Llewellyn, Gordon and Gay, as three wise men from Tasmania should by now understand that
1. The secret is to look for solutions and not to blame the community and the environment movement.
2. To shrink the state Parliament in order to “get rid” of the Greens was unsuccessful and needs to be reversed.
3. The Japanese customers have listened to the many voices and they now realise that the forest-mining industry together with Forestry Tasmania and the LabLib Governments have pretended for years, cunningly belittled the issues.
4. Despite realising the growing problem, they went into denial and spend massive amounts of public money and energy to mask away the truth.
5. How we got to this point is only relevant to deciding where we go from here.
6. We know many of our mistakes from the past, but are doomed to repeat them while we refuse to admit to them.
They had their chance, they had their time, they made their money – now their time is up. Game over!
Posted by Community Voice on 21/01/10 at 07:42 AM
David Llewellyn is undermining the Rudd Government!
The massive subsidies he is paying to Gunns is actually distorting the world woodchip market.
This was one of the surprise findings of some new research my colleagues have undertaken.
Kevin Rudd has seen thousands of Australians lose their jobs in companies like ACL Bearings and the Burnie paper mill, but refused to help on the grounds that Australia would be ‘punished’ by our international trading partners.
Gunns woodchips are undercutting Canadian woodchips in Japan, simply because of the massive government subsidies propping-up the supply out of Tasmania.
David Llewellyn is acting as a ‘rogue agent’, lobbying on behalf of Gunns in a direct contradiction of ALP World Trade Agreement policy.
Posted by no pulp mill on 21/01/10 at 08:15 AM
#2 please detail where this so called research paper can be found, does it actually exist?
Posted by mary on 21/01/10 at 10:28 AM
The Canadians should complain and end the props.
Posted by phill PARSONS is beyond salvation on 21/01/10 at 11:41 AM
THE GARDEN GNOMES LAST CHANCE AT GLORY.
Giving away something that isn’t his to give.
The old English gentleman that said (on the fox issue) Llewellyn would prefer, after pinning his colors to the mast, to let the ship sink rather than strike the colors.
Certainly got that one right Jim.
Posted by Ian Rist on 21/01/10 at 12:08 PM
(2)
You got something that can prove that Karl ?
use my email address if you wish !
d.d.
Posted by d.d. on 21/01/10 at 01:27 PM
Never misses an opportunity does our David. ‘Seeing that Airdy failed in Sweden, I’ll try Tokyo’. Perhaps Gunns has a new line in wooden harpoons and paper plates, and what vegies do the Japs eat with their sea-steaks? Ah, McCain….
Do you think uncle Bob is going to do a deal with all that redundant wood he has now that Gunns have gone all enviromental and plantation and no longer require it? You want chips, cheap…? You buy BIG boat, we fill it up…good?
Of course, all these people are paying for their trip out of their own pockets….?
Posted by Gerry Mander on 21/01/10 at 05:25 PM
mary (3) Much of the information was found on sites such as this:
As you can see, Gunns are undercutting Radiata pine chips from New Zealand and spruce-pine-fir chips from Canada with eucalyptus softwood chips. Remember, Canada and the US is only about one third of the freight distance from Japan as Victoria and Tasmania, so to undercut their product, Gunns chips must be dirt cheap.
The subsidies gifted to this one company, the world’s biggest woodchip exporter are legendary. How converting a centuries old tree into a pile of woodchips is seen a ‘value adding’, while making metal powder into bearings or fine produce into frozen food, are seen as tasks best left to a third world country, is almost unbelievable.
The fact is, Kevin Rudd has firmly supported free trade, but curiously members of his own party are obsessively imposing their narrow agendas onto the rest of Australia, while they enrich foreign shareholders and destroy our planet.
To me it appears Gunns have manufactured a very polarised debate in Tasmania, seeking to isolate us into two groups, disconnected from their actual world markets.
Interestingly, they have managed to ‘marry’ totally unrelated industries and occupations under the single label of ‘forestry’.
Hence in Tasmania driving a log truck and hand-crafting a musical instrument are seen as almost the same occupation. The research that turned up these subsidy-driven distortions is on an unrelated issue but overlaps Tasmania’s woodchip industry. It may end-up as a report one day.
Posted by no pulp mill on 21/01/10 at 08:06 PM
Karl owes Llewellyn an apology for the “rogue trader” jibe. LLewy has never done anything except under orders.
John Hayward
Posted by john Hayward on 21/01/10 at 08:57 PM
Well there we have it in a hat box, “gambling is a “part of life” in Tasmania” from the premier of this state and sweetheart deals for foreign companies, that have no regard for the civilisation in Tasmania, from the minister for primary industries.
No vision, no future-proofing plans, just more of the same violation of human evolution.
You are stone-cold, dead in the water, Labor.
There is a world out there that is moving forward but here you are stuck in the year 1900 - 1910.
The people of this state are calling out for innovation and growth; protection of resources and pride of our achievements, yet all we really are is a nanny state and you, Labor, have no idea of how to listen to the chorus of new ideas.
We want to open this place up for the world to enjoy while you, Labor, want to give it to someone, anyone, from any other country to suck up into their consumer driven machines that employ their own populace.
Liberal? same animal different hide.
Greens? better find some solid heart boys and girls and have dimensional programs that people will understand. Cliche driven umbrage does not enhance your position.
Posted by JohnWade on 22/01/10 at 06:34 AM
American subsidies on beef and wheat were blamed for undercutting the Australian markets, so why shouldn’t the result be the same with our woodchips and Canada’s? It is all about market forces, which apply whatever the product.
Posted by salamander on 22/01/10 at 07:21 AM
Now you can see why the Tasmanian Government did not raise a voice to condemn the sinking of the Agy Gil and did not stop the Japanese from revictualising and using surveillance planes out of Tassie. Couldn’t endanger a nice little timber deal for their mate, could they?
Posted by Gerry Mander on 22/01/10 at 07:37 AM
Disparaging remarks about the Greens in general reflect no credit on their authors.
It is abundantly clear to me that the only political party fit to govern this state is the Tasmanian Greens.
The sooner all Tasmanians wake up to this state’s increasingly urgent need for stability, honesty, integrity and progress, the better.
Posted by Peter Bright on 22/01/10 at 08:14 AM
Karl Stevens #8 has now invented a new Tasmanian species….“eucalyptus softwood” !!
Posted by Bob on 22/01/10 at 11:00 AM
#13 Peter is so right and we urge him to join our party immediately.
It is clear that disparaging the Greens cannot be allowed if, in Peter’s view, they are the only political party fit to govern this state.
Others believe that Labor or Liberal are the only fit party to govern this state, therefore they should not be disparaged either.
The government itself is clearly the only group actually fit to govern at the moment, therefore they should not be disparaged.
The answer is censorship by this site’s editor to assure that no dissenting views are published about the government, or any party that anyone thinks is fit to govern.
The same arguments apply to all the other environmentalist calls for ‘unity’ by suppressing dissenting views and information.
And what better way of insuring honesty and integrity than absolute censorship of disparate views?
Who better to assure stability than us?
Our single viewpoint regime has been sorely misunderstood in the past. It is clear that environmental groups are now ready for our rule.
Suppress dissent and difference.
Embrace totalitarian Nazism forever!
Posted by Tasmanian Nazi Party on 22/01/10 at 12:33 PM
John howard left the labor party a legacy of not funding goverment school… but ony a few people said this was done by the liberal party , but everyone is putting the blame on kevin rudd, like the sunrise team mel doyle, but the sunrise never mention about school funding when john howard was running the country . rudd should help the goverment school better and not be like the liberal party and give everything for private school’s.. the goverment are to help goverment run’s school’s and not private
Posted by signofthetimes on 22/01/10 at 12:36 PM
Peter (#13), where this state is heading stability, honesty, integrity and progress are surplus to requirements.
The Greens will not be allowed to win until they are as irrelevant and corrupt as the other parties.
Posted by Justa Bloke on 22/01/10 at 01:17 PM
The actions of the Tasmanian ethics party, recently formed, act as a lighthouse for Tasmanian ethics to all of Australia, indeed the world.
If we can just deceive enough people into thinking that we’re ethical, we’ll be able to sit on the Right hand of Labor in government.
Posted by Aristotle on 22/01/10 at 02:28 PM
#8 Eucalyptus SOFTWOOD chips? Perhaps you need to recheck your facts.
Posted by mary on 22/01/10 at 02:36 PM
mary (19) Your right, sorry about the word ‘eucalyptus’ in the wrong place. Not only is Australia successfully undercutting North America in the softwood chip trade to Japan, but we are also Japans main hardwood chip supplier. That means we are competing successfully with hardwood product sourced from Thailand, Malaysia and Vietnam, even though they are very much closer to that market. Not only are Gunns subsidies ‘distorting’ the world market but they have propelled our publicly-owned forests into a meaningless ‘race to the bottom’ of the world hardwood chip market.
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