Taking the plunge for charity

GOING over the top in the name of charity is all in a day's policing for Commissioner Darren Hine.

Next month, Mr Hine will join 60 others to abseil down Wrest Point Casino's 60m tower to raise funds for Royal Hobart Hospital's Research Foundation.

Although it had been three decades since his last rappelling experience, Mr Hine looked like an old hand as he descended the casino's 17 storeys at yesterday's preview of The Edge fundraiser, to be held at 11am on August 25.

"I usually prefer my feet to be firmly on the ground, but this is a great opportunity to do something different while raising money for a very important cause," he said, before approaching the tower's rooftop ledge.

Also taking the plunge yesterday was Hutchins principal Warwick Dean, who invited sponsors to come forward and help "heave the headmaster".

RHH Research Foundation CEO Heather Francis said all funds raised from The Edge would directly support medical research projects undertaken by doctors, nurses and allied health professionals.

"The foundation is supporting 10 projects this year, but if more funds had been available, an additional 20 worthy projects could have been supported," she said.

For more details, rhhresearchfoundation.org

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Hatchet attacker paroled

A SCHOOLBOY who tried to kill a fellow student in a hatchet attack is set to be released from youth detention four years after being imprisoned for attempted murder.

The 19-year-old, who has served half of an eight-year sentence, has been granted parole and will be released on Monday.

In 2009, when he was 15, he repeatedly hit a Bridgewater High student on the back of the head with a hatchet and left her to die in bushland by the River Derwent.

Then Chief Justice Ewan Crawford said it was a chilling and horrific crime.

The boy -- who cannot be named as he is a youth offender -- boasted he had killed the girl.

His victim, who was not found until the next day, was in hospital for three months and will suffer the effects of the attack for the rest of her life.

The boy was sentenced to eight years in jail with a minimum term of four years -- which expired on March 18.

He recently applied to the Parole Board for release.

"I was 15 years old when I committed the crime of attempted murder," he told the board.

"I committed the crime out of adolescent stupidity, a troubled frame of mind and a narcissistic personality. I had a complete lack of emotions, a serious lack of empathy and I had an unhealthy sense of self-worth.

"Since coming to Ashley Youth Detention Centre I have attended extensive sessions with a psychologist, these sessions have spanned over my entire detention period to date.

"The time spent with a psychologist has been the major turning point, not just in my life, but in my entire attitude and thought process."

In his report to the board, clinical psychologist Damien Minehan said the risks of the boy reoffending were offset by good family support, plans for further study and the extensive psychological therapy he received during his sentence.

In its written determination, the board said: "At the time of his offending the applicant was young, with the majority of his life still ahead of him. In the last four years of his sentence he has been able to mature, access significant psychological therapy and improve his prospects by engagement in education."

david.killick@news.com.au

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More forest action ahead

ENVIRONMENTAL groups have vowed to continue protests despite calls from Greens Leader Nick McKim to give forest peace a chance.

Green groups have rejected Mr McKim's calls, in the Sunday Tasmanian yesterday, to stop protests in the lead-up to a final tick of approval from the state's Upper House for new forest reserves under the Tasmanian Forest Agreement (TFA).

Still Wild Still Threatened spokesperson Miranda Gibson said environmentalists could not afford to stop protest action.

"For years Tasmania waited for a promised moratorium on our forests and in the meantime lost significant tracts of irreplaceable world heritage and high conservation value forests," Ms Gibson said yesterday.

"We question why Nick McKim is calling now for a moratorium on protests, instead of calling for an end to the destruction of Tasmania's native forests.

"The real risk is that if we allow this legislation to silence us, if we stop campaigning for the forests, Tasmania is poised to lose vast tracts of native forests while the taxpayer-funded industry is given free rein."

Ms Gibson said community campaigns have always provided checks and balances, "holding the industry to account for destructive practices".

Huon Valley Environment spokeswoman Jenny Weber said Mr McKim and environmental signatories to the agreement had been "greenmailed".

"If secure legislated protection is not granted to forests, it will be the fault of those legislative councillors who designed the Bill to fail, the politicians who supported that mutated Bill, wherein protection to forests is granted if campaigns are silenced, among other 'greenmail' clauses and the signatories to this Agreement."

Opposition Leader Will Hodgman said Mr McKim's "panicked calls for a temporary ceasefire in the forests ... have zero credibility".

"If Nick McKim was genuinely committed to 'peace' in the forests, he would be calling for the protests to end, full stop," he said.

Tasmania's Upper House will need to be satisfied that a number of conditions, including a halt to serious market attacks by protesters and promised wood supplies, have been adhered to before ticking off on the first of 392,237ha of reserves to be created under the agreement.

matthew.smith@news.com.au

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Waste boss blasts scare tactics

UNOFFICIAL: One of the signs warning about water quality due to the Copping C Cell waste facility. Picture: KIM EISZELE

PROPONENTS of the proposed Copping C Cell waste facility east of Hobart have asked that signs making claims about it be removed from local beaches.

Signs have been placed close to the water in the Dodges Ferry and Carlton Beach areas in recent days claiming it may contain heavy metals.

The signs say the presence of any heavy metals would be "due to a controlled release of stormwater from the Copping landfill site during recent high rainfall".

Southern Waste Solutions chief executive Christine Bell said the signs appeared to be another attempt at scare tactics to thwart the Copping C Cell plan.

"I can't see they have got any thing to gain by it," she said.

"It is just another in a string of stunts based on incorrect information.

"It strikes me as counter-productive."

Ms Bell said she had contacted Sorell Council to have the signs removed.

Mayor Kerry Vincent could not be contacted for comment yesterday.

Southern Waste Solutions, a joint authority for the Sorell, Kingborough, Clarence and Tasman councils, has been granted Environmental Protection Authority and development approval to build a 300,000m³ Category C landfill cell at Copping.

The cell, the first of its type in Tasmania, will take hazardous materials from places like Antarctica and the old railyards site on the Hobart waterfront.

The plan has angered residents, who say the project has been rushed through without adequate consideration of the environmental impacts and alternatives.

Ms Bell said yesterday a detailed plan would be drawn up in January in preparation for construction of the facility by about the middle of next year.

matthew.smith@news.com.au

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