Gilly Flower

Don't apologise 'Portia', your comment is great, and valid, and puts my piece into perspective, as of course I wasn't living here when either Lake Peddar, or the Franklin issues were happening. That so many Tasmanians were affected, both emotionally and ideologically, is apparent today. You just have to read some of the vitriol being published in the Letters pages of the Ex and Merc - and to which I've just replied in some pointed, (but polite) words of my own.

But you have to wonder at the mentality of Gunns. On Friday we learned they are to close down the Scottsdale sawmill they were adamant would remain open, (following its controversial take-over earlier this year), with job losses numbering 145. And the first these people knew about it was on an ABC radio news bulletin.

It was the first the premier and his relevant minister knew about it as well, so they're also spitting (wood)chips.

And this all follows an industry report - commissioned by former Howard fed minister Eric Abetz, (about whom the less said the better really) - that practically insists on Forestry Tas shedding over 1000 jobs, directly and indirectly, to remain sustainable.

It also follows that iniquitous sovereign risk deal for wood supply, hatched in secrecy by Lennon & Co, and extended for a further five months by premier Bartlett, at the behest of Gunns, because finance has still to be secured for this poxy mill. And all the deadlines for the necessary federal environmental permits have still to be met.

Yes, Mr Gay is still touring the world trying to drum up support from a bank or three.

What hope for logging contractors, or the poor b**$$#! driving those log trucks now. Most would be struggling to pay off their rigs, having been first encouraged into the game by Gunns, and now being hung out to dry.

The bonus of course, for those of us opposed to this stinking monolith, is that all of the above, combined with Ross Garnaut's Climate Change Report released yesterday, has got a few more folk finally beginning to wake up, and seriously question the wisdom of a pulp mill.

Not before time.