Burke vs Cundall - the smackdown

Former Channel 9 garden show TV host, Don Burke has bravely taken up a position with pulp mill developer, Gunns in Tasmania.

Burke will take on former ABC TV garden show host/pulp mill opponent and Communist Party of Australia Senate candidate, Peter Cundall. In contrast to Burke, whether or not Cundall is paid for his advocacy is never discussed.

Burkey speaks about the proposal here.

If Cundall succeeds in stopping the pulp mill he will also prevent:

* returning enough power (from biomass) to the national electricity grid to power Launceston

* saving the world 1.3 million tonnes of carbon emissions per year (normally spent transporting woodchips to Japan). This is the equivalent of taking more than 50,000 cars off the road

* the direct employment of, on average, more than 1600 Tasmanians over 30 years

* the injection of billions into the Tasmanian economy, growing it by 2.5 per cent, and adding $890 million to government revenue - money that can be spent, for example, on things like hospitals, national broadcasting services, the environment, and foreign aid to failed communist states.