Tasmanians,

In the 20th century tyranny took the form of totalitarian government. In the 21st century it takes the form of monopoly corporations. In Tasmania we have a political situation so debased that Tasmania’s interests is defined by our political leaders as identical with Gunns profits, and anyone who questions Gunns greed is therefore defined as a traitor to Tasmania.

But if loving this island and standing up for it is what makes you a traitor, then I am proud to be called a traitor.

This rally is sponsored by the Wilderness Society and the Wilderness Society survives on tax deductible donations. The Federal Liberal Govt relishes every opportunity to press home its case that an organization that makes political statements is not entitled to its tax exemption privileges, and so anything political I say may threaten the future of the Wilderness Society. So although the Liberal and Labor Party receive large sums from Gunns and their policies are pro Gunns, it is difficult for me today to talk to you about the Liberal or Labor Party.

And because Gunns is presently suing people who have spoken out about the destruction of this island, and because we know they are here today taping this event to add to their ever more bulging files, I will not talk today about the history of corruption in Tasmania

But I am a freeborn Tasmanian. I belong to no party and no organisation, and I grew up in an island one quarter of which’s European history is steeped in tyranny. In 1828 a song popular in Hobart Town celebrating the seizure of the Cyprus brig by convicts was banned by the authorities. The chorus had the offending words: It’s liberty, boys, it’s liberty we crave.

And that’s why we are here today. Because once more it’s liberty Tasmanians crave. Because once more we are banned from using the words we wish to use.

Freedom languishes in the muddy ash of the clearfells

Because freedom of expression has become so difficult, and freedom of association — the blood of democracy — has been redefined in the Gunns 20 writ as criminal conspiracy, and freedom in Tasmania languishes in the muddy ash of the clearfells.

Because once more, fear is abroad in Tasmania. Who is next to have their lives destroyed because they cared enough about their beautiful island home to say something, to do something. Whose job will be lost, career ruined, good name destroyed? Cycles of violence for which no one is responsible but for which we all must answer are set in train: homes are burnt down, people physically attacked.

Yet we are faced with a paradox: the great majority of Tasmanians know what is happening on our island. The great majority of Tasmanians do not like what is happening; yet such is the fear they choose to do nothing.

They know the intimidation, the lies, the threats, the dirty deals. They know the venality and brutality. They have been ripped off, they’ve been oversprayed, and they know that what happens here happens not for the benefit of Tasmanians but for the profit of a handful.

For the woodchippers’ immense power threatens not only our forest, but Tasmania’s future. Not content with our great forests, their greed now destroys not only our natural heritage, but distorts our parliament, deforms our polity, cows our media and stunts our society.

Such a time is now

And what allows all this to continue is us.

But there comes a time when we must make a stand that they do not wish to make. When we must choose between remaining silent or speaking out, between acting or not acting, between the ease of cowardice and the loneliness of conscience.

And such a time is now.

Tasmanians are not a small nor a mean people. We are not a stupid or a corrupt people.

But over three decades as our beautiful places, our holy places were trashed, we allowed ourselves to be divided, we allowed ourselves to hate our brothers and sisters, we deluded ourselves that what lay between us was greater than what brought us together as Tasmanians, and we capitulated to the fear in our hearts. We shrugged our shoulders and looked the other way when we heard about the poisonings, the burn offs, the odd, inexplicable and unexplained deals. Because we were frightened — of our jobs, of others, of our position.

We can only look to ourselves.

We have to learn to stop hating and we have to see in the plight of others our own dilemma. To recognise that in the anguish of the Scottsdale pine milling families — bandoned by the Lennon govt — is our own aguish; that in the suffering of the logging contractors ripped off by Gunns — again, as was reported last week also abandoned by the Lennon government — in their exploitation is the same exploitation we wish to see ended,

But that the change will not come from any one party — be it Labor or Liberal or Green — taking power. It will come from the Tasmanian people finally saying enough is enough. This terrible era will only end when we have the courage and the largeness of spirit to make it end.

Stand up to the powerbrokers

It will only end when we stop being afraid.

It will only end when the many good people in the Liberal and Labor parties stand up to the powerbrokers in their parties and say enough is enough, it is our party and our island, not Gunns. It will only end when the many good trade unionists stand up to the handful of apparatchik and ask how can it be that we cheered the man who brought in the IR legislation in order to protect a monopoly that rips us off as workers?

It will only end when the many good journalists say to their their editors and chiefs of staffs they will no longer run lies spun by the powerful and that they will begin running the truth. It will only end when a public servant refuses to agree to cover up one more lie. Change will come not from a party or an organisation, but from myriad acts of individual courage, countless thousands of Tasmanians standing up in their workplace, their organisation and saying they wont be part of the big lie any more.

It is time. And it is time that we recognised that this is not a green issue. That this is not a Wilderness Society issue. It is an issue of whether this island belongs to the people or to a corporation. And if you think it is our island, if your love of this world is strong, go back to your workplace, go back to your friends, to your family and say we can and must and will end this terrible time. Have courage, speak of love, take action yourself, stand up for what you believe,  and our world will change.

For if Tasmania is truly ours then we must acknowledge that change is in the end not a matter of politics, but a matter of the heart, a matter of our souls.

When you are confronted with the issue of whether you should stay silent and do nothing, or say something and act, ask yourself just one question: whose Tasmania is it: Gunns or the people’s?

You may think that what I am speaking of is not a political answer. But it is in the end not a political question. You may say this is a dream, but unrealisable. But every great historical change begins in a dream. Only when logger and conservationist greet each other as the brother and sister they truly are, will we all be free.

The Tasmania which beckons is then one in which we all share, in which all prosper, united in our recognition that this land can as surely unite us as it has so long been used to divide us and keep us the poorest people in Australia.

I know we will endure, I know we will not be complicit in the selling of our soul,  and I know we will not give up. We must end the hate and the fear. Change is coming, we are on the road to our freedom and there is no turning back.

Thank you.

A speech made by Richard Flanagan, Parliament House Rally, Hobart, 16 March 2006

Richard Flanagan,
Killora,
Bruny Island.