MORE than 600 people packed into the Tailrace Centre in Launceston last night for a public forum against the Tamar Valley Pulp Mill.
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The full house heard from a panel of anti-pulp mill speakers including Peter McGlone, Lucy Landon-Lane, Vanessa Bleyer and Bass Greens MHA Kim Booth.
Mr Booth said Premier Lara Giddings had let down a community that expected the ``blight'' of the Tamar Valley pulp mill to be removed.
``This it the sort of behaviour you'd expect from a tin-foot dictatorship in a Third World country,'' he said.
``It's not something we expect in our democracy, and it's not something our fathers and mothers fought for in world wars to stand up for freedom and democratic rights.''
The Greens MP told the crowd the pulp mill sale process was a total betrayal of democracy.
``What Premier Giddings and her Labor cronies, supported by the Liberals, intend to do now is to effectively rubber stamp a conspiracy to pervert the course of justice,'' he said.
``The ghost of Gunns is speaking through KordaMentha with the government while there is a live court case afoot.''
Mr Booth sounded a call to arms to those in attendance.
``We must oppose this. We must march in the street. We must maintain the rage,'' Mr Booth said.
Among those at the meeting was Palmer United Party candidate Kevin Morgan.
Mr Morgan gathered with people from both sides of the pulp mill debate before the forum.
``You have to listen to what those on both sides of the debate have to say,'' Mr Morgan said.
``I'm here to listen to the community, to hear the issues being raised and understand what the public want.''
The PUP state leader said he was disappointed some of the things said at the forum were not factual.
``I'm disappointed the Greens did not stick to the facts,'' he said.
``It tends to create a hysterical reaction rather than a true reaction to the issue.
``The fact the mill had moved from being both native forest and plantation-based to being purely plantation-based wasn't mentioned tonight.''
Mr Morgan said his party believed the pulp mill sale process was flawed.
``The government has changed the rules to suit the mill,'' he said.