Dear Mr Martin,
I am writing to you to commend you on your stand over the proposed pulp mill in the Tamar Valley. I was heartened to see you vote against the 'fast-tracked' approval process in parliament and just wanted you to know that myself, and many other Tasmanians are behind you, and hope that you will not be swayed by threats, and will continue to stand against this dodgey approval process that clearly does not assess the full impact of the proposed mill.
I think the prevailing political opinion that the mill can be made to meet environmental guidelines "on the fly" (ie through a permit process) is ridiculous. Once the mill is built I find it hard to believe that a government that approved this flawed and shallow approval process, would move to enforce environmental requirements.
Despite my concern regarding the operations of the proposed mill, I feel the mill itself has become a secondary concern. My main worry is now the lack of due process that has occurred in this aptly named "approval process". From where I sit it appears that political approval for the mill was given long ago, with a process 'built' (with collusion from Gunns, from what I've read) to allow that approval to be publicly acceptable. Unfortunately for John Gay, Gunns and others, that is not happening, with even some supporters or the proposed mill acknowledging that the approval process is unacceptable.
Thank you for standing up for due process and I hope my family and I can count on you to continue to contest this farcical process. Before this mill is built, it must be assessed against social and environmental factors in an independent and transparent way that is accessible by the public (such as the RPDC). Hiring pulp mill engineering consultants (Sweco Pic) and right wing "think-tank"s (ITS Global) to tick the boxes is not good enough!
Regards,
Jeremy Davis
Launceston
