In a lovely and positive turn of events, one of the top ten sites on the world wide web today features the article on Harry Murray VC as its main feature, drawing the attention of millions to a hero and the island state of his birth.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page

However, one day after my blog entry has been going, it will have changed, so you can still find out more here.

Wikipedia is accessed 150 million times a day so this represents great exposure of one of Northern Tasmania’s more prominent war heroes. I don’t know on what basis Wikipedia select their feature articles – the good thing is that the benefits are real although incalculable: Tasmania is being brought up in the mind of many internet users worldwide and many will click through to find out more about our state.
It’s exactly these sort of organic connections between Tasmania and the rest of the world that we need to foster and develop. For example, Lonely Planet’s decision to name the Bay of Fires as the top travel destination for 2009 is advertising that money can’t buy. As Tasmania’s reputation for being clean, green, safe and beautiful grows, more and more people will want to visit here, perhaps stay, and share their experiences with their networks.

I am mindful that there is a section of the Tasmanian community made up of individuals who, while having concerns that they legitimately want considered, miss no opportunity to spoil our reputation and economic prospects whenever they can – and in the end, end up dividing our community. I am referring of course to the Greens Party.

It’s a shame that our arguments aren’t kept within our state in a mature and robust way. But at the end of the day (as they say) no one is going to come away from a debate with everything they want. We all know that the Greens support the environment but there is much more that we need to consider when we look to improving the long term fortunes of Tasmania.

So let’s face it, there is no room for Greens Party members to broadcast their campaigns, run their full page newspaper ads and sabotage export deals in other states and nations. These actions only hurt Tasmanian families and hand over market and job opportunities to other countries (often with much lower environmental credentials).

What’s important is that on issues to do with our environment and job-rich industries, we don’t tolerate the behaviour of those who want to sabotage our reputation and our economy.  We need to work together to re-unite our community, focus on preparing our state now for the long term challenges and forget the old-school, divisive politics of Labor and the Greens.

We are a community – not a bunch of individuals who have to take a corner on every issue. So let’s agree to strive for a state whose people respect each other enough to sometimes argue, sometimes agree and, if necessary, agree to disagree. That way, we protect what we have while protecting our future direction – whatever that may be.