Little Birdy tells me......

Little Birdy tells me that former Premier Paul Lennon continues to work for NAFI, now acting as a "consultant".
Late last year Lennon was hired by NAFI to unite industry players and act as a "negotiator" on behalf of the forest industry to stop the so called forest peace talks from breaking down.
Little Birdy also tells me that Robin Gray and John Gay have roles in the continuing industry/environment peace deal negotiations.
Little Birdy also tells me that Gunns Pulp Mill will be the target of renewed opposition n' protest in the coming year.

Forestry Tas. set to push on with cynical high conservation logging as Forest's peace deal appears doomed

Read More Here  and  Here

Tassie cyclist Nathan Earle tearing it up in NZ.

Here

Jobs at a Gunns joint foreign owned Pulp Mill? - Judge for yourself.

UTAS economics professor Graeme Wells recently wrote ......" I would argue that, in terms of the RPDC guidelines for economic analysis the case – that Gunns’ proposal is in the best interests of Tasmanians – has never been made.2 Particularly in the present context, it is worth remembering that one of the RPDC requirements was that there should be an examination of ‘any government supplied benefits that have or will be supplied to the proponent to make the project viable or reduce its risk exposure’. Before the RPDC process was scuttled in 2007 a number of analysts, including Naomi Edwards3 and me, warned of the risk to taxpayers arising from the fragility of Gunns’ financial model. Apart from the need for ongoing subsidies we pointed out that, in the Tasmanian political environment, the pulp mill would be ‘too big to fail’ and that, one way or another, taxpayers would be left carrying the can if the real world price of pulp continued its long-term downward trend and/or the Australian dollar continued to appreciate.
Gunns’ economic consultants would have none of that sort of talk.
In his expert witness statement to the RPDC, Gunns’ consultant Jon Stanford said:
...‘A number of submissions focus on the supposed financial risks of the pulp mill. My response to this is that it is difficult to see why this is anything other than a matter for Gunns and the company’s financiers. There is no obvious reason why government or the community generally has a legitimate interest in the projected rates of return of major industrial projects. Obviously if the mill does not go ahead because of financial risks, or if it goes ahead and fails, then the projected economic benefits will not eventuate. I have undertaken a large number of economic impact studies of major investment projects and I have never included an analysis of project risks when evaluating and reporting the economic outcomes.‘

....................................

and from Mike Cassidy's pulp mill jobs expose......."Pulp mills overseas might provide some guide as to real employment figures for locals. In Brazil, the fully functioning $1.5billion Veracel pulp mill is reported to “employ only 741 people in its factory and plantations. The workers at Veracel are highly qualified. No less than 42% … have university degrees” [19]. The local Brazilian people who generally have fewer qualifications are complaining bitterly that these jobs do not benefit people from the region. There is no evidence to say that the situation in Tasmania will be any different from Brazil. So far, the tally of direct jobs for Tasmanians is fewer than 500 for two and half years in construction, plus a possible 234 in operations for the 24-year life of the project. See Figure 2, number of direct Tasmanian jobs (shaded) and overseas and interstate jobs in construction and operation of the proposed pulp mill. This looks a lot less than the many thousands spruiked by former Minister Tony Burke and Gunns’ media spokesman Matt Horan. http://tapvision.info/sites/default/files/Fig%202%20Reduced.jpg

Job losses from existing industries displaced by the pulp mill

The pulp mill will ‘crowd out’ existing Tasmanian businesses and quash potential developments according to Wells Economic Analysis [20]. It locks the State into an undifferentiated bulk commodity market at the expense of businesses based on scarce, unique and distinctive attributes of Tasmania"........

Link -A net jobs gain for Tasmania through Gunns Pulp Mill? - Judge for yourself.

Ryan Foster becomes first Tasmanian to break 4 minute mile, 56 years after Roger Bannister.

See Video Here

See race video here

Read Here

New Tasmanian Premier Lara Giddings set to take Tasmania backwards.

The Australian Read More Here

..............................

The Giddings honeymoon could be shorter than I first thought. The new Premier has failed to explain why big government and big business in Tasmania is entitled to cheaper power but mums and dads are being forced to pay Aurora'a ridiculously high power prices.
PILKO

......................

..........."In Victoria for example, people can choose from 500 electricity plans from 22 different suppliers.

Opposition energy spokesman Matthew Groom said Ms Giddings was out of touch with the needs of households struggling with soaring power costs.
"I think that's an offensive comment for all the mums and dads and small businesses who are paying some of the highest power bills in the country," he said.
"When the Government is getting bargain-basement electricity she says she's going to deny others choice because she doesn't think it's to their benefit.
"I think that's patronising, it's paternalistic and it's offensive, and frankly they are the comments of a premier who doesn't get it they just don't get the pain people are feeling."
Robert Mallett from the Tasmanian Small Business Council said Ms Giddings' comments were a "huge slap in the face" for small business.
"It was particularly disappointing to hear the Premier say that she is not convinced it would be beneficial to open up the residential and small business market to competition when it is her own Government who is reaping the rewards of big business, and small businesses are forced to deal with what is a monopoly supplier of probably their most significant business input resource," he said.
TCCI chief economist Mark Bowles said the Government must introduce full retail competition so all consumers can benefit from shopping around for the best deal..........  The Mercury Read More Here

Media Focus on Launceston's Richie Porte as Tour de France champ, Alberto Contador cops ban.

Cyclingnews

http://www.velonation.com/

abc

SMH

The Age

Tamar Business women slams new Premier's Pulp Mill support

Local organic farmer Lucy Landon-Lane who lives a stones throw from Gunns proposed pulp mill site has told The Australian Newspaper that Premier Giddings stance on the deeply unpopular project.. "would outrage residents of the Tamar food and wine district. "If you acknowledge the process was flawed, but then say 'Let's carry on anyway' that is just outrageous," Ms Landon-Lane said". Read More Here

More on the new Premier and Gunns in The Examiner Here.
Note to Angus Livingston at the Examiner. Check your facts Angus. You could even try looking at a registered map! The mill is proposed for Longreach not Bell Bay. There are significant differences. Also Angus. Try to include more than one voice in your articles.
xxx
PILKO

Old enmities cloud Apple Isle's future - Tony McCall in The Australian Newspaper

Article by Launceston UTAS Lecturer, Tony McCall

More Tony McCall on Gunns Pulp Mill and Tasmanian Politics

Giddings does not rule out more Government assistance for Gunns. Premiers pulp mill statement today on ABC Radio in response to facebook question from this Tasmanian blogger.

Listen to the audio of the Giddings interview Here . Read ABC news report Here 
Louise Saunders puts my question to Giddings with about 10 minutes remaining of the audio file.

The Premiers response to my question was inadequate and again confirmed just how badly out of touch Hobart based parliamentarians are with Launceston and Tamar Valley issues in particular community ill feeling toward the pulp mill. This includes the many businesses that form the basis of the Tamar Valley's iconic $500 Million food,wine and tourism industry, businesses that seemingly do not exist when it comes to the Tasmanian Government and Gunns mill. Indeed Premier Giddings appears to be a more enthusiastic backer of Gunns planned mill than David Bartlett. Between the new Premier and her rabid pro-pulp mill deputy the pulp mill problem and logging in general looks set to move backwards in Tasmania.

See my question and my follow up response to the Premier on the 936 ABC Hobart Facebook page. 936

Look Under this Heading......ABC Hobart New premier Lara Giddings live on air on 936 ABC Hobart tomorrow, Tuesday morning at 8:30. What question would you like put to her? And what should her priorities be?

Booths muffled opposition as Bryan Green returns as Deputy' Premier. Ambitious Mckim says he's been "too harsh" on Bryan. Green says "trust me"

Interesting to see Nick Mckim's Greens spinning their born again support for former whipping boy and 2nd time Deputy Premier Bryan Green. The justification being run by the Tasmanian Greens for their new found approval of Mr Green as Deputy Premier is "we don’t want to play personality politics".

Support for man the Greens formerly argued had forfeited any right to ever hold public office again, of course has nothing to do with the pragmatic Mckim's own political ambitions.
It is difficult to see the logic in the Greens spin as even Bryan Green after being stripped of the deputy premier's job in 2006 openly admitted his Behaviour was unethical and wrong.
Most observers wholeheartedly agreed with Bryan Greens assessment of himself and accepted the parliamentary Greens and Liberals ongoing disapproval of Green was based on the conviction that Bryan Greens conduct and transgressions were so grave that he was no longer fit for public office. Not because they didn’t like his personality.
Indeed there is a big difference between society giving a person a second chance and the parliament giving a politician whose conduct and transgression were as damaging as Bryan Green's a second shot at being the Premier of Tasmania. It will be very interesting to see what remains of the Labor/Green love-in, if at the next election the Greens once again find themselves on the opposition benches. If Labor were to be returned in majority, Mckim in particular may find himself the object of ridicule because of his chameleon like politics from both Will Hodgman and by that time, Premier Bryan Green.

Cracks in the Labor/Green alliance - ABC
Kim Booth in The Examiner

Green in The Mercury

Crikey on the Bartlett resignation

........"Was it really the wistful look of the young son as his father opened the front door each weekend to go to work that caused Tasmanian Premier David Bartlett to quit? Clearly, there was more at play here than Bartlett’s wish to be a better father to his children. If he sees these next few years as the most important in bonding with his children, why will he remain a minister in a new government led by his deputy, Lara Giddings? Does he intend to be a Monday-to-Friday minister? Granted, he has said he will quit at the 2014 election. In the political lexicon, to cite “family reasons” to justify one’s resignation implies there is more to the departure than meets the eye. There is more to this. It revolves around Bartlett’s personality and his judgment".......Crikey on the Bartlett resignation - Here

PLP installs Giddings as Premier and Bryan Green as Deputy.

Bryan Green lines up for Premier. by Sue Neales in today's Mercury

I called it here Yesterday
..........................................

...."It is easy to envisage behind the scenes the hand of former premier Paul Lennon and former Labor powerbroker and now Forestry Tasmania chief Bob Gordon in the shift of power from Mr Bartlett and Mr McKim to Ms Giddings and Mr Green"..........Read More Here

Backflip Bartlett resigns. "The king is dead, long live the queen" says pal Mckim. Bryan Green to stand for Deputy Premier. Will Nick Mckim endorse Green as Deputy?

Did Mr 23% really jump or was he pushed? Hmm.
Family reasons or Labor right reasons?
Both?
Would the Premier have quit for family reasons if he was rating higher in the polls?
According to Network Ten Barty may well have been pushed. Team Giddings seemed awfully ready today with Gidding having recruited disgraced former Deputy Premier Bryan Green to stand as Deputy Premier.
Whatever the reason you'd have top say 'so much for that promised stable government'.
So much for bike rides, coffee and sms with Nick.
Will Cassy and Lara become best friends?
You can guarantee that former Premier Paul Lennon and Bryan Green will be whooping it up and popping the top of a Boags Premium or six. Bryan Green will stand as Deputy Premier.
Watch out for this disgraced former Deputy Premier from Tasmania's bible belt to eventually make a push for the top job. For reasons only God knows, Green remains popular and very safe bet in his electorate of Braddon. Tasmania's weakened logging interests love him and want him in the top job.
This blogger reckons that if Green ever gets the top job it will set Tasmania back 30 years.
And how will Kim Booth deal with it? Oh lordy!
Nick Mckim and O' Connor who previously crucified Green over the TCC scandal (see Hansard Here) are now born again Labor cabinet ministers and appear too enamoured of new labor mates and the trappings of cabinet power to care. However i reckon Kim Booth will be seething if Brian Green is promoted into the top two. Maybe Kim could give former Labor advisor Nigel Burch a call and ask Nigel to give the Greens leader a refresher on Labor Politicians from Braddon.
Anyway, we will see. Its going to be a very interesting and revealing week.

This Sue Neales article from December 2010 may shed some light on Bartlett's demise and what's ahead for the Tasmanians under the Labor Government

Pilko

More taxpayer funded logging industry propaganda coming to your TV screen. Forestry Tasmania's "Going Bush" - Feb 5 Southern Cross TV.

 Here  Heresky   and Heresky

Sean Marsh (110 runs today, but not selected in World Cup Squad) and a 17yr old kid make the Australian selectors and Captain look like chumps. Sack them for gods sake.

............."A 17-YEAR-old boy who took Michael Clarke to task over his batting during a press conference later asked Clarke if he could borrow his bat because he wasn't using it. Geelong teen Daniel Brew somehow evaded security staff and sat among the journalists at the indoor cricket nets at Hobart's Bellerive Oval, enduring the first nine minutes of the press conference before taking his chance to make his feelings known". Read More Here. See video Here

See the official video released by Cricket Australia. Here. Note the comments below the video. CA has gutlessly edited the 17yr old boys embarrassing questions.

Be Sure to Read this link every Day and remember to Donate.

Hey Tom. Will catch up soon for a ride
Every day hero - Tom Ellison

Has the Tasmanian Forest Contractors $17M Exit package freebie been rorted?

Who would have thunk it??
Read More Here and Here

The maginificent Ricky Gervais takes the piss out of Hollywood's A-List at 2011 Golden Globes. 2 hilarious You Tube videos.

Golden Globes 2011 - Ricky Gervais Opening Monologue

Ricky Gervais' funniest Golden Globes jokes

The ABC recycling old quotes. Tut Tut Aunty.......and...........Tasmanian Times bows to angry lynch mob as editor self censors.

The World Today January 14 2011 

"Sounds of Summer: Forest Deal"

FELICITY OGILVIE: Up in the Tamar Valley, Peter Whish-Wilson, is seething. Mr Whish-Wilson owns a vineyard that looks over the pulp mill site .
PETER WHISH-WILSON: I'd really like to see a resolution on forestry conflict in Tasmania. But if it means that the Tamar Valley is going to be sacrificed at the altar of some high conservation coups I don't think it will last - no. I think it's a train wreck waiting to happen.
FELICITY OGILVIE: Mr Wish-Wilson is such a passionate opponent of the mill that he stood as a Greens candidate in both the State and Federal elections.
PETER WHISH-WILSON: What we're faced with now is the concept that this is all going to fall apart in a few months time because it is so complex and so difficult. And then what are we left with? We're left with the potential to burn old growth forests or native forests for biomass, continuing wood chipping plus the pulp mill in the Tamar Valley we get the worst of all worlds.

..................................

The World Today October 21 2010

"Disquiet in Tasmanian Greens over forestry peace deal"

FELICITY OGILVIE:...............Peter Whish-Wilson has a vineyard that overlooks Gunns' pulp mill site.
PETER WHISH-WILSON: I'd really like to see resolution on forestry conflict in Tasmania, but if it means that the Tamar Valley is going to be sacrificed at the altar of some high conservation coupes, then I don't think it will last no; I think it's a train wreck waiting to happen.
FELICITY OGILVIE: He's predicting the Greens will be the losers if the deal falls over.
PETER WHISH-WILSON: What we're faced with now is a concept that this is all going to fall apart in a few months time, because it's so complex and so difficult and then what are we left with? We're left with the potential to burn old growth forests or native forests for biomass, continuing wood-chipping, plus a pulp mill in the Tamar Valley; we get the worst of all worlds.

...........................

Its sad that the Tasmanian Times editor appears so afraid of not being out of step with the irrational and angry lynch mob that increasingly dominates the comments section of his website that he would go as far as withdrawing a heading affirmating the work of a fellow journalist. The TT Ed.s backflip did not seem to be based on the discovery of an error in the ABC World Today report, but rather on the disagreeable ravings of an anonymous reader. Having said that I do share some of the frustrations of TT readers about the narrow and inadequate framing of the forests peace issue by the Tasmanian media. However credit where credit is due. The World Today story, aside from Ogilvie's cheeky recycling was quite comprehensive and revealing. Until today the TT Ed. clearly thought so too before curiously caving in.

The TT editors explanation for censoring himself is feeble and does not stand up to scrutiny when considering many of his headings. What the TT editors self censoring does confirm is what many observers of the Tasmanian Times have long believed, that there are not enough degrees of seperation between the TT editor and his readers.
Read More Here

Dear TWS.....Urgent memo........Speech pathologist required in Tasmania to help Mr Oosting find his voice.

I'm not a real fan of the whole godbotherer gig however i do like some of the proverbs and sayings in bible.
One of my faourites is from the book of revelations 3:16.
Its says, - "Because you are lukewarm, neither hot nor cold, I am about to spit you out of my mouth".
This saying is so true of the way voters deal with lukewarm or weaselly pollies. The demise of former Labor Leader Kim Beazley could in part be sheeted home to his inability to rise above mediocre public policy, despite his superior oratory skills and differentiate himself from the banal racist policies of Howard's Liberal's.
Indeed, I think the one thing people hate the most in a politician is lukewarm weaselly words.
There is nothing more excrutiating than hearing a gutless politician who is bound by the party line tip toeing around the issue. Its even worse when you hear it from someone who once had a point of view - a conviction, a belief.
Peter Garrett is case in point. Nick Mckim is well on the way as is young TWS pulp mill campaigner Paul Oosting.
Check out the weaselly performance (transcript below) by TWS Pulp Mill Campaigner Paul Oosting from Friday's ABC radio's World Today programme.
Sorry Paul Oosting, for a bloke who was once almost obsessed with stopping the proposed Gunns Tamar Valley Pulp Mill, today you sound more like one of those weaselly politicians.
Perhaps thats where your future lies.
Alarm bells should be ringing in The Wilderness Society (TWS) when journalists now consistently use the word soft or softening when describing TWS's pulp mill campaigner's position on the proposed Pulp Mill. Alarm bells are most certainly ringing about Mr Oostings public utterances in many parts of the organisation and across TWS membership, particularly in Tasmania. Alarm bells have been ringing for some time in the Northern Tasmanian community whom it now appears Mr Oosting and his faction are happy to abandon if they can get protestion for more Forests in Southern Tasmania. Whether that is true or not, the perception is entrenched that Mr Oosting and his fellow forest peace deal negotiators have sold the Launceston and Tamar community out by agreeing to ditch their No Pulp Mill campaign.
This is not to give credence in any way to the nasty, false and defamatory campaign that has been waged against Mr Oosting, TWS, the forest peace deal negotiators and just about everyone else in the Tasmanian conservation movement by a handful of faceless, ageing, puritanical conspiracy theorists from the Tamar Valley who despite mischievous claims about speaking for the local community infact have very little support locally.
Regardless, there is now widespread support for Mr Oosting and his "softening" faction to step aside and allow someone else do the TWS pulp mill campaigners job?
Give it some serious thought Paul mate because from where i, and many, many others sit, including highly respected elders of the Tasmanian environment movement, people we both know  in TWS, and even members of the Tasmanian media, you've changed. Too clever by half they say and way less enthusiastic about campaigning against the proposed Tamar Valley pulp mill (which is what you are paid to do) and worse, appearing to have lost any sense of loyalty to the many people in the Tamar Valley who have been very loyal to you. Perhaps now that Geoffrey Rush has finished helping the King find his voice TWS might roll out the koala, pass round the buckets and see if they can coax Geoffrey into taking on Mr Oosting as his next project.

PILKO

.....................................

FELICITY OGILVIE: Senator Brown also has strong views about Gunns’ plans to use the peace deal to get finance for the mill.
BOB BROWN: The agreement has space for a pulp mill. Now that doesn't mean the Tamar Valley pulp mill; as I see it, it means a pulp mill which fits in with the spirit of this agreement which is a 21st century pulp mill based on the acceptance of the community where it might be placed in the future.
FELICITY OGILVIE: If Gunns makes some changes to its current pulp mill proposal, will you support it?
BOB BROWN: Not in the Tamar Valley and I was at a meeting of TAP - The people against the pulp mill in Launceston co-incidentally last night. It's a process that is so corrupted it needs to start again.
FELICITY OGILVIE: He may be a founder of the Tasmanian environmental movement, but Senator Brown hasn't been involved in the peace talks.
Paul Oosting from the Wilderness Society has, and although he's been hired to campaign against Gunns Pulp Mill, his line appears to be softening.
PAUL OOSTING: Well look we want to get the dynamic right for any pulp mill in Tasmania. We see it as one of the options for the plantation processing industries which is what's stated in the statement of principles that there is support for the plantation sector and that a pulp mill is one of those options.
We see that one of the fundamental issues that we still want to see delivered on is the protection of the native forest and ensure that any project isn't consuming our native forests for the production of commodity products.
We also in terms of Gunns’ proposal still maintain a range of concerns including the impact on the marine environment which is a very important issue for the environment movement in terms of the marine wildlife of Bass Strait, but also in terms of other concerns such as the impact on Tasmania’s fishing industry.
FELICITY OGILVIE: But if Gunns addresses those concerns in order to bring the joint venture on board and satisfy the environmentalists, will you support the pulp mill at Longreach?
PAUL OOSTING: It's always been our intention to make sure there is as little if not no impact from any project that goes ahead in the timber industry in the state. I mean that's always been very clear.
For instance, we don't want to see a project using native forest timber. If Gunns can achieve that, then that is absolutely a step in the right direction and likewise with the marine environment we do want Gunns to address that. That is our agenda, to get those environmental impacts addressed and dealt with.
FELICITY OGILVIE: Up in the Tamar Valley, Peter Whish-Wilson, is seething.

Mr Whish-Wilson owns a vineyard that looks over the pulp mill site .
PETER WHISH-WILSON: I'd really like to see a resolution on forestry conflict in Tasmania. But if it means that the Tamar Valley is going to be sacrificed at the altar of some high conservation coups I don't think it will last - no. I think it's a train wreck waiting to happen.


See and hear full transcript here

One of the best versions of one of most staggeringly brilliant songs ever written

Paranoid Android - Radiohead. Live on Jools Holland 1997

Here are a few more Radiohead Classics. If you are not a Radiohead Fan. Give these songs a listen and tell me what you think.
Let Down - Radiohead. A Masterpiece My Favourite Radiohead song
Street Spirit - Radiohead Live Jools Holland 2001
Airbag - Radiohead Live Jools Holland 1997
Creep - Radiohead. Performed acoustic/acapella by Eliza Doolittle
Fake Plastic Trees - Radiohead. Live Glastonbury 1997

Apparently Mr Baker isnt the only one who Gunns have given the pink slip.

Little birdy told me saying that in the last 6 months Gunns have made redundant (or had leave) 27 people. Payrol, HR etc etc departments have all been cleaned out of people. There are lot of empty offices, even one wing in Lindsay street is vacant. The only department they have left intact is the “bit out the back, where the timber yard is”. Many of the people at the office are finding jobs elsewhere because they feel insecure…

Would one of my friends down at Gunns like to confirm or deny?

Gunns gives Les and the pulp mill team the flick as the 'Claytons Pulp Mill" commences construction??? WTF?? Er.. em... ah...that is the construction that you have when you are not having construction.

......"Greens Forests spokesperson Kim Booth MP said Gunns’ excuse for sacking Mr Les Baker and other project team members, that the mill assessment has ended and the company is now moving into the construction phase, is yet another lie from this serially dishonest company as the proposed mill still does not have a water pipeline, or a joint venture partner, or sufficient finance, or federal government permission to dump 64,000 tonnes of effluent daily into Bass Strait. Mr Booth also said that Gunns Limited recently pulled out of a assessment process to receive Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification for controlled wood sourced from Tasmania, which also indicates that attempts to provide a fully FSC-certified feedstock for the proposed mill are also faltering. “The people of the Tamar Valley are sick of Gunns’ lies and deceptions over the proposed mill, and this latest bit of spin from Gunns about the reasons for sacking the manager of the pulp mill project team is yet more proof that the company cannot be trusted, and that the mill proposal is dead in the water,” said Mr Booth. “The assessment of this mill proposal is far from over and any claim by Gunns to the contrary is just another lie from this serially dishonest company.” .....Read More Here

.............."The Tasmanian timber company Gunns has sacked a senior executive who was running the pulp mill project  A Gunns spokesman has confirmed several people involved with the company's $2.3 billion pulp mill have been made redundant. The managers were involved in the assessment process and are no longer required as the company moves into the construction phase".............Read More Here

This is hilarious stuff. The proposed mill site is just up the road from my place and i can assure readers there is no sign of construction. Just a hill and bit of bush.

Tasmanian Loggers squabble over $17Million dollar taxpayer freebie saying "we want more" as PM gives $17M package to assist Queensland Flood victims. Bligh says 2.5Million people affected and clean-up to cost in excess of $10B.

Read Here  and Here and and heresky

Dear PM

Please withdraw the ridiculously out of proportion $17 Million dollar freebie allocated to the Tasmania's ungrateful tree slaughterers and give these taxpayer funds to the Queensland Flood victims. Give it to people who need it and appreciate it. Please do not give another cent of public welfare to the ungrateful loggers as they do not appreciate it and we believe they have had way more public freebies than anyone has a right.
Enough is enough.
There are too many needy people in Queensland. Give our money to the flood victims.

Your sincerely
Mr & Mrs Disgusted

I'll give you the tip Mr Newman. Just quit now. You'll be wearing your pyjamas in the daytime before that mill gets built.

Read More Here

Sprinters sulking about Aus. Road Champs course.

Read More Here

And Here

Police, Launceston City Council response to Cataract Gorge bridge jumpers not good enough

......"Launceston Mayor Albert van Zetten joined police in issuing a public plea to those who consider bridge-jumping fun to find another summer pastime. "We urge locals and visitors not to jump off Kings Bridge - it is extremely dangerous and anyone who tries it risks their life or serious injury," Alderman van Zetten said. Police will issue cautions and move-on orders to anyone caught jumping off - or preparing to jump off - the bridge"............ Read More Here

.......................

 

Dear Mr Mayor and Mr Policeman/woman.

 

Jumping off the Kings Bridge has been going on for years.
Local kids even make videos of their jumps and upload them on You Tube.
Mr Mayor ,you say young people are risking their lives yet you are only prepared to issue "cautions and move-on orders" to jumpers.

This back and forth between police, the council and the kids happens every year and the kids just continue to ignore you and keep jumping

As a nurse i'm all too familiar with head and spinal injuries and how easily they can happen and destroy lives. Its always young blokes. 
I've even confronted these kids myself about the jumping in years gone by. They just laughed at me.

So Mr Mayor/Police i'll give you the tip.

The kids will keep jumping until you make it an offence and impose severe fines.

These kids are laughing at you whilst they know there are no serious legal consequences for their actions. You want to prevent death and seriuous injury then you will have to save them by making examples and imposing tough fines.

Its called "boundaries". Kids need them

 

Pilko

State Government wants Pulp Mill as part of doomed peace deal.

.........."CONFIDENTIAL documents from Premier David Bartlett's Cabinet confirm that the Federal Government's refusal to bankroll the Tasmanian forest peace pact may jeopardise the landmark deal........................................Ten key forest industry and environmental groups signed a historic deal in October agreeing to end logging in high-conservation public forests and phase out logging in all public native forests as the industry shifted towards plantations, and to approve a pulp mill.............................. .....The briefing paper reveals the Government: Believed one of the most significant objectives of the peace plan was the commitment by all signatories to support a "world-scale and sustainable pulp mill at an unspecified location".......... Read More Here

Something in the water? Tassie cyclists truly dominating National stage

Today Scottsdales Ben Grenda became a national champion when he took out the mens under 23 criterium at the Australian Road Cycling Champs in Ballarat Vic. Photo Here
Watch for more info Here.

This week Launceston's Matt Goss showed that he is currently Australia's premier sprinter by following his win in the Launceston Criterium with two wins and the overall series win in the prestigious 4 day Jayco Bay Cycling Classic See Here

This weekend Tassie cyclists Richie Porte, Will Clarke, Tim Walker, Michael Smith, Bernie and Wes Sulzberger, Nathan Earle and Jai Crawford go round in the mens open road race.

Really Sore Bum. Note to self:-dont fall off bike!

10 days on from my xmas day bike crash and there is still no running and very little bike riding. Did get out for a very slow 20km this a.m however when i get off the bike i feel like i've ridden 100!
At least i can swim (10km last week) and walk (gingerly).
At first i worried that i may have a cracked sacrum, but i tend to think its just bruised and possible a torn muscle or ligaments in the butt. Its is very frustrating, but hey, it could have been worse. Cant wait to heal up and get moving again.

Quite rude and disrespectful that it took our tedious northern newspaper 5 days to publish an edited version of the response of eminent scientist Dr. Raverty's to Ivan Dean.

I wonder if the Ex would have been as tardy if the boss of Gunns had wanted something published????

Read the edited Examiner version - more here
Read the unedited version - Here

I want a job as a government spin doctor! How hard can it be?

Read More Here

"Fuck em" says Launceston pro cyclist Richie Porte.

........."What annoys the Australian the most about this success though, according to feltet.dk, is that his meteoric rise is met by innuendo and suspicion. Porte, in an interview with Sporten.dk, guarantees his own cleanliness insisting that the sport was now heading in the right direction in terms of doping.“I can only vouch for myself, but if it was too bad I wouldn’t be able to stay in the sport. I was seventh in the Giro and I have not f*$@ing cheated.”....... ............................“I'm sure the riders I've ridden with before think that I have cheated. But fuck them. Look at us young riders, we are a new generation,” Porte said. Read more Here and Here

A silly, superficial opinion piece by the Examiner.

When a town's major newspaper starts 'scoring' or rating the local pollies performances, school report style, "out of ten" it is the height of arrogance and could be percieved as attempting to engineer or influence the way a community votes. Butt out and leave it to the voters Examiner. Read Here

I also note that the Ex is yet to give Dr. Raverty the right of reply by publishing his response to Ivan Dean.
An oversight?
Perhaps we will see it in tomorrow's paper. Monday perhaps??

Coffee 'n' Power pals - Nick and David. Texting, emailing, and fending of sticky subjects together. Aint it sweet

.."AFTER nearly three years at the helm of the Labor Government, Premier David Bartlett admits he is only now happy in his own political skin. And much of his new-found contentment with his own style and policy direction he frankly attributes to the close political and personal bond he has forged with Greens leader Nick McKim since the March election last year. "I feel like in the last six months I am much more the premier I wanted to be," Mr Bartlett said. "My natural personality and stamp is to be consensus-driven and to work with people; I like a parliament where differences don't have to turn into slanging and shouting matches." It is noticeable that the Premier's traditional end-of-year interview with the Mercury is peppered with constant warm references to "Nick". He talks of his regular coffee meetings with Nick. Of their daily exchange of emails and text messages.  Then there are their weekend chats, daily meetings before Parliament and weekly discussions before Cabinet to fend off sticky subjects................Read More Here

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......."The friendship and political bond between the two leaders has also become extremely close.

They text each other daily and meet regularly for coffee, bike rides and policy discussions.

Some even claim the Premier has become so dependent on Mr McKim's intellectual input that the Greens leader is the real powerhouse of government decision-making and policy"...................Read More Here