Forest Agreement Fails To Clear The Upper House

Hall, Rattray, Mulder, Harriss and Dean

UPDATE Thursday 13th 5.50pm. The TFA bill has been referred to a committee convening on March 15 2013.
At least the speeches were entertaining. Hall used words like 'pissed-off' and 'a crock' to describe the bill. Rattray was 'not gunna be bullied' by Ta Ann or anyone else. Mulder covered more positions than a yoga manual. He was quite entertaining, laughing at his own jokes and declaring he was capable of 'arguing with myself'. He was loving every minute of it. Quite a messianic personality in our view. Paul Harriss somehow resolved his contradictory position on Ta Ann but the other Ta Ann asset Ruth Forrest towed the Sarawak line to the end.  Harriss even delivered a flowery tribute to John Gay at one stage before carrying-out his motion to refer the bill to a committee. Newcomers Valentine and Armitage were willing to acknowledge all sides but would vote for the deal. IT is non-committal on how this pans out. We have covered it all along and are aware of the huge amount of bullshit the bill enshrines.

 Jim Wilkinson savaged the bill in an animated and considered way. One of his big hits was the fact the peace deal negotiators had missed many deadlines while now the Legislative Council was being forced to make a decision on the spot. 'What hypocrisy' he stated and you really had to agree. The epic 12/12/12 debate ended with Wilkinson's adjournment motion. The house seemed to be balanced 7-7 so the bill could very well go down with the chairpersons vote deciding. Wilkinson claimed this is not what he wants to see but he would rather 'keep the bill alive' and improved in a committee process. In the end that's exactly what happened.