Don Burke - Logging Whore

[Customjimmy]

Link

Don Burke has accepted payment from Gunns pulp mill to be an 'advisor', advocating the wonderful benefits of poisoning the ocean, and the beautiful Tamar valley in Tasmania. This is in stark contrast to Peter Cundall, arse-kicking war veteran, gardening legend and Tamar local, who correctly points out that the project was fast-tracked by a corrupt government (actually, two corrupt governments in my opinion), and is totally farked.

Is Don Burke fighting the good fight? I personally think he is a soulless mercenary piece of shit but hey, maybe others think differently.

 

[Venciferus]

Apparently Don Burke is an absolute nob to work with, he thinks his time is a privilege to anyone he's around and thinks he's the best there ever will be.

Reliable source on that.

 

[gravelclimber]

Don Burke has been the head of the oil industry-funded Australian Environment Foundation for years. It's a front group for the right-wing free market think tank, the Institute of Public Affairs, that specialises in anti-environmentalism, climate change denial and crapping on about how the Murray river is fine.

Burke's been a joke for years. The Gunns thing is just more of the same.

 

[jrewing]

isnt he a rock spider?

 

[mtb1611]

Apparently Don Burke is an absolute nob to work with, he thinks his time is a privilege to anyone he's around and thinks he's the best there ever will be.

Reliable source on that.

Can second that. Universally loathed within the tv world.

 

[contagion]

He's a knob, no doubt about it. Been known for years, this just enforces it.

jrewing, I really like you sig.

 

[|Matt|]

My friend's dad looks like Don Burke.

 

[jamesiscold]

Apparently Don Burke is an absolute nob to work with, he thinks his time is a privilege to anyone he's around and thinks he's the best there ever will be.

Reliable source on that.

Thats a load of shit and id like to know where you pull that from. Ive been on Burkes Backyard before for a road test of some dogs we had. He wasnt a nob as you point out, quite the opposite. He was funny as, and really passionate about what he does.
Great guy but he seems to have sold out a bit here though.

 

[Gruntled]

Peter Cundall is a true Legend, Scholar and Gentlemen. I admire him.

Don Burke is a rich boozer.

 

[Venciferus]

Actually I pulled it from someone who worked with him a lot on "Burkes Backyard" and he was very adamant about what he said anyway it seems to be common knowledge considering "mtb1611"'s post and the whole issue in this thread.

He wasnt a nob as you point out, quite the opposite. He was funny as, and really passionate about what he does.
Great guy but he seems to have sold out a bit here though.

Isn't that incredibly contradictory anyway, considering the size of his sell out and how passionate you say he is.


*exclamation points removed for coldjames*

 

[jamesiscold]

Actually I pulled it from someone who worked with him a lot on "Burkes Backyard" and he was very adamant about what he said anyway it seems to be common knowledge considering "mtb1611"'s post and the whole issue in this thread!

No need for exclamation points! The issue of him having dick headed personality, and selling out to a logging company are different. If your "someone" was adament, what does that make me lol, in denial?
Its true he has fucked up, but i still think he is a nice guy.

 

[sockman]

This is the Burkes backyard dude, right? I met him once, was at the ag show in Orange. He seemed like a bit of a tosser IMO. Just his mannerism.

My friend's dad looks like Don Burke.

Yeah, well there is a guy who lives in my street who, I shit you not, looks IDENTICAL to John Howard! Only this guy doesn't look like a bowling ball.

 

[JP]

Just because Don Burke likes gardening and had a successful TV show about gardening and plants doesn't mean he gives a shit about the environment. IMO, he has always had a highly dubious attitude towards the environment. I think he was of the belief that the world/environment is always changing so why should we do anything to stop this change. Judging by some of the other posts this seems to be pretty spot on for his attitude. Apparently a stinkin', dirty pulp mill is part of the environmental change.

As far as whether or not he is a good bloke, I can't say. What I can say is we have friends whose house burned to the ground during bushfires in the Hawkesbury several years ago. Burke did the whole Renovation Rescue thing for them. Apparently, if he wanted something done to the land or house and you didn't agree he cracked the shits, as if he felt he was the expert and you should do what the hell he says.

As far as his new job is concerned, a great man once said "Money talks, bullshit runs the marathon." (Wesley Snipes as Nino Brown in New Jack City. Hazaa!)

 

[jrewing]

beard+wardrobe full of cardigans= Don(Dennis Ferguson)Bourke.

 

[Trevor_S]

Don Burke has accepted payment from Gunns pulp mill to be an 'advisor', advocating the wonderful benefits of poisoning the ocean, and the beautiful Tamar valley in Tasmania.

Soooo.. what would you have us do ? put a paper mill overseas, and use 2nd or 3rd world technology to produce the paper over there, at the same time as you piss 'n moan about manufacturing jobs going overseas you keep buying paper products produces manufactured with inferior and polluting technologies ... would that be your suggestion ?

Sounds like a lot of NIMBY crap to me, if we are using paper, make it and pollute here... personally the only thing I think abhorrent is using old growth forest as long as they don't do that, I am a happy camper.

Here's the rub, don't like the damage paper manufacturing does to the environment, don't use paper.. I try and use as little as possible I don't buy newspapers, magazines, No junk Mail stickers, hell, I don't even own a printer ! but I also think that we should have these sorts of toxic plants in Aus, keep 'em close, build them using world class technology and keep a friggin' close eye on them.

maybe others think differently.

Your workable solution, aside from NIMBY is ?

 

[Turner_rider]

Don Burke has accepted payment from Gunns pulp mill to be an 'advisor', advocating the wonderful benefits of poisoning the ocean, and the beautiful Tamar valley in Tasmania. This is in stark contrast to Peter Cundall, arse-kicking war veteran, gardening legend and Tamar local, who correctly points out that the project was fast-tracked by a corrupt government (actually, two corrupt governments in my opinion), and is totally farked.

A couple of questions for everyone - playing devils advocate.

What is the definition of "Old Growth Forest"?

Is either gent mentioned above suitably qualified to make an informed scientific opinion on the environmental impacts of the proposed pulp mill?

If neither gent (or many politicians) can answer the first question, does that call into question their ability to assess the whole pulp mill debate?

 

[Graunched]

Soooo.. what would you have us do ? put a paper mill overseas, and use 2nd or 3rd world technology to produce the paper over there, at the same time as you piss 'n moan about manufacturing jobs going overseas you keep buying paper products produces manufactured with inferior and polluting technologies ... would that be your suggestion ?

Quite right. But is it necessary to put the pulp mill in a pristine environment such as the tamar valley in tasmania?

Why not just put it in one of the many industrial wastelands already in use around Australia?

I think that this is more what people are getting at.......

 

[Turner_rider]

Quite right. But is it necessary to put the pulp mill in a pristine environment such as the tamar valley in tasmania?

Why not just put it in one of the many industrial wastelands already in use around Australia?

I think that this is more what people are getting at.......

The pulp mill site is in an existing industrial wasteland in some respects, so I'm not sure where pristine environment comes from (other than misinformation).

Existing businesses in the immediate area already include Comalco Aluminium, Temco and an oil/gas fired power station...

 

[Gruntled]

Gunns are logging old growth forest to make woodchips for paper production in their plant which is in the Tamar Valley. The Tamar Valley also empties into the Derwent River which doesn't flush pout often and therefore accumulates pollutants. That is simply unethical. Old Growth forest is classified primarily by its vegetation structure. The species which live soley in old growth forest cannot exist in younger forest, for varied reasons. Thus by removing old growth forest we threaten species which have no alternative but to die. Gunns are an ethically dubious company, to say the best about them. I think this is the issue at heart. If it was Kimberly-Clarke producing paper from chipped plantation wastes, there would be a different community reaction I imagine.

Furthermore, Burke by name, Burke by nature.

 

[Turner_rider]

The Tamar Valley also empties into the Derwent River which doesn't flush pout often and therefore accumulates pollutants.

You may want to think about that statement a little bit