Tuesday, 07 August, 2007
The Editor
Tas Times
A pulp mill and in Tasmania’s forests will be a battleground over which the next Federal Election will be won or lost, and so a history is in order.
After the Tasmanian State Election on 13 May 1989 the Liberal Premier, Robin Gray was temporarily re-commissioned as Premier until the recall of Parliament on the 28 June at which time a Green Labor Accord would oust him from office. In the interim Gray was searching for a weak link, Rouse, then Chairman of Gunns Ltd, became involved. Rouse estimated the firm would lose 15 million dollars as a result of this Accord. A Royal Commission in 1991 jailed Rouse for attempting to bribe Cox, a newly elected Labor Member of Parliament to change his political allegiance and cross the floor of parliament. Gray was found by this Royal Commission to be deceitful, dishonest, evasive and to have acted in a grossly improper manner.
On 19th June 1989 during this time of political turmoil Paul Lennon asked for and was afforded a forty minute interview in Premier Robin Gray’s office in the Executive building in Hobart. Lennon was then the Secretary of the Trades and Labor Council and a failed Labor candidate at the recently held election. Over a few beers they discussed the fact that the five elected greens had signed an Accord with the Labor Party giving them a majority of one in the soon to be recalled Parliament. Lennon had stated in an earlier Affidavit that Cox’s name was canvassed by Gray but at the Commission hearings in 1991 he disputed that this was so. It should be noted that Rouse’s bribe was to be received by Cox on that day, but unknown to them Cox had alerted the police. Gray and Lennon also discussed the Wesley Vale Pulp Mill and the reasons for its planning demise which had played a role in the downfall of the Gray Government. Robin Gray left parliament in 1995.
Prime Minister John Howard, a confidant of Gray a Gunns Director since 1996, signed the Tasmanian Regional Forest Agreement (RFA) in 1997. By 2001, Gunns Ltd had purchased both the timber and wood chip interests of BHP and Boral further underpinning the explosive growth of the company in Tasmania; Gunns who then controlled 85% of the logging in Tasmania, was the largest logging company in Australia and the largest hardwood woodchip exporter in the world, its product flooding in from Tasmania’s falling forests. Gunns’ share price, as a result of this Agreement and acquisitions within four years moved from $1.40 to $12.00.
John Howard’s fortunes at the 2004 federal election were boosted by the accolades of over 2,000 log truck drivers and union associates in Launceston; Latham, the Labor leader trying to win the election noted “Lennon …. put his relationship with the forestry industry ahead of the federal Labor Party, why would a Labor Premier sell us down the river so badly?” Why indeed? This extraordinary situation of State Labor and its working hierarchy supporting the Liberals in a Federal Election required a payback.
In May 2005, after the election John Howard signed the Community Forest Agreement with Premier Paul Lennon although the community at large were never involved. In it the Commonwealth conferred major project status on the Gunns Pulp Mill proposal and delayed the target time for the complete cessation of clear felling in old growth forests past 2010, thereby, enabling it to be suitably fed. Howard also negotiated a deal to indirectly pay 4 million dollars to The Forest Products Employment Skills Company dominated and chaired by the CFMEU.
In 2007 we have been witness to the spectacle of the Premier of Tasmania, Paul Lennon driving from Hobart to the Gunns Launceston office during his holiday break to discuss the resignation of half of the panel set up to assess the Gunns Pulp Mill proposal; namely the Chairman and a senior pulp mill expert from the CSIRO. The reason cited was interference in the process by the Lennon Government and its pro-pulp mill Task Force.
In February 2007 it was announced that Tax concessions to all non forestry MIS investors, will, in future be run past the ATO. Why has the Howard Government specifically exempted forestry plantations from ATO audit or investigation? Also in February Lennon and Howard overturned the Federal Court decision in the Wielangta case by changing the definition of the word “protect” as defined in the Tasmanian RFA of 1997 signed by Howard and the CFA of 2005 signed by Lennon and Howard. In the history of Federation, in how many other Federal court cases have the findings been overturned by rewriting of the laws by collusion between two politically opposed partys?
In March 2007 we had the decision making process over the Pulp Mill removed from the R.P.D.C. by Gunns, who would or could not comply with its requirements. Lennon will now ram the decision through the State Parliament and Howard will acquiesce Federally so as to maintain a political advantage in the run up to an election.
For nearly 20 years the common thread running through these events are those links for purposes of political expediency or personal advancement between Gunns Ltd, Paul Lennon, Robin Gray and John Howard The forthcoming Federal Election may well see the balance of power in the Senate and the Lower House fall again to Tasmania. With seventeen representatives in Canberra, will the 350,000 Tasmanians eligible to vote be bought yet again for purposes of political self interest to the detriment of Tasmania, its people and its forests?
Has any Australian political party the guts to serve those who have elected them and call for and produce a Royal Commission into the forestry industry in this state? If so they will get my vote.
John Hawkins
‘Bentley’
Mole Creek Road
Chudleigh 7304
Tasmania
M: 0419 985 965
