The Hypocrisy of Will Hodgman on Planning. Canal Estate Ban and the Pulp Mill.

When Gunns, enabled by the Tasmanian Government, withdrew its Tamar Valley pulp mill proposal from Tasmania's planning commission, conservation groups and the planning system itself were blamed by Will Hodgman's Liberals. Gunns CEO John Gay had disendorsed Tasmanias statutory planning scheme and Will Hodgmans Liberals quickly fell into line behind the Premier and Gunns. Singing from the same song sheet Will Hodgman, Paul Lennon and John Gay were adamant that Gunns were blameless. John Gay and Gunns were framed by Will Hodgman's Liberal Parliamentarians as the victim of a fatally flawed planning system. The entire Tasmanian Liberal party turned on the planning scheme it had previously helped create, in favour of Gunns.
For most Tasmanians this was hard to stomach. They turned off Gunns and they turned off Will Hodgman's Liberals. Infact they turned off all Tasmanian politicians.
Now powerful people in the Liberal party have got young Will by the ear again over proposed government legislation to ban canal estate developments in Tasmania. Suddenly, according to Will Hodgman the planning commission is the good guy again.
The planning commission is once again the independent umpire which Will Hodgman and Paul Lennon once told us would 'sift the good projects from the bad". The Ralphs Bay development, an unpopular development to be sited in Will Hodgman's own electorate of Franklin, not surprisingly, was not supported by his party. Yesterday Will Hodgman tells The Mock, the Ralphs Bay canal estate proposal was "properly decided by the commission". "The independent planning is the authority that should decide," Mr Hodgman said..
Yet the Gunns pulp mill proposed for the Tamar Valley, a project that was set to be rejected by the planning commission maintains the blind support of Will Hodgman's Liberal's, a party that has close and long term ties with Gunns. 4 years ago.
When Gunns decided the planning commission assessing its pulp mill project no longer had its support, that was good enough for Hodgman and he quickly fell into line, laying the boots into the RPDC in and outside of the parliament.
Will Hodgman's hypocrisy on planning, canal estates and the pulp mill is yet another example of big powerful political parties playing politics with the futures of your communities.
Will, you are weak, inconsistent and if you ever become premier, it will only be because you do a "Bradbury" and the current mob hand it to you through their own ineptitude.