TASMANIA'S PULP MILL    

The campaign against the approved value adding pulp mill with about 5,000 - 10,000 opponents of the mill  chosen to attend a rally promoted by the distribution of 70,000 leaflets to households across Tasmania.

The leaflets focus on a report released in the first week of August by the Australian National University that claims to calculate the carbon storage potential of Australia’s native forests. [Read a critique]

The rally focus was on ‘democracy’ and are making claims about the Pulp Mill Assessment Act democratically passed by the Tasmanian Parliament last year.  Yet are their concerns valid, a new briefing paper looks at the Pulp mill and Democracy. Opponents later that week forced the suspension of the House of Assembly by their behaviour in the public gallery.

Despite thousands of articles written by seasoned and experienced journalists on the approved pulp mill, the judges at the Victorian Premier's literary awards has awarded a major prize to an essay by Richard Flanagan, a fiction writer and vocal critic of of Tasmanian forest sector that along with the democratically elected State Government, he claims is responsible for the "rape of Tasmania".

The judges claimed that " it is a fact-rich piece, very well written and argued". They have totally ignored the criticism by the then Federal Minister of Forests that the article lacked facts. A link is provided to that speech as well as a briefing paper that examines the background of the article and the judges' decision. Mr Flanagan in accepting the award called for a commission of inquiry into the State Government, perhaps that inquiry should be directed to the awarding of this prestigous  John Curtin Prize for Journalism that is meant to recognises a journalism feature in any medium that, through excellence in writing and reporting, helps define Australia's place in the world.

Recent media statements by 'community' groups opposing the value adding pulp mill, appear to be very 'professional' in targetting media outlets and presenting information in ways that are media friendly. Just who is behind this new approach of 'slick advertising' and 'witty' catchphrases.  The linked report asks are there links to a political party.

Despite the approved pulp mill only value adding woodchips that are currently being exported, and that the woodchips are produced under strict harvesting regimes that include Federal and State Laws as well as the National Forest Policy Statement and the Regional Forest Agreement opponents to the mill still raise issues of the forest harvest impacting on wilderness, old growth and ‘or threatened species.

All of which are adequately protected in reserves or by management actions implemented by the State Government. One example is the Wedge Tailed eagle that activists claim has a 97% chance of extinctions, what they fail to state is that reported numbers of territories has increased from 138 to 458 since the NFPS was created in 1992.

Despite the approval of the pulp mill under the laws of the Australian and State Governments, despite detailed assessments on the social, economic and environmental impacts of the pulp mill, . Despite the ABC  reporting that the investment group, JP Morgan, is talking up the economics of Gunns' proposed northern Tasmanian pulp mill, opponents of the pulp mill continue to campaigning against the approved mill.

The Australian Financial Review has reported that an internet based activist group with strong links to the chemical, mining and banking industry is attempting to over turn the decision of the democratically elected State Parliament by lobbying shareholders and financial institutions against the pulp mill.

Opponents to the mill are using information supplied by Naomi Edwards to claim that “Mill competitiveness falls while government subsidies rise”. Edwards has previously raised these issues on the ABC. The World Today report was flawed and forced the ABC to make a correction. (See Media watch).

Pulp mill opponents ‘TAP’ have published a paper on subsidies written by Andrew Bent that claims the government will subsidise the pulp mill with a fanciful claim of $11 billion of taxpayer funds. No wonder Andrew was sentenced for burglary in 1810 and transported as a convict.  The ‘author” of this major economic argument is anonymous and uses a fictitious name selected from the annals of Tasmanian print journalism!  A  briefing paper looks at these allegations of subsidies.

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An internet based activist group is claiming its “first corporate win” that ANZ has 'pulled out' of financing Tasmania’s modern pulp mill.

The Get up group is now placing advertisements in Tasmanian and National newspapers aimed at the finance sector and Tasmania’s new Premier, David Bartlett. These advertisements feature a computer generated image of protestors in front of a river with ‘logging’ blackened stumps down to the river’s edge.

All timber harvesting in Tasmania must comply to the Forest Practices code. This code demands that waterways are protected and that stream side rivers are implemented in the sustainable harvesting plan. For a class 1 waterway this is a 40 metre buffer zone, as explained in this extract of the code.

One of Get up earliest campaigns was about stopping willful deception in advertising. The activists argued for the need for regulation to protect against false advertising and misleading information most consumers take for granted. 

A quick thank you and a look at his achievements can be accessed here.

Paul took over the Premiership when his good friend Jim Bacon resigned due to ill health. However Paul led the ALP to victory in 2004.

His Deputy, David Bartlett, has been sworn in as the State’s new Premier.  With the pulp mill already approved the new Premier will be able to focus on other priority issues for the future of the State. Some of these issues include education and training which featured in his 2007 speech in support of the Mill’s approval

The Tasmanian Treasurer released to the public a tripartite agreement on the sovereign risk of the wood supply agreement from State Forests on 5 May 2008.

 The agreementdetails the commitment by government to honour the contract between Forestry Tasmania and Gunns Limited for the long term supply of pulp mill.  However it also puts in place mechanisms to compensate for a loss of supply to action approved by both Houses of Parliament. The need for such an agreement can be found in a check of forest legislation passed in the last 25 years by State Parliament.  

The Tasmanian Government has said sovereign risk agreements were accepted practice in relation to investments of the size of the pulp mill and had been negotiated by officials. The agreement limits the Governments liability to only $15 million and demands that any loss be mitigated and net costs minimized.

The pulp mill will only source timber from regrowth native forests and plantations that are approved for harvesting by the Regional Forest Agreement and the Tasmanian Community Forest Agreement. No logs from old growth forests will be used. The detailed modelling shows that plantations will increasingly be the source of the pulp wood, increasing to 80% per annum. Overthe life of the Project the perferred strategy detailed in Table 6.4 is that plantations will supply 64% and regrowth native forest 36%.

Whilst a plantation may produce all pulp wood, native forest harvesting either selective harvesting or clear felling produce both saw logs and pulp wood.

The Tasmanian Pulp mill will use Elemental Chlorine Free bleaching.

The World Bank's International Finance Corporation (IFC) states in their Environmental,  Health and Safety Guidelines for Pulp and Paper Mills "When Elemental Chlorine Free (ECF) or Total Chlorine Free (TCF) bleaching technologies are used, the concentrations of dioxins and furans in the effluents are below the detection limits."  ECF technology has been a major advance in pulp mills since the late 1980s, and the environmental benefits are clear as shown in this graph of British Columbian mills:

The approval of the pulp mill has generated a number of Legal Challenges the latest from a Victorian Group calling itself Lawyers for Forests. This legal challenge follows unsuccessful legal bids by the Wilderness Society and a group identified as Investors for Future of Tasmania.

Both Gunns Limited and the State Government have undertaken economic studies for the pulp mill which show significant economic benefit to the State and the company.  Opponents to the mill including the Wilderness Society and the Launceston Environmental Centre's Tasmanian Round table for Sustainable Industry project commissioned economic modeling which disputes these positive assessments.  Forestry Tasmania commissioned an independent assessment of it pulp wood supply agreement to deal with claims of subsidies to the project.

Dr Peter Manins, Senior esearch Scientist, Marine and Atmospheric Research, CSIRO: 

 The best modelling data that we’ve seen and can do is that there won’t be an issue in Launceston at all due to the pulp mill. Launceston’s got far more concern, should have far more concern over the local domestic wood heaters and motor cars and smoking. They are far more important issues for the public in Launceston than this pulp mill, 36 kilometres away.” from Four Corners "Grist to the Mill"

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The marine outfall of the pulp mill would be situated 2.7 km offshore from Five Mile Bluff, 2.9 km from the boundary of Commonwealth marine waters, itself 3 nm (5.6 km) offshore.

Based on the available evidence, the Department has not identified any likely significant impacts on the marine environment in Commonwealth waters from the proposed pulp mill.  Department of Environment and Water Resources