Gunns Unlimited Ego

Poor old John Gay had a bit of a knock today when the Victorian Supreme Court rejected out of hand Gunns Ltd's claim for almost $7 million damages against 19 or so environmentalists, plus The Wilderness Society. The Court ruled that the claim was too general, against too many people. Which is hardly surprising, after all, those 20 respondents are just scapegoats meant to represent the Tasmanian population at large and it's attitudes. Tasmanians outside of Launceston, the only area which will significantly benefit from the proposed new pulp mill development at the heart of all this protest, are overwhelmingly against the idea. Gunns Ltd has consistently lied about the project, claiming it would not hurt old-growth or protected areas of forest. Other views suggest up to 85% of the trees the mill pulps will be old-growth. And Gunns has lied all the way along the line about the pollution which would be produced, the number of jobs, the amount of water the mill would demand (Launceston already faces a shortage of water)… in fact, you name it, Gunns have lied about it. The latest Court submission is version 3 of their claim - version 2 was laughed out of Court last year, the Court describing it as "embarrassing" and "at best ambiguous and at worst misleading", and ordering Gunns to pay the costs of the defendants.

Like most Tasmanians, I'm pretty sick of hearing about Forestry. I'm sick and tired of the Greenies who can't protest sanely and take everything to ridiculous extremes, and I'm sick of companies like Gunns whose management have no moral code at all other than the Holy Dollar. I'm sick of hearing the lies on both sides of the fence.

The punchline to the joke is that most of the Reserved and World Heritage areas are "set aside for future generations to enjoy" but who is this mythical future generation? When does the present stop and the future begin? Using the accepted definition of "generation", there have been 3 or 4 generations since some of these Reserves were "set aside" - but apparently they're not the "future generations" that the Reserves were set aside for.

Whose forests are they? Who gave anyone who doesn't own the land the right to decide who does what in them? Don't chop them down, and don't tell me I'm not allowed to ride a horse through them or have a picnic. Stop treating them like Holy Mother Gaia's Revered Children and start seeing them for what they are - dirt and trees.

The Australian - $7 Million Bid Rejected