Controversial Logs Deal Adds to Pulp Mill Uncertainty

On 1 December 2008, Gunns announced that it had been given a two-year extension on its wood-supply deal for the pulp mill.

In extending the terms of the agreement, Forestry Tasmania simultaneously stepped over Tasmanian Premier David Bartlett’s line in the sand, threatened vast tracts of publicly-owned native forest in Tasmania, and thickened the cloud of uncertainty currently hanging over the unpopular project.

Tasmanian rainforest trees such as these sassafras (Atherosperma moschatum) are among those at risk from logging. Photographer: Rob Blakers

The agreement compels Forestry Tasmania to provide 1.5 million tonnes per annum of pulpwood to Gunns. These logs will be extracted from both plantations and native forests on public land managed by Forestry Tasmania.

Forestry Tasmania’s projections show that it can provide, at most, only 500,000 tonnes per annum of pulpwood from plantations. That leaves a balance of over one million tonnes per annum to come from native forests.

Tree-species for pulping include most of Tasmania’s eucalypts as well as rainforest species such as myrtle, sassafras and blackwood. Such trees for pulping would be extracted from forests that occur in both north-eastern and southern Tasmania, including places such as the Great Western Tiers, North-East Highlands and south-west Tasmania. When added to logging of native forests on private land to feed the pulp mill, the threatened forests total over 200,000 ha.

The wood-supply deal was originally struck in October 2007 and allowed either party to terminate it if Gunns had not commenced construction of the pulp mill by 30 June 2008. When that deadline was missed, a new deadline of 30 November 2008 was imposed. This was when Premier Bartlett drew his ‘line in the sand’ promising to end government involvement in the pulp-mill project if that extended deadline were missed as well.

Premier Bartlett is now arguing that his line in the sand does not apply to Forestry Tasmania. Yet Forestry Tasmania is a government business enterprise owned by the government and subject to instruction by the government. Mr Bartlett appears too frightened to take on Forestry Tasmania and is rationalising his failure with a dishonest argument.

Mr Bartlett, at least, kept his word when it came to the separate ‘sovereign-risk agreement’, which provided for compensation from the government to Gunns in the event that future forest protection compromised supplying wood to the pulp mill. This compensation deal is now defunct.

Without a compensation deal, the pulp mill’s future wood supply is shrouded in uncertainty. The Tasmanian public does not want its native forests fed into a massive pulp mill. The wood supply for the pulp mill is therefore controversial, unpopular and uncertain.

Wood supply therefore becomes another cloud hanging over the mill’s future – along with obtaining finance, obtaining environmental approval from Peter Garrett, establishing the mill’s pipeline across land owned by people and authorities who are refusing access, and the outstanding litigations against the pulp mill.

Meanwhile, Gunns has told the stock exchange that the logs covered by the wood-supply deal could be consumed in its other facilities – that is, the company’s export-woodchip mills. This makes a mockery of the claims that the wood-supply agreement is all about downstream processing.

Take Action

To tackle Gunns’ proposed pulp mill, contact Peter Garrett and urge him to do the following:

- grant Gunns no further extensions;
- carry out the necessary scientific studies before approval rather than afterwards;
- refuse Gunns the environmental approval for this unpopular, destructive and discredited pulp mill whose assessment has been such a farce.

Federal Environment Minister Peter Garrett
PO Box 6022
House of Representatives
Parliament House
Canberra ACT 2600
Tel: (02) 6277 7640
peter.garrett.mp@aph.gov.au

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