written by:SRB Inc.

A crowd of over 300 attended today’s “Rally for Democracy and the Coast” to listen to Cassy O’Connor of SRB Inc., Prof. Jeff Malpas of the UTAS School of Philosophy, and MLC Terry Martin.

Dowload MP3 audio file of the Speech from Terry Martin, MLC
( 7.2 MB MP3 download - 24:10 )

(Photo: MLC Terry Martin ©2007 Thomas Moore)

Dowload MP3 audio file of the Speech from Prof. Jeff Malpas
( 4.9 MB MP3 download - 16:20)

(Photo: Prof. Jeff Malpas ©2007 Thomas Moore)

Dowload MP3 audio file of the Speech from Cassy O’Connor
( 4.6 MB MP3 download - 14:50)

(Photo: Cassy O’Connor ©2007 Thomas Moore)

A transcript of the speech from Cassy O’Connor follows:

(Photo:  ©2007 Thomas Moore)

Rally for Democracy and the Coastline

City Hall, 30 April 2007

Hello and welcome from Save Ralphs Bay Inc to all you good people who have come here today because you love Tasmania, and you treasure the living spirit of our democracy, bruised and battered though it might be. 

The very Honourable Terry Martin MLC, UTAS ethics Professor Jeff Malpas, long time supporters of SRB Inc., Senator Bob Brown, Nick McKim and Tim Morris, who are here in the audience, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, Thank you so much for coming.

The future of Tasmania and its democracy ... We need to reclaim them intact from a government that too long ago, lost its way, mouthing platitudes about Tasmania Together while trashing its goals.  Here are two examples:

Goal 8.  Open and accountable government that listens and plans for a shared future

Goal 11. Built and natural heritage that is valued and protected.

If this were true, we would not be having this discussion.  From the shores of Ralphs Bay and the forests of the Weld and Florentine to the Tamar Valley ... at all points of the compass, wild Tasmania is under sustained assault, and communities are paying a price. 

With its slavish want to please the likes of John Gay and Lang Walker, and its anything-goes development agenda, the Lennon Government is anything but open and accountable.  Its vision for the future is not one we wish to share.

In a double blow, the State Liberals can’t or won’t take the Premier and the big end of town on, squandering their opportunity to articulate a more values-driven way forward. 

Just as they voted with the government to make the Walker Corporation plan for Ralphs Bay a Project of State Significance and to shrink our Conservation Area, the Liberals backed the Pulp Mill Assessment Bill 2007, otherwise known as the Gunns’ Dream Bill, and later again supported Labor to guillotine debate on it.

When environmental law is ignored and the planning system subverted to suit the interests of a single corporation, and when the two major parties facilitate this in the face of strong public protest, people will, understandably become stroppy.  They will rightly feel shut out, that democratic principles have been trampled. 

Your presence here demonstrates Tasmanians are inspired by the Lennon Government, but for all the wrong reasons.  By its actions and inactions, this government - with Paul Lennon as Premier - has confirmed it is incapable of governing with integrity, decency, and transparency.

Where progressive thinkers advocate for community cohesion, protecting our superb natural assets, creating a sustainable, prosperous future for all Tasmanians - Premier Lennon’s barren vision promotes the exact opposite.

The relentless plunder of our wild forests, greedy gaze on our coastline, the giveaway of public assets, neglect of Tasmania’s most vulnerable citizens, and the disregard for ethics and process reveal the Lennon Government’s complete ignorance of what makes this place so special.  They just don’t get it and show no signs of ever being able to do so.

Things are a bit grim at the moment, but ... there is always hope.  This was brought home to the Ralphs Bay community in September last year when the Upper House voted as one to prevent the Government’s attempt to eradicate 90% of the Ralphs Bay Conservation Area, under the guise of a shonky ‘clarification’.

More recently and with a sudden - frankly satisfying - political jolt to the current regime, hope came in the form of ten elected upper and lower house members, who rejected the Gunns’ Bill.  For their principled stand, these members of Parliament deserve our deepest gratitude.

Standing up for the environment, public health, democracy and proper process were ...

In the House of Assembly, Green MPs, Peg Putt, Nick McKim, Tim Morris and Kim Booth and in the Legislative Council, President, Don Wing, Jim Wilkinson, Kerry Finch, Norma Jamieson, Sue Smith and the now legendary Labor rebel for a cause Terry Martin.

Terry, we are so proud of you.  We are so thankful.... you are a gem. 

Just when we were beginning to think no-one in the Labor Party was prepared to really stand up to Lennon, with quiet and dignified resolve, Terry Martin did just that.

It was the antidote we needed because in times such as these, it is relatively easy to slip into a kind of despair about the state of our island state.  So profound is the divide between thinking Tasmanians and the Lennon Government, so shattered is our faith in its capacity to act in the best interests of Tasmania, and such is its contempt for our environment, that we sometimes feel an almost physical sickness.  We are heart sick.

To overcome these feelings, we must stand up and say ‘enough’ when it clearly is.  We are not a noisy minority, but thousands of Tasmanians from all walks of life with a good set of values.  We know a bad egg when we smell one and we know what this island is capable of becoming if we can break away from the mistakes of the present, and past.

Clearly, Tasmanians who understand what is going on have a responsibility to protect what this government will not.  To be sure, not everyone wants to be at the frontline rattling the barricades, but there are many ways to have an effect on the political dynamic and in the process breathe fresh life into our precious, little democracy.

I am sure many of you have already ... written to or phoned your local MP to register protest, or in the case of Terry Martin, your admiration ... Some will have penned a letter to the editor or made a call to talkback to express your concerns about the direction Tasmania is taking. 

Please write more letters, get chatty with Tim Cox, ring your member of Parliament’s office on a semi-regular basis, build relationships, be informed, spread the word.

It’s also important to talk to friends and family, not to shy away from making a strong political point to provoke a lively discussion ... these are some of the things we can do to foster public engagement and democratic strength in Tasmania. 

If we all do nothing, or leave it to a dedicated, burnt-out few, nothing will change and that prospect is untenable.

These actions do have an effect, they can build a critical mass for change by stirring like-minded Tasmanians into similar action and ultimately provoking a political response. 

This is the principle - of open, informed, direct communication - that Save Ralphs Bay Inc has applied for the past three years.  Unlike Paul Lennon and his corporate mates, we have friends across all three parties, at all levels of government. 

Apart from some of the members mentioned, we continue to enjoy positive relationships with Labor MPs, Harry Quick and Duncan Kerr; Liberal Senator Paul Calvert; and Greens’ Senators Bob Brown and Christine Milne. 

And while we are very disappointed in the recent Parliamentary performances of Will Hodgman and the State Liberals, as well as MLCs, Lin Thorp and Allison Ritchie on the Labor side, SRB Inc appreciates their support in the past and will always keep the lines of communication open.

We Ralphies sometimes have conversations with people wondering what’s happening with Ralphs Bay.  It’s gone so quiet, many assume it must be off the agenda, that the Bay is - after all the kerfuffle - actually safe.  Not so, not by a long shot.

My mother always said, it’s the quiet ones you have to watch ... I was never really sure what she meant, but reckon a quiet billionaire developer with big plans is not necessarily a good thing.

What we do know is that the Resource Planning and Development Commission, or RPDC, has so far not been sidelined from the assessment of the Walker proposal. 

The Commission has advertised for an assessment consultant, SRB Inc is told an announcement may be made in the near future.  A panel is being assembled, and presumably the proponent is drawing up its master plan for destroying the Ralphs Bay Conservation Area.  Draft Guidelines for public comment are in the pipeline, but we are still not sure when these will be issued.  Once the Guidelines are finalised, the proponent is expected to prepare a Draft Integrated Impact Statement for expert and public scrutiny.

This is months away, and the process could take eighteen months to two years before a decision is made.

We didn’t want a PoSS – Walker’s proposal should never have got that far.  But a PoSS is what we got, like it or not.  The RPDC assessment is now all that stands between the Ralphs Bay Conservation Area and Walker’s plan to trash it for a crass Gold Coast style development.  We need the RPDC to be strong, effective, utterly independent from the machinations of the State Government.  Our coastline deserves no less.

I can’t help wondering what Lang Walker makes of this pulp mill quick fix business.  Faced with the prospect of a drawn-out assessment process and uncertain outcome, why wouldn’t Lang and other members of the coastal development fraternity think they like’s Paul’s way much better?

Business is business after all ...

I also sometimes wishfully wonder if Lang Walker hasn’t gone off the whole idea of devastating Ralphs Bay. 

Maybe - a bit like John Gay - Lang has figured out his canal estate would most likely get knocked off by the RPDC because it is so shockingly environmentally unsound, or maybe he’s done the sums and realised there are not quite enough millions to be made fast enough out of constructing the closest canal housing estate to Antarctica.

Whether it pushes on with the Ralphs Bay assessment or not, don’t be surprised if the Walker Corporation resurfaces on a waterfront near you.

The times are right for all manner of fast-tracking, brought to you by a government that’s into quick fixes and quick bucks, hell bent on corrupting proper process and neglecting its responsibilities for the social, environmental and long-term economic wellbeing of the Tasmanian people.

A government that puts $15 million dollars into a tacky AFL sponsorship deal while the homeless sleep in tents ... while rabbits, rats and mice destroy the international jewel that is Macquarie Island.

SRB Inc.’s specific and personal beef ... A government that would replace a Conservation Area with a toxic canal housing estate in an internationally significant bird and marine habitat; a beautiful bay so full of heavy metals the government’s own scientists say it is best left well alone.

After three years of campaigning to prevent the Walker proposal being allowed into the planning system because it is so wrong on so many levels, we are here defending that very system.  It is most important that we do so.

As Paul Lennon has told us himself in days not long past, politicians should keep their hands off the independent planning system.  In hindsight and in the finest tradition of Orwell’s Animal Farm, he probably meant to say, a special type of two-legged politician can decree exceptions to the rule.

The Pulp Mill Assessment Bill 2007 is relevant to Ralphs Bay, and to communities all over Tasmania, because if the government can subvert the planning process to suit a corporation’s wish once, it can - and will - do it again.

We are on notice. In Parliament during the recent mill bill debate, the Planning Minister made it clear this government is threatening to tinker with the legislation governing the planning system.  Just what do they have in mind for the independence of the RPDC, and the planning tribunal?  And, what does this portend for the rigour of environmental and social assessments in future?

It is time to send yet another message to the Lennon government – write to Steve Kons, David Llewellyn and the Premier and ask them what they are up to.  Let them know that Tasmania’s planning system must be rigorous, safe from interference and able to assess proposals against a set of strong sustainability principles.

If nothing else, we can make their lives uncomfortable with legitimate questions that will remain on the public record.

Remind this government at every opportunity that Tasmanians are entitled to expect of their leaders a higher standard of ethics and good governance, more of which you will hear about shortly from Terry Martin and Professor Jeff Malpas.

What we as Tasmanians do about restoring these foundation stones of a modern democracy is entirely up to us ... There is clearly a will, we have to find the way.

Just finally, before our eminent speakers rise to speak, I’d like to encourage you - on behalf of the community and we represent - to sling us some of your spare change, if you have any, when the buckets come around. 

This business isn’t cheap, we’re up against big money and bad politics.  Every cent will help us in this shared campaign to protect Tasmania’s coastline now and always from the ravages of greed. 

Thank you so much again, for coming

(Photo:  ©2007 Thomas Moore)

Posted by Lang Webmaster on 04/30 at 09:21 PM
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