farmdoc's blog post number 697

Here are some footnotes to yesterday’s post:

In 1995 Sweetheart Vivienne and I walked Hinchinbrook Island’s Thorsborne Trail, and we were shown over the proposed Port Hinchinbrook site by (now 87 year old) Margaret Thorsborne who was then President of the FoH. So my observations on both counts are personal.

Ultimately Williams prevailed over the FoH, and Port Hinchinbrook was built. I don’t know how much Williams’s White Shoe Brigade membership and SLAPP writs contributed to this result. But I doubt they were unhelpful.

Keith Williams sold Port Hinchinbrook in 2006. He had a stroke in 2008. Now 80 years old, he’s disabled and lives on the Gold Coast in South Queensland.

I don’t know if Port Hinchinbrook’s been successful and what its environmental impact is. The new owner’s planning expansion.

FoH is defunct. The ongoing battle against the environmental excesses of Port Hinchinbrook (aka Club Mud) is being fought by the Alliance to Save Hinchinbrook [ASH].

The Grand Prix Corp’s threats of SLAPP writs were empty; the writs never eventuated.

In January 2010 Gunns withdrew the last of its 1995 Gunns20 SLAPP litigation – without even one minute of substantive (i.e. non-procedural) courtroom action.

I wrote here of vandalism at the house of Gunns Chairman John Gay (pictured) Last Monday a man pleaded guilty to it. During the hearing, Gay said he was frightened and sick of harassment at his house. How dare he – the instigator of 20 SLAPP writs aiming to frighten and harass lawful opponents – have the temerity to portray himself as an underdog. (Given the continuing southerly progress of Gunns share price, the last laugh won’t be Gay’s.)

I last wore white shoes in 1985 – when I last played tennis.

farmdoc's blog post number 686

It’s 13 days to the Tasmanian state election. And the Party’s are in a bidding frenzy to see who can throw the most money – taxpayers’ money, my money – at the logging industry. The ALP opened with A$6½M, only to be trumped by the Liberals’ A$7M. It mystifies me why loggers are a government-protected species. Other industries – e.g. clothing, textiles and footwear – have been decimated or killed outright courtesy of the policies of one government or other. But not the logging industry. Oh no. Logging industry leaders seem protected too. John Gay (pictured) is the chairman, and until recently the CEO too, of Gunns Limited – Tasmania’s and Australia’s biggest timber company. Last 8 December Gay sold 3.4M of his Gunns shares for A$3.1M. Then on 22 February Gunns reported a net profit after tax for the second half of 2009 of A$420,000 – a mere 3% of market estimates of A$12M+, and a 98¾% fall from the 2008 equivalent of A$33.6M. Its share price promptly free-fell by 35%. I don’t know if the profit/share price plummet caused Gay’s share sale – which was disclosed and attributed to a financial commitment he had to meet. On 24 February the Australian Stock Exchange asked Gunns when it first became aware of the 98¾% profit fall; but it didn’t ask when Gay first became aware of it. And it’s not investigating Gay’s sale at all let alone as insider trading. This was Gay’s first share sale in the company for 35 years. Ho hum.