Forgetting about the future

The Merkury – June 2017 – Newsbreaker

Today, the Government of Tasmania expressed ‘surprise’ with a spokesperson for the Premier quick to dismiss the Tasmanian Greens’ accusation that the detection of these serious chemical residues was evidence that the State’s pollution monitoring program for the pulp mill marine outfall had totally failed.

TASMANIAN Governerment scientists say there is no proven link between the detection of dioxins and furans in export crayfish, abalone and scallops in the eastern Bass Strait fishery and the effluent outfall from the Bell Bay pulp mill. Despite the short time that the mill has been fully operational – only 4 years – high levels of these persistent organic pollutants were detected by the Japanese Ministry for Food, Agriculture and Fisheries during routine tests on Tasmanian seafood imports.

Other importing countries across Asia quickly followed Japan banning all Tasmanian seafood produce until further notice. Speaking in Japanese a visibly annoyed Ministry official expressed his country’s profound disappointment at the detection, noting that for decades Japan had maintained a trading relationship with Tasmania based on the belief its island foods and wild seafoods were ‘clean and green’.

Today, the Government of Tasmania expressed ‘surprise’ with a spokesperson for the Premier quick to dismiss the Tasmanian Greens’ accusation that the detection of these serious chemical residues was evidence that the State’s pollution monitoring program for the pulp mill marine outfall had totally failed.

Back in 30 May 2007 The Mercury reported that Professor Wadsley, Associate Professor in petroleum engineering at Perth’s Curtin University had warned that seal colonies near the effluent outfall at Five Mile Bluff could suffer birth abnormalities, while breeding areas of the endangered great white shark would be affected by dioxin build-up.

Professor Wadsley also predicted all commercial fishing in Bass Strait would be forced to cease within three to 10 years of the mill’s start, because of levels of dioxins too high for regular human consumption in scallops, fish and rock lobsters. Now it seems Professor Wadsley’s predictions have been proven correct.

The Government’s Director for Environmental Management described the finding of harmful chemical residues in Tasmanian food exports as ‘totally unexpected detections’. He assured Tasmanians that there was no cause to review any permit conditions imposed on the pulp mill. The Director was confident that the effluent emission allowances had not been exceeded by the company’s mill but he did concede that it was an unfortunate oversight that no baseline residue levels in any fish stocks had been done before the mill was commissioned. For this reason the Governerment had no basis in law to prove that the pulp mill effluents was the source of the high levels detected in wild seafoods harvested from Bass Strait. He expressed his deepest regret that the once lucrative wild fishery in Bass Strait was facing this market closure, but noted that the wild sea fisheries in northern Tasmanian had been in decline for several years now.

The newly set up Environment Protection Agency is exempt from investigating any links between the doixin detections and the operations of the pulp mill.

In a statement issued by the Premier he reassured Tasmanian fishermen that his Government took the matter very seriously but asked Tasmanians not to be hasty in apportioning blame. ‘The tough decisions your Government made in 2007 are now paying off, all Tasmanians are the richer for it,’ he said.

‘Our Tasmanian economy is now showing strong growth in our forestry sector particularly the plantation estates on private land and thanks to Gunns Ltd investment in our future, we’re now processing wood chips into pulp’.

‘I have asked the Minister for Primary Industries to immediately begin talks with Asian trading partners to ensure that our seafood product sourced from other parts of State and from our fish farms can maintain their access to Asian markets with our clean and green image intact.’

This newsbreaking story comes on the same day that Gunns Ltd posted a massive $300 million loss for the financial year. The company reported to the Australian Stock Exchange that it was currently experiencing some difficulties in servicing its $2 billion debt arrangement. The CEO of Gunns Ltd issued a statement saying he was confident that the company would soon announce a successful refinancing deal through one of the world’s largest hedge fund managers.

Meanwhile for the fourth year in a row the Government of Tasmania was unable to pay the annual $870 incentive dividend that it had promised to all Tasmanian households following the building of the pulp mill at the Bell Bay site in 2007. In the Parliament yesterday, a visibly angry Premier replying to a question from the Tasmanian Greens leader said the member should ‘show a bit of understanding and gratitude to the Big Tasmanian, after all we wouldn’t be where we are now without Gunns!’