On 28 February 2018 I was pleased to speak at the launch of Kingborough Council's 'Inside with cats' video series. There are five short videos each telling a personal story of why a cat owner has decided to contain their cat and what the benefits are for them and their cat. There is a crucial need for high quality education such as these videos plus complimentary legislation to encourage high levels of responsible cat ownership. My talk regarding the proposed amendments to the Cat Management Act is included in full below and you can view the five videos via the link. https://www.kingborough.tas.gov.au/2018/03/inside-with-cats/

The TCT said today that Peter Gutwein's Draft Major Projects Legislation, if enacted, will deliver the Fragrance Skyscrapers in Hobart and Launceston, against the interests of local communities.

'It seems that the purpose of the legislation is to fast track the approval of any development that is vehemently opposed by the community including the two massive Fragrance skyscrapers proposed for Hobart and the recently announced 70 metre high Fragrance hotel proposed for next to Launceston's City Park,' said TCT Director Peter McGlone.

The last Tasmanian Conservationist included a feature article outlining the numerous concerns we had regarding the state government’s ‘business-first approach’ to land-use planning and summarised the proposals we had made to the opposition parties to address these concerns.

The Minister for Planning, Peter Gutwein, announced on 22 November 2017 that the Draft Land Use Planning and Approvals Amendment (Major Projects) Bill 2017 (Major Projects Legislation) would not be tabled in parliament prior to the state election. The Minister promised that the bill would be redrafted to rule out very high buildings being able to be declared major projects.

On 23 November 2017 the Legislative Council voted 10 to 4 against the legislation to facilitate the state government’s take-over of TasWater from its current council owners.  The state government now intends to take the proposal for state government take-over of TasWater to the next election to seek a mandate.  

Keen email openers will have noticed an increase in communications about the Fragrance Towers. Since our last newsletter in May, the Trust has been fighting a battle with a Singaporean property developer to preserve Tasmania’s unique cultural and urban identity.

When Peter McGlone asked me to prepare an article summarising the various factors that should be fed into a comprehensive and rigorous energy policy framework I baulked. For this is never how it is done in Tasmania.

The TCT opposes the euthanasia or relocation of seals that are claimed to be a problem for fish farms. This is because of the unacceptable animal welfare impacts and because there are practical alternatives.

Over recent months with funding from Ten Lives Cat Centre and Bruny Island Environment Network I have been working with local cat owners and Small World Documentaries to develop a series of educational videos on responsible pet cat ownership. The short, engaging videos capture real-life stories of cat owners sharing the benefits and practicalities of containing their cats. This project is particularly exciting as, to the best of our knowledge, these videos are the first of their kind anywhere around the globe!

Some of you may have heard about the innovative ‘Cat Tracker’ project run by the University of South Australia. The project tracks the movement of pet cats and interviews their owners in order to learn about the roaming behaviours of pet cats and to help cat owners make decisions about their care and welfare.

Contrary to recent public statements by the state government and others, the permits for the Tamar Valley Pulp Mill have not been revoked. But the process to revoke them has started.

From here it seems certain that the permits will eventually be revoked, but we will be following this process to make absolutely certain.

The number of tourists coming to Tasmania per year has increased by a whopping 31% over the last four years, from 961,600 in the year to June 2013 to 1.26 million in the year to June 2016 (Tourism Tasmania figures), and expenditure has grown by even more. But the number of people employed in tourism has hardly changed in those four years.