Poem: Pulping due process

(in response to Gunns withdrawing its pulp mill from the independent assessment process and Tasmanian premier Paul Lennon planning to approve it anyway)

and so it comes to pass

that clumsy-suited men

embrace behind a screen of glass

and expose their dodgy plan



environmental safeguards

are felled with old-growth trees

the fumes will spread beyond backyards

to pollute democracy



an assessment is allowable

if it gives the A-okay

because money is infallible

in this corrupted state



when business cannot win the game

it changes all the rules

when politicians have no shame

they treat us like we're fools



but we sense a bit of deja-vu

like it's all been tried before

with Wesley Vale, the people threw

the plans right out the door



and so it comes to pass

that ordinary women and men

unite and fight the pulp

and we will win again

From GLW issue 705