Environment
The Gunns party
Vica Bayley, Press Release
“The community consultation process employed by Gunns over the course of the last 18 months has been a sham,” said The Wilderness Society spokesperson Vica Bayley. “In refusing to meet with all stakeholders, refusing to address meetings of more than 5 people and now rolling out this invite only event, Gunns’ consultation is strategically shallow and full of spin.”
MEDIA RELEASE 12th June 2006
GUNNS’ PULPMILL PARTY, INVITE ONLY AND BRING I.D.
The Wilderness Society will today release details of Gunns’ Social Impact Statement as well as their Integrated Impact Statement “update”, a pulpmill party planned for later in the month. This event will brief an invite only crowd. Attendees must show identification to be admitted to the event, clearly designed to spin the benefits of a pulpmill to a sympathetic audience.
“The community consultation process employed by Gunns over the course of the last 18 months has been a sham,” said The Wilderness Society spokesperson Vica Bayley. “In refusing to meet with all stakeholders, refusing to address meetings of more than 5 people and now rolling out this invite only event, Gunns’ consultation is strategically shallow and full of spin.”
Figures released yesterday from the leaked Social Impact Statement show patchy support for the pulpmill project. The report, released in its entirety for the first time today, holds more revelations about Gunns’ planned strategy to deal with community concerns. The Wilderness Society believe those strategies are inadequate.
“Community concerns over environmental issues, including logging of forests, odour, air pollution and recreational activities, will be dealt with by words rather than actions,” continued Mr Bayley. “The leaked report also shows that these measures will not begin until after construction of the pulpmill has begun.”
The report reveals how the community will also be invited to tour the pulpmill and work on projects to ‘offset impacts from the pulp mill’. Community members will also be given ‘information relating to the monitoring of environmental impacts’ and be involved in measuring these impacts. But the table on page 46 of the report shows when this will happen, after construction is underway.
“I doubt that Tasmanians would want to work to “offset” the impacts of the pulpmill, be “informed” about environmental impacts as or after they happen, or help to measure the impacts. Tasmanians don’t want these impacts at all,” said Mr Bayley.
“This is another case of Gunns saying to Tasmania, ‘Trust us!’ Yet as more information comes out, community fears that this pulpmill will drive ongoing forest destruction and pollute the air and marine environment are being confirmed.”
The invite: gunns_invite.pdf