Monday 23rd of December 2024
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malcolm all bull .....

 

malcolm all bull .....

from the ABC ….

Green group targets Turnbull over Gunns mill assessment

‘Environmentalists are taking legal action against federal Environment Minister Malcolm Turnbull over his assessment of Gunns' proposed northern Tasmanian pulp mill.

The Commonwealth had to begin its own environmental assessment of the $1.5 billion development after the timber company withdrew from the original assessment process.

But the Wilderness Society's Tasmanian campaign coordinator Geoff Law is claiming the new Commonwealth assessment is in breach of Federal environment laws and is taking the challenge to the Federal Court.

Mr Law says the legal action is aimed at ensuring a more rigorous assessment.

"Mr Turnbull has allowed Gunns to remove the proposed pulp mill from a thorough inquiry and get it assessed by a less rigorous process simply because the initial assessment didn't suit Gunns, and we believe the Act does not allow that to occur," Mr Law said.’

also from the ABC …..

MP calls for Turnbull's head

‘Independent Federal MP for New England Tony Windsor has called on the Prime Minister to sack Water Resources Minister Malcolm Turnbull for incompetence.

Mr Windsor says Mr Turnbull's comments that run-off from rain will not enter the river system because it has gone into groundwater reserves makes it clear he has no understanding of his portfolio.

He has also pointed to the absence of detail in the $10 billion National Water Scheme proposed for the Murray-Darling Basin.

Mr Windsor said the Minister lacked "a basic knowledge of basic water mechanics and soil science".

"Only yesterday he was saying the reason the rivers aren't running is because the rain that's falling is entering the groundwater system," he said.

"Any farmer would know that an inch of rain wets the top six inches of soil.

"The groundwater system is anything up to 150 metres below the soil."

gunn running .....

The Ausralian federalist system under John Howard appears to be irrevocably broken. Governments can stay within the letter of the law while violating the basic principles of democratic representation. 

A lightning review of the pulp mill process makes the point. 

We’ve had a Premier and a businessman doing a deal in a restaurant that places a private sector pulp mill onto the top of the government’s priority list. Before any evaluation, or even complete description, of the proposal we’ve had both state and federal Labor and Liberal parties support the proposal. All of the local governments in the region proposed for the mill also endorsed the proposal, again without any details. Many in the community wonder why such unqualified support was given so quickly. 

In the course of all of this, the project proponent was given the job of defining all of the impacts on communities and other industries, notwithstanding their obvious conflict of interest and their lack of expertise in many areas (e.g. fishing, tourism, agriculture). 

The mill proponents were given over $10 million in subsidies to prepare their case, and the state government spent more millions on subsidising a pro-mill marketing campaign and a pulp mill taskforce. 

Howard, Gunns, Political Donations: Our System Is Broken

Turnbulling...

Turnbull told me he hates pulp mill: Cundall

The host of ABC TV's Gardening Australia program, Peter Cundall, claims federal Environment Minister Malcolm Turnbull told him in August that he "hated" the Gunns pulp mill proposed for northern Tasmania.

Mr Cundall says Mr Turnbull approached him at a gardening show in Sydney to talk about the mill and said the Tamar Valley was a "stupid place" to build it.

"I also think that when he said, 'Oh Peter, Peter I just want you to know I hate this so-and-so mill, I hate it,' he was also I think extremely concerned about the effect it was having on his own campaign in Wentworth."

But Mr Turnbull says he has never expressed an emotional view on the pulp mill.

He told ABC Local Radio he did criticise the Tasmanian Government's fast-track assessment process for the mill but did not say he hated the project.

He says his conversation with Mr Cundall lasted only a few minutes.

"I don't recall saying that, and I've not expressed an emotional response to the pulp mill per se," said Mr Turnbull.

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Gus: It doesn't matter what Turnbull thinks or thought... what matters is what he's done, is doing and will do. The Tamar Valley is still "a stupid place" to build a paper mill and the trees it needs to operate are too precious. Even to export... Each tree represent an important carbon sink and especially in Tasmanian latitudes an important oxygen release agent:

Each person in the U.S. generates approximately 2.3 tons of CO2 each year. A healthy tree stores about 13 pounds of carbon annually -- or 2.6 tons per acre each year. An acre of trees absorbs enough CO2 over one year to equal the amount produced by driving a car 26,000 miles. An estimate of carbon emitted per vehicle mile is between 0.88 lb. CO2/mi. – 1.06 lb. CO2/mi. (Nowak, 1993). Thus, a car driven 26,000 miles will emit between 22,880 lbs CO2 and 27,647 lbs. CO2. Thus, one acre of tree cover in Brooklyn can compensate for automobile fuel use equivalent to driving a car between 7,200 and 8,700 miles.