Protest at Batman Bridge: Sunday March 20 11.30am

Pulp the Mill has organized a Peaceful Community Protest at the Batman Bridge Reserve tomorrow (March 20) at 11.30 to show the unity and strength of community opposition to the pulp mill.

Speakers will include Peter Cundall, Richard Flanagan, Kim Booth, Vica Bayley and representatives from all anti-mill groups. At the end of the speeches, all protesters will be encouraged to line up along the footpath of the bridge to show that the community can and will cross these troubled waters and be triumphant.
Peter Cundall says, “If this mill is allowed to go ahead, everything clean, quiet and beautiful in the Tamar Valley will be relentlessly destroyed – and our children will suffer most of all. Only the people can stop this happening.”
Spokeswoman for Pulp the Mill, Lucy Landon-Lane commented on Gunns latest report which claimed that the mill will inject $10 billion into the states’ economy over the life of the mill, “Gunns commissioned Insight Economics Pty Ltd, at Monash University, to undertake a study of the potential economic impact of its proposed pulp mill but the analysis in this report is based on comprehensive data provided by Gunns. It therefore is not independent in any way. It did not assess the serious negative impacts on the existing sustainable businesses in the valley which rely on a clean environment.” .“It is important to note that the results show the gross impacts on the economy of the investment in the pulp mill. That is, no adjustments were made to Government or private household budgets to provide for the expenditure on the mill. This essentially means that the model assumes that no other investments are abandoned as a result of the mill. The study also does not take into account the subsidies that it will receive from Government; the health impacts it will impose on the community or the negative impacts on our environment.” She said.  “If the state government was prepared to inject the same amount of money into our health system, education and sustainable agriculture, then more jobs would be created and our economy would flourish.”