Remember Harry Butler, the television naturalist? Thought not. Although he was a major force in the conservation movement and a great populariser of science and natural history, Green Stalinists sent him to Siberia 20 years ago for daring to describe parts of Kakadu as “clapped-out buffalo country”.

Green Stalinists have been at it again in the Bell Bay pulp mill debate, busy rewriting the facts.

We’ve heard next to nothing about the other industry at the site – including an aluminium smelter, ferro-alloy processing plant, a power station and other timber processing operations. We haven’t been told that it will be located in the main shipping port in northern Tasmania. Most of Australia remains ignorant of the fact that the proposed pulp mill site stands next to two operating woodchip mills on land zoned heavy industrial.

The mill’s proponents, Gunns and the Tasmanian state government, have spectacularly failed to point out the facts. Instead, the entire operation has been portrayed as an imposition on a pristine location.

Poor old Barry Chipman from Timber Communities Australia has been p-ssing in the wind, attempting to point out that Bell Bay’s existing heavy industrial activity has not prevented the growth of the wine, tourism and fish-farming industries throughout the Tamar Valley. No-one’s listening.

Gunns has the Tasmanian government round its finger. Both are lazy, complacent and arrogant. Both are corrupted by their relationship.

Why should Malcolm Turnbull take a bullet for these people? The Environment Minister should confound the expectations. He should reject the pulp mill proposal.

If they wanted the mill, Gunns and the Tasmanian state government should have sold it properly. They haven’t. Gunns relies on threats. The Tasmanian government just nods. They’ve let their opponents make the running.

It’s become more than a Tasmanian issue. It’s spilt over onto the mainland. It’s become a key scene-setter for the election eve. Geoffrey Cousins, a cashed-up campaigner with interest conflicts of his own, has turned it into an issue in Turnbull’s own electorate.

The Environment Minister is no stranger to tough deals, as his business record shows. He’s also one of the clueyer members of the parliament.

So why should he take a bullet for Gunns and Tasmanian Labor? They’re the ones who lost the PR war. Why should he be the last victim?

Turnbull should say no to the pulp mill.