Australia : Tarkine angst goes to Canberra

TASMANIAN miners landed in Canberra today to pass on sentiments expressed in a heated union-led rally in Burnie earlier this month.
At the same time, conservationists have delayed a counter-rally planned for Hobart and say the hostility brewing in North-West Tasmania has raised safety concerns for summer protests.
The miners' delegation handed Environment Minister Tony Burke a petition signed by more than 6600 people in a bid to convince him to deny the Tarkine a natural heritage listing.
Such a listing would stop new mines being developed in the area.
"For too long, loud activists have drowned out the voices of decent hard-working people in Tasmania and promoted the myth that Tasmania is nothing but uninhabited wilderness," AWU national secretary Paul Howes said today.
Mr Howes said Mr Burke's consideration of a proposal to put 440,000ha of the North-West on the heritage register was a further threat to jobs in a region that already had one of the highest jobless rates in Australia.
Mr Burke has already ruled out giving the Tarkine a blanket heritage listing and has until the end of next year to make a decision.
Meanwhile, the Tarkine National Coalition is leading the campaign to protect the Tarkine from more mining development.
TNC campaign co-ordinator Scott Jordan said while the group was keen to protest over the summer, he had serious safety concerns.
Mr Jordan said he had received death threats, been abused in the streets of Burnie and received prank calls at his home.
A December 9 rally in Hobart organised by the Wilderness Society has been postponed until early next year.
The deferral was designed to give Tasmanians time to focus on debate about the Tasmanian Forest Agreement ahead of the Upper House vote on the issue next month, the society said in a statement.

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