Gilly Flower

Where to begin? Here I am, two weeks into my UK trip home, with one week to go, and I’ve not managed to write a word either in the blog, or in the holiday diary I usually keep on these visits home. And yet momentous happenings back in Tassie re the mill situation. In fact I could hardly believe what I was reading when I was able to check emails on the computer of Mum’s neighbours about three days after I arrived.

Premier Paul Lennon has resigned, and the ANZ bank have officially said what we’ve suspected has been unofficially on the cards for some time: they won’t provide funding for the mill. Whoopee!

I was in fact responding to emails with tears streaming down my face because I couldn’t believe what I was reading. A fair indication of the stress levels we’re all operating under. In the space of three days the situation had made almost a 360 degree turnaround and given us the first positive and genuinely optimistic news in months.

Why?

The cold hard light of the following day threw some light on the reason. Why would PL be his typical belligerant tub-thumping self on Friday, saying he would be staying on as premier, and fighting the next election, yet two days later be resigning? Could it have anything to do with the sudden and unexpected death on Saturday of D McQ, a member of Gunns’ board? Especially when speculation has long suggested that when PL finally stepped down he’d be immediately sliding onto a seat on Gunns’ board?

Cynical or what?

Whatever the reason, the campaign focus has swiftly focussed on incoming premier David Bartlett, (only recently elevated to the position of deputy in the wake of the scandal surrounding former DP Steve Kons). DB initially gave cause for optimism by saying no further public money was to be given to a private company project, but in the few days since has diluted his statements and taken a more ambiguous position.

GetUp were immediately on the case, inviting all their members & supporters to write to DB telling him exactly what they felt about the mill, and asking him to withdraw support. I hope his inbox was overwhelmed.

I suspect it would have been as the next email from GetUp was to invite donations to fund an ad in as many newspapers as possible in the wake of ANZ’s withdrawal. A victory there - while important - doesn’t mean another bank might not be tempted. Vital therefore to alert every bank possible, either in Oz or elsewhere, that underwriting this project risks damaging both their reputation and their all-important bottom line.

Reading emails today offers more cause for optimism since it appears some of Gunns’ major investors have requested presentations from GetUp as to exactly what mill protesters are concerned about. Apart from wondering what planet they’ve all been living on for the last five years not to know, it does appear that just maybe the economics of this godawful project might finally be about to sink in, and those with serious money might finally be about to see the light.

One can but hope.

In the meantime (and because every comment counts) I invite you to click on to www.getup.org.au and scroll your way along to the pulp mill issue to add your voice of dissent to this disastrous and polluting pulp mill planned for Tasmania’s Tamar Valley.

It would also appear that a number of contractors have either pulled out, or been told to stop work, so it's all good news just now.