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Tuesday, June 7, 2011

Forest Peace Deal Found To Be Invalid

The Tasmanian ‘Statement of Principles’ agreement can no longer be considered a valid document.
The reason is that signatory ‘The Wilderness Society Inc’ signed the agreement twice. ‘The Wilderness Society Inc’ is a member of umbrella organisation ‘Environment Tasmania’. That means TWS were also being represented in the talks by Dr Phil Pullinger, who signed the agreement on their behalf. The list of ET member groups is here: http://www.et.org.au/member-groups
The Wilderness Society were also represented in the talks initially by Paul Oosting, and the document was signed on behalf of TWS Inc by David Mackenzie. That means TWS Inc has effectively signed the document twice. Not only that, but other community organisations such as ‘TAP Into A Better Tasmania’ were excluded from the negotiations, just so TWS could be given two seats at the table. The Wilderness Society cannot leave the talks as has been reported, without also leaving Environment Tasmania. TWS are still being represented in the talks by Phill Pullinger. If this is not the case then why have none of the member groups and general membership been informed that The Wilderness Society is no longer a member of ET? Some of ET’s member groups don’t actually exist or are only made up of just a few people. The Wilderness Society appears to be ET’s largest and most influential member. I am lodging a complaint with the Tasmanian Integrity Commission concerning the role of Nick McKim, Labor-Greens Minister for Education in personally selecting environmental negotiators that could produce what I have concluded is a predetermined outcome to the agreement. Participation in this out-sourced forestry planning should AT LEAST have been advertised. It was not. The Tasmania forest peace deal or Statement of Principles is a fraud.

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