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TASSIE SHAME — ONLY STATE TO ALLOW DUCK SHOOTING SEASON
The Tasmanian Greens today demanded that Primary Industries Minister David Llewellyn reverse his previous decision to allow this year’s recreational duck shooting season, which begins this weekend.

Greens Deputy Leader and Animal Welfare spokesperson Nick McKim MP said that Mr Llewellyn. who has strong links to recreational duck shooters, has allowed the only duck season in Australia this year in the face of strong scientific opinion that the season should be cancelled due to the drought.

“This weekend will see the unacceptable sight of thousands of native ducks killed in the name of fun with the full support of a government which only takes advice from the shooting lobby.”

“The drought alone means that this year’s season should have been cancelled as it was in other Australian jurisdictions.”

“Mr Llewellyn’s strong links with the shooting community should disqualify him from making decisions about the duck season,” Mr McKim said.

Fri, 07 Mar 2008 15:55:00 +1100
FEDERALS ADVERT DIRECTS PUBLIC TO OUT OF DATE DEED
The Tasmanian Greens today said that statements by both the Lennon government and the Federal Group, regarding alterations to the timetable and size of the proposed Coles Bay tourist development create an erroneous impression that the Deed of Agreement, which is incorporated into the state’s Gaming Control Act 1993, contains up to date information on new timeframes pursuant to subsequent agreements, when this is not the case.

Greens Shadow Gaming spokesperson Kim Booth MP queried whether the Parties who signed the 2003 Deed had forgotten the nature of the detail it contains due to the refusal by both the government and Federal Hotels to acknowledge that the current publicly available Deed is out of date, and that it needs to be updated via a legislative process before they can claim that all information is available publicly.

“Today the Federal Group Tasmania has placed an open letter in all three State newspapers which states, “The Gaming Control Act and attached Deed which was entered into by the Crown and the Federal Group in 2003 is a publicly available document and can be accessed on the internet at http://www.thelaw.tas.gov.au/”, but what the advert does not tell you is that the Deed available on the internet is out of date due to these recent changes to the proposed Coles Bay development,” Mr Booth said.

“If any member of the public was to access the Gaming Control Act 1993 Deed on the internet database, they will find on page 2 of that document that in relation to the Coles Bay development construction would be starting “by October 2003” and the project “completed by early 2005;and at a capital cost of at least $25 Million”.”

“We now know that the completion date has been extended to the “last quarter of 2009”, which is not reflected by the publicly available document on the internet, but which we only know due to the information being dragged out of the Lennon government following media reports regarding changes to the agreement.”^[1]

“The critical point here is not just whether the changes were done legally, and we accept that they were, but the fact that publicly available documentation that is part of legislation was not amended to incorporate those changes and make it current.”

“It is utterly misleading to keep saying that the Deed is available without acknowledging that its content is out of date due to subsequent changes allowed to be negotiated under the original Deed, and we can only surmise that the fact that both the Premier and Federals keep pointing to an out of date document as if it is their ‘get out of gaol free’ card is because they’ve forgotten the nature of the detail pertaining to the Coles Bay development that it contains and that the new timeframes do not appear in the document.”

“Ironically, should the public take them up on their suggestion and access the deed on the Tasmanian law website, they will find a document that will confirm that, in fact, the Deed content has been changed without the public being informed of these updates at the time.”

“In order for the documentation, to which Federals Group has directed the public, to actually be accurate it will require amending legislation to be passed by the Parliament, to at least correct the completion date form “early 2005” to read “the last quarter of 2009”.”

“The irony of the situation is that if the Lennon government had taken seriously their obligation to ensure that the publicly available statutes were kept current, and brought in to the Parliament legislation to update the Deed’s content details, they would have in fact been informing the Parliament and the public of these changes, and would have avoided the current controversy that has engulfed the government this week.”

“Instead Labor’s habitual and compulsive secrecy meant that they tried to avoid informing anyone of these recent re-negotiations, and let the legislated Deed become out of date which completely flies in the face of their frantic attempts to now say everything is publicly available.”

“The Premier must answer why it was too hard to introduce the required amendments that would have ensured that publicly available information was kept current at all times,” Mr Booth said.

Fri, 07 Mar 2008 14:20:00 +1100
CALL FOR PARLIAMENT TO APPROVE CHANGED COMPLETION DATE FOR FEDERAL HOTELS’ FRECINET DEVELOPMENT
The Tasmanian Greens today failed to get an undertaking from the Premier that he will notify Parliament of any future changes to the agreement between Federal Hotels and the State of Tasmania, despite the furore over his failure to notify of 3 agreed changes to the completion date for their Freycinet development, and accused the Premier of misleading Parliament by omitting to outline that the latest delays are due to Federal Hotels’ decision to embark on a different design that then required a new development application.

Greens Opposition Leader Peg Putt MP, who sought legal advice on the situation overnight, said that three important issues in relation to the changed agreement are:
1. Clause 14 of the Deed of Agreement between Federal Hotels and the State of Tasmania allows extensions of time to be granted by written waiver, as has occurred 3 times. However, because this can be done without legislation we are left with the situation that when the Statutes are consulted a Deed containing a completion date which is now incorrect appears as a Schedule to the Act. The Greens believe that there is a strong political imperative for the amendment or renegotiation of terms to be referred to Parliament so that a reading of the Statutes reflects the current situation.
2. The undertaking given to the Public Accounts Committee on 16^th July 2003 for a 150 bed development, described as a ‘quid pro quo’ for the exclusive pokies roll out had now been significantly reduced to 22 units of Federal’s own volition, without any consequent reduction in the number of poker machines that comprised the other side of the deal.
3. The latest changes were because federal Hotels decided to downscale their plans and go back through the planning process, and those delays had nothing to do with earlier objections by the Tasmanian Conservation Trust as implied by the Premier.
“It is highly unusual that this company has a role in legislating conferred on it by the Gaming Control Act’s ratification of the Deed between Federal Hotels and the Crown due to the provisions in that Deed for a signed waiver to alter the completion date, but that is what has occurred without Parliament or the people being told, and the Premier pointedly refused to answer my request that he give an undertaking to let us all know if there are any further changes,” Ms Putt said.

“We are now in the curious situation that when one consults the Tasmanian statutes the Deed that appears as a Schedule to the Gaming Control Act 1993 now has the wrong completion date, and we believe that there is a political imperative to bring the changed terms to Parliament for adoption.”

“It is not open and accountable practice to leave the publicly available statute, in this case the Deed, out of date, and therefore the Premier must bring in an amendment to update the Deed and ensure that it reflects the current situation.”

“There is no doubt that the ‘quid pro quo’ that was promised to the Public Accounts Committee for the pokies roll out has been substantially downsized at the volition of Federal Hotels, without the thing they gained from the deal also being reduced, and we believe that the pokies roll out should be cut in proportion.”

“The Premier misled the House by claiming that the changes and delays were caused by objections from the Tasmanian Conservation Trust and local residents to impacts of the infrastructure plans, when the fact is that the latest changes and need to go through the planning process again were actually because Federal Hotels decided to go for a smaller development.”

“It reminded us of the way he claimed that all the delays to the pulp mill were a Greens plot when the public record was clear that Gunns had failed to produce their work on time or in a fit state to go forward to the next stage,” Ms Putt said.

The Deed, between the Crown and Federal Hotels Pty Ltd etc, can be accessed on the Tasmanian Legislation website, Gaming Control Act 1993, Schedule 1 — the Deed: www.thelaw.tas.gov.au

The Deed currently states under Recitals B “(e) (ii) with construction starting by October 2003 and the project being completed by early 2005;and (iii) at a capital cost of at least $25 Million.”

In order to update the publicly available statute, it will require an amendment to be passed by the Parliament making these dates and capital cost value reflect the current situation.

Thu, 06 Mar 2008 14:15:00 +1100
THIRSTY PULP MILL INAPPROPRIATE FOR STRESSED WATER CATCHMENT
The Tasmanian Greens in Parliament today called on the Premier to acknowledge that the proposed Gunns’ pulp mill will have too high a demand on the state’s water supply, especially the South Esk Basin, and should not be built in this location given the drying climate, a situation highlighted by current low hydro storage levels and low river flows, saying that they have been raising for some time serious concerns about the proposed pulp mill’s impact upon again the water availability for Launceston’s water supply, Cataract Gorge flows and the proposed pulp mill.

Greens Shadow Pulp Mill spokesperson Kim Booth MP asked the Premier whether he was aware that without the Great Lake (which is now sitting at 16% capacity), supplementing the natural river flows of 148 megalitres per day there would be insufficient water to supply current users, meet the required environmental flow of 129 megalitres per day, and feed Gunns’ predicted 71 megalitres daily take through his government’s proposed publicly funded pulp mill pipeline, and was horrified to discover that Mr Lennon is now only becoming aware of the problem.

Mr Booth also said that this belated awareness by government of the serious issue of the proposed mill’s impact upon an already stressed water catchment demonstrates yet again how inadequate and woeful Labor’s so-called assessment process was, once the project was pulled from the Resource Planning and Development Commission.

“It is horrifying that the Premier appears to have only just realised, by reading the paper, that there is a water shortage issue, that could effect the South Esk Basin catchment’s daily summer flows, and has not even considered the impact Gunns’ pulp mill and its pipeline requirements could have on this already stressed catchment,” Mr Booth said.

“Now that it has been drawn to the Premier’s attention that the Great Lake’s current meagre natural flows of 148 megalitres could not possibly cover Gunns’ requirement, that would almost take half of that capacity on a daily basis, plus meet Launceston’s needs, and maintain Hydros’ committed environmental flow of 129 megalitres per day through the Cataract Gorge, he needs to explain who will miss out when there isn’t enough water, will it be Launceston, the environmental flows, or the pulp mill?”

“The Premier must also explain why Parliament had not been informed until yesterday of the seriously low storage levels of Great Lake, despite the Greens’ warning that this situation would arise.”

“Will Mr Lennon now accept that the proposed pulp mill will be too thirsty to be supplied in this location given the drying climate?”

“The Premier has personally bludgeoned through Parliament the Gunns’ water gobbling pulp mill proposal yet apparently has no clue about the capacity of the river system to provide sufficient water for human drinking water supplies let alone the minimalist Cataract Gorge flow.”

“This again throws the spotlight on the Lennon Labor government’s parliamentary fast track approval of Gunns’ pulp mill that assessed the mill without the rigour that the RPDC assessment would have delivered.”

“The tragedy is that water availability and catchment capacity and management have been ignored despite the Greens and community groups pointing out the dire consequences of climate change and over allocation of water.”

“This critical water shortage issue highlights the risks to public water availability posed by Gunns Proposed pulp mill and the absurdity of the government’s devious plan to pay for Gunns’ pipeline with public money on the excuse of water supplies to the north east.”

“At the end of the day someone is going to miss out — Gunns or the community, and the Greens will support the community everytime,” Mr Booth said.

Thu, 06 Mar 2008 14:10:00 +1100
GOVERNMENT MUST CONDUCT AN INDEPENDENT REVIEW OF RESPONSE TO ANIMAL WELFARE AND SALMONELLA PROBLEMS
The Tasmanian Greens today demanded that Minister for Primary Industries David Llewellyn commission an external review of the government’s response to the animal welfare and associated Salmonella outbreak, including legal advice on whether animal welfare standards at Pitts Poultry were in breach of Tasmania’s animal welfare laws.

Greens Shadow Animal Welfare Spokesperson Nick McKim MP said that Mr Llewellyn failed in the Tasmanian Parliament today to explain the difference between his department’s belief that the has been no breaches of Tasmania’s animal welfare laws at Pitts Poultry, and the evidence obtained by animal welfare activists.

“The government appears to be operating in some bizarre parallel reality in which it is condoning animal welfare standards that clearly do not meet community expectations.”

“Given the link between inadequate animal welfare standards and Salmonella, any failure to commission an independent review could result in Tasmanian lives being put at risk.”

“In Parliament today Mr Llewellyn could not explain the difference between the footage obtained by animal welfare activists and the advice he has received from his department, yet he has failed to take the necessary step of commissioning an independent review to try to get to the bottom of the problem,” Mr McKim said.

Thu, 06 Mar 2008 14:05:00 +1100
NEW CHALLENGES FOR LENNON OUTLINED BY GREENS
The Tasmanian Greens today replied to the Premier’s Agenda 2008 speech, saying that it resembles a back of the envelope list thought up over summer when the Premier realised he would need makeover and a new set of priorities if he was to remain in the job, and that consequently most of the work to shape the initiatives is yet to be done by the various experts and working parties being put together.

Greens Opposition Leader Peg Putt MP said the Premier had borrowed initiatives advanced for years by other parties in the Parliament, having belatedly discovered that Labor had neglected vital areas over their decade in power, and pointed out that the 1998 cut to numbers in Parliament could now be judged to have delivered mediocrity in Ministerial performance.

The Greens put forward new areas for action and reiterated others that government must take up, including:
- Address work / family balance and implement recommendations of the Human Rights and Equal Opportunities Commission on paid parental leave and carers leave in State enterpreise agreements with the government workforce
- Convene a task force to resolve the ongoing problem of how to fund upkeep of Tasmania’s built heritage — 5,500 heritage listed properties. A State lottery is Ms Putt’s initial proposal to get discussion going
- Enact a Bill of Human Rights, Tasmanian Political Donations Disclosure law, and controls on post-Ministerial employment to protect the State
- Establish an ICAC
- Release and get cracking on a comprehensive Climate Change Strategy for Tasmania — the Framewaork for Action released yesterday is a small subset of what is required and addresses only the activities of some government agencies.
“We’ll give credit where it’s due and recognise that at last the Premier has picked up our ideas in a range of areas like carbon emissions targets, hybrid vehicles and fixed four year terms, but in others he has only got as far as recognising the crisis and calling for expert help, the actual plans for action are not yet on the table let alone being acted upon,” Ms Putt said.

“Mr Lennon gave the impression that he’d written a wish list on the back of an envelope over summer having realised that he would need a makeover and a new agenda if he was to remain Premier, but the list requires a lot of fleshing out before we really know what the government thinks it will do to address the worthy-sounding aims.”

“An ongoing problem that must be tackled is to explore ways of sourcing sufficient funds to maintain Tasmania’s built heritage, there simply isn’t the money in government coffers or with private individuals or organisations, but we can’t allow our treasures to fall into decay.”

“I’m taking the bold step of advocating a State lottery as the first idea on the table to provoke discussion, and want to see a Task Force established to explore all possible funding options and think outside the square to try and get some solutions.”

“A Green proposing a gambling initiative may be enough to prompt reaction and some concentration on the heritage funding issue, not that we have ever said we oppose all gambling, but rather we have opposed highly addictive forms such as pokies being placed throughout the community.”

“My other challenge to Paul Lennon is to show government leadership on work / family balance by acting to provide good paid parental and carers leave to government employees in the renegotiation of enterprise agreements.”

“Unfortunately the Premier’s makeover evaporated in Question Time when he was defending his secret backroom dealing on both the pokies deal with the Federal group and water and effluent pipelines for Gunns, and never acknowledged that he should have informed Parliament and the people of what he was up to or that there was anything untoward in his habitual mates deals,” Ms Putt said.

Wed, 05 Mar 2008 14:00:00 +1100
HANDS OFF THE RPDC
The Tasmanian Greens today demanded that the Lennon government commit to allowing public consultation to occur during its review of Tasmania’s world-renowned planning system.

Greens Shadow Planning spokesperson Nick McKim MP said that the Resource Planning and Development Commission is under threat from this review as punishment for not folding under government pressure to approve the pulp mill.

“The Lennon government has been attacking the RPDC for years, and the Greens will oppose strongly any further attempts to compromise its independence and integrity,” Mr McKim said.

“The Labor government’s priority of ‘streamlining’ the planning system is code for reducing the public’s right to participate in planning decisions that impact on their day to day lives.”

“Make no mistake about it, this ‘streamlining’ focus is being done to appease the big end of town who do not like the transparent and rigorous analysis of their proposals to which they are subjected by the RPDC, the Resource Management and Planning Appeals Tribunal, and our world renowned planning system.”

“This is about gutting the independent umpire as punishment for its rigorous but ultimately fruitless assessment of the pulp mill.”

“Why would we trust the future of the RPDC to a government whose leader continually interfered with its independence during the pulp mill assessment, and ‘heavied’ the head of the pulp mill assessment panel, which resulted in that person’s resignation?”

Wed, 05 Mar 2008 13:55:00 +1100
LENNON MUST INCLUDE INTERIM 202O GREENHOUSE GAS REDUCTION TARGETS IN UPCOMING LEGISLATION
The Tasmanian Greens today said that Premier Paul Lennon’s failure to commit to including interim 2020 targets in his upcoming greenhouse gas reduction legislation shows that he has failed to grasp the urgency of the situation.

Greens Shadow Climate Change spokesperson Nick McKim MP said that the Premier failing to legislate for interim greenhouse gas reduction targets is akin to the him committing his children and grandchildren to paying off his home loan. 

“It’s just not acceptable for us to burden future generations with responsibility to clean up our mess, but that is what will occur unless we legislate for interim 2020 targets.”

 “Scientists are telling us that we need immediate strong action to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions, and without interim targets this just will not occur.”

“We gave the Premier plenty of opportunities to commit to including interim targets in his legislation, and his failure to do so calls into question his preparedness to make the tough calls necessary to address climate change,” Mr McKim said.

Wed, 05 Mar 2008 13:50:00 +1100
POKIES DEAL CHANGES MUST BE RELEASED
The Tasmanian Greens today remain concerned that Federal Hotels may not have delivered on their undertaking to Parliament for their Freycinet development in return for exclusive rights to roll out pokies across Tasmania, and are scathing of the Premier’s failure to notify Parliament or the community of numerous revisions of the Deed of Agreement on pokies.

Greens Opposition Leader, Peg Putt MP, who first raised on February the 20^th the possibility that the commitments made by the Federal Group may not have been adhered to, said that Paul Lennon had started the Parliamentary year badly by arrogantly dismissing the idea that he should have been open and accountable to Tasmania over the changing pokies deal.

The Greens believe that the numbers of pokies in pubs and clubs should be scaled back in proportion to the scaling down of the tourism development that was the ‘quid pro quo’ to the original agreement.

“No makeover will stick to this fundamentally arrogant Premier who has zero commitment to openness and accountability and spent most of the morning in Parliament justifying his secrecy on key issues that the Parliament and the Tasmanian community had a right to know about,” Ms Putt said.

“It is quite wrong that the Deed of Agreement was changed on numerous occasions and kept secret, and of course the reason for that is that the Labor government has for years been maintaining that the Deed could not be changed or the entire deal would be scuttled.”

“The Premier needs to explain himself, and explain that his earlier claims that we had to simply take or leave the pokies deal were wrong.”

“The documents containing all the changes, and who negotiated them, when, and how, must be released.”

“We find it extraordinary that the Premier tells the Liberals that correct behaviour in regard to corporate mates is to let them tell you what to do and not go against their likely wishes,” Ms Putt said.

Wed, 05 Mar 2008 13:45:00 +1100
LENNON FINALLY MEETS WITH FIREFIGHTERS
The Tasmanian Greens today welcomed a commitment given by the Premier, in response to a Greens’ question, to meet with representatives from the United Firefighters’ Union over the protracted dispute over the new Enterprise Bargaining Agreement, but warned that Mr Lennon still sounds like he is trying to weasel out of his pre-election commitment to the firefighters.

Greens Shadow Emergency Services spokesperson Tim Morris MP said that while it was an important step for the Premier to acknowledge the need to resolve the ongoing dispute, an agreed timeframe for action is needed in order for the government to be taken seriously.

“Today I called on the Premier to meet with the United Firefighters Union representatives to find a way through their concerns that Labor is reneging on its 2006 pre-election commitment to, ‘maintain Tasmanian career firefighters’ wages at a comparable level to their mainland counterparts during the life of the next State Government’, and I welcome his undertaking to meet with the UFU at 1pm today,” Mr Morris said.

“I don’t think anyone would disagree with Mr Lennon when he conceded that there is a need to resolve this ongoing dispute with our hardworking firefighters, but the question is when will that resolution occur?”

“This has been dragging on too long, and that is largely due to the recalcitrance of this Lennon government and their appalling track record when it comes to negotiating wage and employment conditions in a genuine manner,” Mr Morris said.

Wed, 05 Mar 2008 13:40:00 +1100

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