Does Gunns Ltd run Tasmania?
May 15, 2008This article is an anti-capitalist take on the Gunns Pulp-Mill issue, from the Socialist Alternative Magazine, October 2007.
Does Gunns Ltd run Tasmania?
Louise O’Shea
Massive handouts to cronies, shameless flouting of legal process and the ability to override an elected parliament - no, I’m not talking about Saddam Hussein’s Iraq. I’m talking about Paul Lennon’s Tasmania.
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Wilderness Society Anti-Pulpmill Rally June 15 - MEDIA RELEASE
May 14, 2008Melbourne rally to stop Tasmanian pulp mill destroying native forests and increasing greenhouse emissions
The Wilderness Society (Tasmania) Inc
Media Release
6th May 2008
If the Tasmanian pulp mill goes ahead it will destroy an area of native forest equivalent to 100,000 MCGs and increase Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions. The day after a sovereign risk deal to protect wood supply was released, reportedly requested by potential financier ANZ; The Wilderness Society today launched a campaign to urge the ANZ not to fund the pulp mill.
At a lunchtime concert in front of Melbourne’s ANZ Tower, The Wilderness Society’s Paul Oosting revealed the campaign would build to culminate in a public rally at the ANZ’s Collins Street headquarters on June 15th, setting a historic precedent.
“This is the first time in Australia’s history that a leading bank has been the target of a major public protest event in response to environmental issues,” said Mr Oosting.
The ANZ is conducting its own assessment of the risks and costs of the pulp mill and will soon decide whether or not to lead a syndicate of banks in financing the project. Yesterday, the Tasmanian Government released a sovereign risk agreement1 that pledged $15 million compensation to Gunns should wood supply for the pulp mill be compromised by a future government legislating additional forest protection. The ANZ bank reportedly requested the agreement as security.
“Despite community outrage over the sovereign risk deal, the ANZ has the opportunity to take a leading position on environmental responsibility in the corporate sector by refusing to be involved with Gunns’ pulp mill. Without the support of the ANZ it is unlikely that the pulp mill will proceed,” Mr Oosting said.
“Climate change and the environmental impacts of logging were not assessed by any government process that approved the pulp mill.”
“Stopping the pulp mill is crucial for all Australians because it would be a disaster for climate change and undermine the country’s commitment to address the issue. Instead of greenhouse emissions going down, which Australians know must happen, the pulp mill would increase them, setting a poor example to the rest of the world.”
“Tasmania’s forests are significant storage areas of carbon and important habitat for endangered wildlife. Protecting native forests is one of the quickest and cheapest ways to combat climate change. Logging them releases stored carbon a greenhouse gas emissions.”
The lunchtime concert, featured popular Melbourne based band Bomba, long time supporters of proper protection of the environment and regular visitors to Tasmania.
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Minutes delayed
May 9, 2008Hi everyone,
Due to some “technical difficulties” (ok well we lost our minute-taking sheet), the release of the minutes for the meeting on MAY 07 will be delayed.
-Jimmy
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Open Night - A Huge Success
May 7, 2008
Our completed banner
The Glen Waverley Secondary College Eco-Committee had a table at the school’s annual Open Night, putting the images of environmental destruction on display for all to see in a continous visual and audio display, while giving them a clear sense that they have the power to do something about the world’s environmental problems.
The presentation from last year that was shown to the Principal and Vice Principals was on display, as was the blog. A particular effort was made to engage with people not only about the eco-committee, but also the issues around the pulp mill and climate change.
New posters were made in the few hours of pre
peration following our organizational meeting, audio and video equipment were set up and we spent many of those hours trying to find a good spot for the newly completed banner.
Mr. Cameron Dunwoody found some powerful short videos about climate change on youtube, which we projected on the wall throughout the night.
Clara is relieved that we set everything up on time.
A parent signs our petition.
As people walked past, they signed the anti-pulpmill petition, read our leaflets and our reading material on the table which included articles and a few pamphlets to do with womens’ liberation and green capitalism. A copy of Terry Townsend’s speech about Individual Vs. Social solutions to Climate change was also on the table. Eco-Committee members personally approached parents and students who walked past, talking to them about and explaining our positions and emphasizing the fact that we’re not only an environment collective but also the only democratic, completely student-run body on campus. Mr Cook even said “oh I like the democratic part” and one student was particularly enthusiastic: “Oh cool! So no teachers?”
Mark talking to a family
A big thank you to all who helped out at the Eco-Committee area today: Clara, Chloe, Elyce, Jimmy, Mark, Zain, Saba, Alex, Jeff, Mr. Nicastro, Mr. Dunwoody and “John College”. 
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Plans for May 3rd
May 2, 2008Tommorrow there will be two events at GWSC. The day will start off with a working bee that will go from 8:30am to 12 noon, followed by a special Eco-Committee meeting.
The working bee is organized by the School, and we will be working with PAG and a youth group, doing some planting in the area between the sci-tech center and the sails. All Eco-Committee members are advised to bring their own shovel or wheelbarrrow.
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May Day Greeetings!
May 1, 2008
HAPPY MAY DAY FROM THE GWSC ECO-COMMITTEE
Hi everyone, hope you all have a great may day. May 1st is the international workers’ holiday, celebrating the acheivements of organized labour around the world, in particular the Haymarket Martyrs in Chicago in 1886 who fought for the 8-hour day.
Sorry for the late posting of last week’s minutes. These minutes are from the meeting on Wednesday the 23rd of April, the minutes for today’s (April 30th) meeting will be available ON FRIDAY.
Here’s a summary of some recent Eco-Committee news:
Banner designing
Monthly Real-World Discussion FORUMS
The Eco-Committee has voted to accept the proposal outlined last week (full text of the proposal was read in the meeting and is also is in the minutes). From July onwards, one Wednesday meeting of every month will be dedicated to discussion of real world environmental issues, rather than internal organizational affairs. This was intended as a response to the lack of time to discuss real-world issues in eco-committee meetings and could also be a way to clarify real-world issues among members. Discussion can be about anything related to ecology, and the central topic of discussion will be decided spontaneously through what people raise rather than being pre-decided, and all should now start making an effort to read the news, or look for relavent topics of discussion. The first of these forums will be held on Wednesday July the 3rd. All students and teachers are welcome to come along.
Working Bee on Saturday
Mr. Roodenburg has invited the Eco-Committee to a working bee on Saturday the 3rd of March. They will be planting trees between the sci-tech centre and the sails. The working bee will start at 8:30 am (not 8am as originally planned) and finish at 12 noon. A group of about 3 or 4 Eco-Committee members will help out at the working bee. BYO SHOVEL.
LOGO
People didn’t like the clench-fist symbol so here’s an alternative proposed logo:
The fist was replaced with a more “toned-down” symbol, the dove. The rubbish bin is also replaced with a more symbolic wind turbine. The symbology is as follows:
Wind Turbine: Renewable energy, zero-emmissions, fighting climate change
Water tap: Conservation of resources
Tree: Nature, life
Dove: Peace, Anti-war, connection between ecological disaster and human crisis - eg. climate refugees and war.
Zain has proposed another logo, which will resemble the Earth Hour “60″ logo with a shiny, bevelled appearance.
Please comment.
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Arbour Week Application
April 29, 2008This is from the Arbour Week application that we sent a few weeks ago (A big thanks to Jenny Peng!)
Description of the project (minimum 100 - maximum 500 words)
On Wednesday June 25th 2008, Glen Waverley Secondary College plans to run a day of “Arbour Day- Environmental Awareness and Sustainability” activities and programs to celebrate Arbour Week for our middle school, between years 7-9, focusing in particular on our year 7 cohort.
Our objective is consolidate on environmental awareness and intrinsic values taught to our junior most students in the yr 7 and 8 humanities programs and incorporate them together, to create, inspire, encourage, nurture and initiate our vision of lifelong learning to become environmentally competent and sustainable citizens. Our program is continued in our year 9 humanities program where there is a strong focus on exploring and investigating environmental issues and also a 2020 sustainability challenge compulsory for all year 9 students. There are also optional environmental science electives. We strongly believe in the importance of educating our students with values that prepare them for the environmental challenges that they as they next generation will come to face.
The day will commence with 2-3 sessions of a 50 minute presentation by guest speakers including possible guests from CSL (Centre for Sustainability Leadership), Friends of the Earth or others yet to be confirmed, attended by our year 7 and 8 students as well as classes from year 9. Topics of presentation include the current state of our environment, environmental challenges, sustainability practices and the importance of native and indigenous flora. For most year 7 classes this will be followed by a session of tree planting along the designated areas of the school (no extra transport required). Students are to group up into 2-3 and after a brief introduction will plant the trees. Students can also create tags with the names of the planters and attach it to their plant, this is to foster a form of responsibility for the students and care for the plants. Students will be supervised by their classroom teachers and several parents will be on hand to help. All students of all year levels can come in casual dress or environmental/sustainability inspired costume, and the $2 gold coin donations will be donated to (as of now) an undecided charity.
After the day, in their humanities classes students will participate in class discussion as well as form groups to reflect, evaluate and summarise the day and of what they learnt and also plan or set short term sustainability goals for themselves and plants.
We hope that our program as a whole will inspire and initiate a lifelong understanding of the importance of sustainable practices and immense environmental challenges and encourage students to fulfill their environmental obligations, even as adults and leaders of their generation. We believe many of our students already show a budding interest and enthusiasm toward green issues and that this cannot go unnoticed. This will be the first year that our entire program will be run connectedly as whole and in a cohesive way structure. We look forward to a day that is insightful, fun and stimulating hands on experience.
11. WHAT ARE THE PROPOSED ENVIRONMENTAL & EDUCATIONAL OUTCOMES OF THE PROJECT? (minimum 100 - maximum 500 words)
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Minutes comming soon.
April 28, 2008The minutes from last Wednesday are comming soon, but meanwhile have a look at a proposed new logo:
It’s basically a new version of our current logo that is high-definition and drawn from scratch.
After many a sleepness night of carefully rubbing out smudges and hand-drawing lines, i present to you:
To be voted on by Eco-Committee through email. Currently approved by: Saba, Victor, Jimmy
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Year 7s and 9s: Boycott the Literacy and Numeracy Tests, support the teachers!
April 20, 2008
A sea of red: Teachers band together for fair pay and an end to contract teaching.
The February 14 Teachers’ rally had a huge turnout. The mass meeting at Vodaphone Arena was so full, 600 couldn’t get in. About 25,000 teachers marched through the city and to get an idea of the sheer size of the rally, picture this: When the area in front of Parliament House was just starting to fill up, the sea of red extended all the way to Flinders St!
120 Schools were shut down, with many partially shut down. Principals and vice-principals from some schools joined the teachers. Other groups such as Socialist Alternative joined the teachers in solidarity. And remember, the turnout of this rally may seem large but was just a small minority of the total number of teachers who withdrew their labour, most of whom did not attend the rally.
The Victorian government however, has not budged. The lowest paid teachers in Australia receiving 15% less than their New South Wales counterparts, Victorian teachers unanimously agree that a 3.25% payrise from the Brumby government is not enough, and also seek to abolish individual contract teaching.
During may, teachers will have three four-hour stoppages on the 13th, 14th and 15th to coincide with the national literacy and numeracy testing (formerly known as the AIM test).
“These tests do not add value to the students’ education. Why would teachers want to co-operate with the Government when they refuse to listen to them?” AEU president Mary Bluett said.
This may sound strange coming from students, let alone students from an Eco-Committee but we believe as a student organization, it is precisely our role as students to support the teachers’ struggle, and stand in solidarity to all struggles of the oppressed.
We propose a campaign to encourage Students in year 7 and 9 to refuse to complete their test papers on the day if students in those year levels are still required at school during the stoppages.
More details will be online soon.
This student campaign is proposed by: Mark Sun, Jimmy Yan
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