. MONDAY, JULY 30, 2007 theage.com.au 13

To discuss forest policy online go to OpinionO blogs.theage.com.au/yoursay A word of advice to the premier: always expect the unexpected

the Victorian Labor government Howard went from being yester- on the Victorian Liberals being towards the centre of economic servatism with pride, and one of rhetoric of quality and bench- term this has aided the Govern- finally has his failed to manage the crisis. day’s man to four straight as inept as their NSW and policy, but with limited natural Brumby’s key goals as oppo- marking but the drift of students ment’s ability to manage the chance to lead . But Voters deserted Labor, first at election victories and now John Queensland counterparts. resources available, environ- sition leader was to commit to private schools has continued, Labor Party. At the 2006 election, the 1990 federal election when Brumby, the struggling oppo- There are potential minefields mental debates necessarily Victorian Labor to this approach. while regional and working-class opportunistic preference deals he must tread carefully. Brumby lost his seat and then at sition leader of 1999, will be ahead for a Victorian Labor Gov- create winners and losers. Yet in NSW and Queensland, youth are increasingly disin- deprived the Greens of the bal- the 1992 state poll when Labor, premier in 2007 with a Govern- ernment that Brumby will have Labor’s electoral collapse in the Labor has been accused of clined to continue with further ance of power in the Legislative led by , was reduced ment in an apparently invincible to guard against. It has been Latrobe Valley at the 2006 state allowing public infrastructure to education after year 12 as the Council, but in the long run GEOFF ROBINSON to a rump. The shattered party position. But Brumby might easy to demonstrate fiscal res- election was largely due to local decline. rewardsofentrytoalabour Labor must resolve whether its soon turned to Brumby as reflect that his political career ponsibility during an economic grievances about water allocation As Treasurer, Brumby has market approaching full employ- current aggressive stance towards N 1983 when a 29-year-old leader. This was a time when may have more twists and turns boom, but this boom has — and conflicts around water extolled the virtues of Public- ment seem attractive. theGreensissustainable. John Brumby was elected to politics was about the conflict to come and that the emerging increasingly been financed by a use may prove intractable for the Private Partnerships to finance The Victorian Certificate of Brumby’s harder-edged style, Federal Parliament, he between winners and losers; challenges for the Government debt explosion that now encoun- Government. infrastructure, but their Applied Learning has been together with the departure of I would never have imagined those who had benefited from may be greater than those that ters real resource constraints, implementation has been prob- popular but it, together with the John Thwaites, may reduce the that 24 years later he would economic change and those who have confronted him as Treas- apparentinthesqueezeon lematic. The rocky career of the expansion of selective public Government’s attractiveness to reach the summit of his political lost out. In government after urer during an economic boom. housing affordability. The example of other state regional fast train project has schools, threatens to revive the Green-inclined voters. The pros- career as . 1992 embraced this The example of other state Any economic downturn will ‘Labor governments suggests exposed weaknesses in Labor’s level of class streaming in secon- perity and stability of the past Brumby’s political career has politics, and promised Victorians Labor governments suggests that force harder political decisions, that the political tables can ability to manage complex pro- dary education outcomes that decade in Australia may not last overlappedaperiodofdramatic that his tough policies would the political tables can turn ones that Labor was unable to jects and it contributed to the previous Labor educational forever. Brumby’s own political change in the Victorian econ- purge the state of the weak- quickly. Labor administrations in make in the early 1990s. Even if turn quickly. slump in Labor’s sup- reformers such as Kirner career has demonstrated that omy and society. The economic nesses that had dragged it down. NSW and Queensland sailed the economic good times con- ’ port at the last state election. campaigned against. successful Australian politicians restructuring of the late 1980s In early 1999, when Labor through two largely trouble-free tinue, voters’ expectations will With this current generation, In a globalised economy it is During Labor’s years in office, should always expect the unex- and early ’90s hit the Victorian dumped him and installed Steve terms before enduring crisis- continue to rise and they may state Labor governments have human capital as much as physi- the Greens have had unexpected pected. economy — dependent on Bracks as leader, Brumby ridden third terms plagued by turn on Labor as they seem to striven to distance themselves cal infrastructure that drives success — and many Labor poli- tariff-protected manufacturing seemed permanently confined to major infrastructure collapses. be turning on . from the financial crises that economic competitiveness, yet ticians are probably happy with Geoff Robinson lectures in politics at — particularly hard. The centre the ranks of political losers. Both governments survived Over the past decade crippled Labor administrations public education in Victoria faces the migration of much of the pol- , Warrnambool. His of a new globalised Australian Today the political upheavals of these crises, but Brumby would environmental policy has moved in the early 1990s; they have significant challenges. In govern- itical left out of Labor into the book on former NSW Labor premier Jack economy shifted to Sydney and the 1990s seem far distant. John hope he would not have to rely from a values or lifestyle issue borne the banner of fiscal con- ment, Labor has stressed a Greens. Certainly in the short Lang will be published later this year. Will the real Rudd please stand up?

HEN I write critically of Gunns and what is going on in the Tasmanian forests, a W journalist I know from living there who now works for the Government writes me angry emails saying I have become a typical mainlander, exonerating my environmental conscience by attacking Tasmanians when similar things are going MARTIN FLANAGAN on in my own Victorian backyard. Each time, I have written back and pointed out that the view I have expressed The Opposition Leader’s forest is shared, for example, by my elderly policy seems to be another parents and parents-in-law, people from working class and farm backgrounds. example of his ‘‘me-too’’ politics. If they’re not Tasmanian, I don’t know who is. My point is that I don’t accept his criticism of the corporate state is that it implication that mine is the ‘‘mainland’’ causes power to narrow into fewer and view any more than his is the exclusively fewer hands, often unelected. ‘‘Tasmanian’’ view. Plenty of Tasmanians What is happening in Tasmania should share my views — they just don’t fit the concern people in other parts of Australia political stereotypes used by the Tasman- for two reasons. One is because it ian Government to describe the debate. concerns the environment and that is now Last week, federal Opposition Leader a global concern. The other is because it Kevin Rudd stated his position on involves the Labor Party. My question for Tasmanian forest issues. Addressing Kevin Rudd is this — is Tasmania the timber workers in Launceston, he said, future of the Labor Party? If not, then ILLUSTRATION: JUDY GREEN ‘‘My job, if elected as the next prime exactly why not? This question has added minister of Australia, is to govern in the importance in an election year in which national interest and to govern in the it is feasible that Labor could end up public interest, not to govern in the holding power in every parliament in Greens’ interest.’’ the country. This view of the dispute, with the What do we know about Kevin Rudd? public interest on one side matched Not much, really. The game he is against a political pressure group on the currently playing with the Prime Minister An issue beyond trees other, would have been deeply familiar to is known in yacht racing as tacking. What his audience. It is the view of Tasmanian we do know, however, is that several Premier Paul Lennon. In the political months ago Rudd wrote an essay for the ment. Most production forests in Australia are why this is simply not so. There is the thresh- equation employed by Rudd, there is Monthly magazine on Dietrich The forest industry is often held up as an example of regrowth — regenerated coupe by coupe. We old question. Why are monocultural plantings, no place for people opposed to the Bonhoeffer, one of the outstanding have world-class forest reserves in national and often with few indigenous species, declared Government’s forestry policies who Christian figures of the 20th century. environmental profligacy. But the truth is often lost in state parks. better environmentally than perpetually regen- are not Greens. Bonhoeffer was a In Victoria the availability of the hardwood erated locally specific native forests? A few months German, a Luth- emotional campaigns against logging, writes Tricia Caswell. resource has been continually reduced over 30 Regenerated native production forests con- ago, 10,000 people What is happening in Tasmania eran minister, who years. Mostly this is the result of establishing tinue to provide for the local animals and marched through should‘ concern people in other became involved reserves, the introduction of new management birds, flora and fauna. Plantations of pine or Launceston — a in the plot to HEAD of the federal elec- available for production and a meagre 0.14 per regions, codes and the development of sustain- even blue gums cannot do the same job. large chunk of the parts of Australia. assassinate Hitler tion, the Liberal and Labor cent are harvested in any one year. Native able yield measures. Plantations most often provide woodchips population in a in World War II. As parties have set their policy hardwood trees sequester carbon during their The Government’s policy framework, Our for pulp, for paper and other composite wood place the size of ’ a theologian and sights on sustainable forest growth phase and most are organically grown Forests Our Future in 2002, reduced the products. They do not provide the range of Ballarat — to express their opposition to moral philosopher, he had to address the industries in Tasmania — with no chemical fertilisers. Local seeds are resource by 31 per cent in one go after a quality of timber sawlogs that native forests do. the pulp mill being built by Gunns in the moral issues associated with an act of and the jobs, skills, econ- collected for regeneration as close to the orig- review of sustainable yield. Local conflicts over the availability of land, soil picturesque Tamar Valley. The opposition murder in a time when evil is paramount. omies and environmental inal as possible with two trees planted for The promise of securing the resource at this types and depth, rainfall, damaging bugs, silvi- has two planks. One is the environmental I read Rudd’s essay as a sound defence Avalues that go with them. These are issues for every one harvested. new level of 567,800 cubic metres has never cultural practices, labour costs, complicated and aesthetic impact of the mill in a tour- of a Christian approach to politics that is the whole of Australia. Native forestry is efficient and makes good been kept. Parks have been extended and we planning regulations and the relatively low pri- ist area. The other is the integrity of the separate from, and possibly at odds with, With global warming a major issue, this useoftheresource—onaverageathirdto have the devastating effects of bushfires in ority given by governments have not made process whereby the proposal has been the politics of fundamentalist Christians approach is unsurprising — production for- sawn timber, a third to residue for woodchips 2003 and last summer. This has reduced the plantation development easy. pushed through. In one incident, Supreme thathavehadsomuchimpactinthe estry, with its vast array of wood and paper and a third left on the forest floor. Compare Victorian native timber resource to 500,000 It’s a long time since I have felt that one- Court judge Chris Wright, who was in United States and, to a lesser extent, here. products may be the most carbon positive this with most mining operations where cubic metres at most. dimensional, protest-based environmental charge of one branch of the process, The essay contained statements on the industry on the planet. Trees, their roots and resource efficiency is often very tiny. Such reductions and unmet promises to campaigns will get us to where we need to go alleged Lennon tried to improperly environment that people in Tasmania soil all store carbon, much of which stays Going to a coupe harvest is like going to maintain a long-term baseline resource affect so our grandchildren have a functioning planet influence him. opposed to what is happening in their stored in the wood and paper products we use the opera. There are spectators all around, the security and scale of the industry and the to live on and functioning communities to live I would argue that Tasmania is a state would identify with — saying, for everyday.Itissimplynottruethatallthe activities are heavily regulated and monitored. capacity to gather confidence, skills, invest- in. The tree has become the totemic symbol of corporate state by which I mean its example, that ‘‘the fundamental ethical carbon in trees turns to carbon dioxide in the No rainforest is harvested, big trees are not ment and eventually, its very survival. every kind of environmental issue. The single Government is directly responsive to challenge of our age (is) to protect the atmosphere when a forest coupe is harvested harvested. There are buffers along streams and If we close the industry down, demand for issue, anti-forestry campaigns will not solve the the state’s major corporation, the timber planet’’. He also talked about truth-telling andrelativelylittleenergyandwaterisusedin special protection zones for biodiversity. The timber products will not disappear, far from it. tough sustainability issues that face us. company Gunns. By corporate state, and ‘‘the Prime Minister’s now routine the extraction and manufacture of native hard- application of the forestry code is audited by Our national trade deficit in wood and paper If you are a local anti-forestry campaigner, I do not mean totalitarian state. Corporate manipulation of the truth’’. wood products. Both parties have declared the Environment Protection Authority. Each products of $2.1 billion, as part of an $18 bil- you are an environmental campaigner. Your states co-exist with consumerism and Rudd’s visit to Tasmania brought him there will be no further extensions to reserve year compliance has improved. Last year it was lion industry, will increase. only job is to save the forest. There are other consumer demands, including in news. into the spotlight. Either he is a conserva- systems in Tasmania. They both refer to the 93 per cent — high by any industry’s stan- We will import more illegal or unsustaina- big questions you never ask. Such as: ‘‘What The corporate politician par excellence, tive man of limited vision — a description history and science of the Regional Forest dards. bly harvested wood and wood products from are the environmental, social, and economic Silvio Berlusconi, was simultaneously that might be otherwise applied to the Agreements settled in the 1990s. Both refer to All of this is State Government business. tropical rainforests. We will have pushed our consequences of annihilating native forest prime minister of Italy and that country’s Prime Minister — or he is capable of the the need for viable forest industries in 21st TheGovernmentownsandmanagesourstate economies, jobs and communities offshore and industries in Australia?’’ biggest television mogul. On the subject sort of political behaviour he objects to in century Australia. forests, where nearly all Victorian native hard- the global environment will be the poorer for of dissent and democratic activity gener- the Prime Minister. It is worth placing this in the Victorian con- wood is sourced. Victoria and Australia have it. Plantations are held high as the total sol- Tricia Caswell is the chief executive officer of the Victorian ally, Berlusconi said, ‘‘If it’s not on text. Only 10 per cent of the state’s forests are world-class sustainable native forest manage- ution to forest wars. There are many reasons Association of Forest Industries. television, don’t worry about it.’’ The Martin Flanagan is a senior writer. Women’s fight to wear the veil will test Turkey’s move towards modernisation

OU SEE all kinds of small pieces of cloth have cosmopolitan and secular elite be a step towards sharia law. ently religious Muslims are some first from her family, then from ‘‘scarf girls’’ denies them their veils, or headscarves, in become a faultline of European identifies strongly with the West. It is hard to share their fears. of the strongest feminists. society. She is saying, ‘I’m a natural rights. Turkey. Last week I saw politics, symbolising fears of a Last week’s national election Yes, headscarves are more They are young women person,Ihavemyowncareer, ‘‘A woman who is more Y a woman in a black veil resurgent, strident, even separ- was triggered by a dispute over visible than ever in Turkey. But whose parents — the religious, and this is my choice.’ ’’ successful and smarter than me and tight jeans; another in a atist Islam. In 2004, France whether the wife of the ruling here is the surprise: their use is rural poor — moved to the cities These women also see Islam cannot go to university: how do wildly multi-coloured veil and banned the headscarf in public party’s candidate for president declining. The reason more are in Turkey’s huge postwar as patriarchal and are redefining you explain that? She will turn high heels; another wearing a schools. Last year the Dutch should be allowed to wear a seen is that their wearers are urbanisation. Their mothers it in their own image, he says. back to the home, become a pink veil and make-up to match. JAMES BUTTON Government and parts of headscarf. Although almost coming out of their homes and work, they are educated (female One told him she was afraid her mother with three children, Amberin Zaman, Turkey EYE ON EUROPE Belgium proposed banning the entirely Muslim, Turkey is the demanding a place in public life. literacy has risen from 13 to husband was not very Islamic. maybe become more radical. It’s correspondent for The Econom- burqa, the covering that shows fiercest opponent of Muslim A report by the European 81 per cent since World War II) Asked why not, she said, ‘‘He not right,’’ she says. ist, has seen a woman in a veil only the eyes (at times not even symbols such as the headscarf. Stability Initiative found that in andtheywantbetterjobsthan does not help me clean the Emboldened by its landslide sporting a tight top and bare This country has a chance them). Former British foreign The paradox goes back to the the past seven years the their mothers had. house.’’ The women are provok- win last week, the ruling party tummy. She has seen a transve- to show that Muslims and secretary Jack Straw caused a determination of Ataturk, foun- proportion of Turkish women Mahcupyan, whose foun- ing a small crisis: their scarves maymoveonbehalfofthescarf stite in a veil. She says some of storm when he voiced unease der of the secular state in 1923, whodonotcovertheirheads dation has studied the ‘‘scarf preventthemfromgoingto girls’ rights. Change is bound to the country’s most feisty femin- progress can co-exist. about the niqab, a covering to modernise his country by has risen from 27 to 37 per cent. girls’’, says the scarf is their university. come, even if Turkey shows that ists — including women who similar to a burqa. keeping Islam out of public life. Among the 60 per cent who ‘‘passport out of the family’’. It Mahcupyan estimates that a not all cultures modernise in campaign against male violence Of course the headscarf is Female MPs, lawyers, public cover, most wear the scarf in allows them to stay out late and few thousand have been the Western way. — wear veils. When Etyen the woman wears a veil. Yes, notthesameastheburqa, servants and tertiary students the loose, traditional style that tell their parents they cannot be expelled; tens of thousands This vibrant country also Mahcupyan rides a ferry across Turkey also has women in black, which denies human contact by cannot wear the veil in their often shows hair. misbehaving: they are religious, more do not apply. shows the world that while mili- the Bosphorus to go to work at wearing a shapeless overgar- shutting off the face. Yet both placeofworkorstudy.Sincethe Only 10 per cent wear the after all. It also frees them from Selin Bolme, 32, is a doctoral tant Islam is a great force, the Istanbul’s Turkish Economic ment with only a small part of are highly visible symbols of a ruling Justice and Development veil in the strict, religious way: harassment by men. student and a researcher with rise of women is greater. There and Social Studies Foundation, the face showing. But the kal- deep, if not always admitted, party has Islamist roots, the tied tightly around the face, ‘‘It’s a very modern garment, an Ankara think tank. She wears are plenty of reasons to believe he sees two or three couples eidoscope I saw challenged all WesternbeliefthatIslam elites, including many educated often with a bonnet, so that no even a feminist statement,’’ jeans and a T-shirt to work and the latter will prevail. kissing. They could be young my preconceptions. oppresses women. women, are terrified that a head hair shows. But here is another Mahcupyan says. The wearer ‘‘is is not religious. But she thinks people anywhere, except that In just a few years these Turkey is not Europe, but its ofstatewithaveiledwifewould paradox: among these appar- trying to differentiate herself, Turkey’s rigid stance on the James Button is Europe correspondent

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