Richard Flanagan
I was pleased to see that Piers Akerman is once again seeking to draw the nation’s attention to an article I wrote almost two years ago ( Gunns: Out of Control ) published in the The Monthly magazine and delighted that Piers is now embracing recycling — in this case from an article he first ran in June 2007, which in turn regurgitated a speech made by Eric Abetz.
Although there are some differences — in this case Piers has dropped the anti-Tasmanian jokes that earned him a Media Watch mention last time — your readers may be interested to know that of the 70 errors of fact Abetz claimed I made, he could only list five, and these are all easily refuted.
To give but one example: Abetz said, ‘And contrary to Flanagan’s repeated assertions, old-growth forests aren’t harvested for woodchips. They’re harvested for craft wood, furniture, sawmilling and veneering. It is the residue which is chipped for paper, rather than simply being wasted.’
Perhaps Mr Abetz and Mr Akerman might wish to re-examine the forest industry’s own documentation.
On page 92 of Forestry Tasmania’s Annual Report for 2005-2006 we discover that out of the 2.77 million tonnes of native forest logged, 2.19 million tonnes were chipped. That’s 79% of Tasmania’s forest chipped according to their figures. The real figures are even worse because Forestry Tasmania was forced to admit in 2004 that logs marked as sawlongs are in fact pulped and have been since the 1970s, and because the residue from sawlog and veneering is also pulped.
In his speech Eric Abetz revived Paul Lennon’s old favourite of the ‘10,000-plus forest workers whose jobs Mr Flanagan seeks to destroy’.
The most recent employment figure for the industry as a whole in 2005-2006 given in the Schirmer Report (2008) — including all softwood and plantation sectors — is 6,300 people employed in the equivalent of 5,870 full-time jobs. According to FIAT’s own report, published in 2004, before the present industry downturn, there were 1,345 jobs in old-growth logging.
It’s interesting that while I have consistently argued for a timber driven — as opposed to a pulp driven — forest industry that would employ more people, it’s been Eric Abetz’s party donors, Gunns, which has been sacking workers.
Maybe it’s time we stood up for our forests and for our workers by no longer giving credence to those who echo the rich few who have destroyed both. Maybe it’s time we asked for politicians and columnists who seek to bring us together rather than continue to tear us apart.
My Monthly article concluded by calling for a royal commission into the Tasmanian forest industry ( Flanagan’s call for a Royal Commission ). The subsequent unfolding of scandals and sleaze makes that royal commission — or commison of enquiry as they are now known — more necessary than ever.
Richard Flanagan
West Hobart

Dave Groves
December 15, 2008 at 8:00 am
Someone, somewhere has some photos no doubt….or perhaps ignorance really is bliss?
Pete Godfrey
September 11, 2008 at 11:13 pm
Keep at them Richard,
We keep getting fed rubbish over the forest destruction all the time.
Of course the pulp mill wont use old growth timber, the definition of an old growth coupe is that it must have more than 25% old growth trees in it, so a quick boundary adjustment and hey presto it is no longer old growth.
The pulp mill will be the cleanest and greenest mill in the world, It sure will yes sir eee.
Until logs are fed in that is and the effluent starts to flow.
Richard Butler
September 11, 2008 at 12:03 pm
All I can say is thank goodness we have Piers Ackerman to keep us all honest. All those judges, panelists and reviewers – well we know they are all bribed and bent. The mis-alignment of poor Gunns in the local and national community has really been incorrect and these awards are so unbelievably biased.
He just makes it all so marvellously clear.
Mike
September 9, 2008 at 2:05 am
I haven’t read Piers Akerman’s column as I don’t want to contribute to his readership. However I believe Akerman lost the right to criticise other writers when he was caught red handed by the ABC for plagiarising an article written by the Israeli defence force.
http://www.abc.net.au/mediawatch/transcripts/s780381.htm
Neo Conned
September 8, 2008 at 8:52 pm
Don’t know why anyone bothers to read someone who can’t even spell “Pierce”.
wes
September 8, 2008 at 8:10 pm
As already suggested if the essay was so off point a certain company with a history of attempting to silence contrary views to its own would have sued. They haven’t; the article is spot on and the dinosaurs can’t deal with it. One only hopes Mistake 08, formerly known as Kevin 07, reads it in the near future.
nudger
September 8, 2008 at 3:52 pm
Even though the sight is far to horrific to ponder, I would still like to say that Piers Akerman has again been de-pantsed by Flanners.
Piers has always suffered from white line fever.
Mike Adams
September 8, 2008 at 2:58 pm
Had Mr Flanagan’s ‘Monthly’ article contained any untruths I suspect that Gunns and its acolytes would have been swift to take action.
And if Mr Akerman quotes Senator Abetz as his source of truthfulness, I feel he may be on shaky ground.
However, the Merc likes to stir now and again: no doubt it provides fuel for the Letters page (and its cartoon), which, apart from Sue Neales, is what I buy it for, and it may increase sales…
typingisnotactivism
September 8, 2008 at 2:43 pm
friggin’ Acneman – d#%k!!! His smug writing about how awesomely wrong greenies must be about responding to climate change, thanks to Garnaut’s 10%, pissed me off soooo much that i actually posted a comment at a Telacrap article. Did they run a piece of advice that all the climate ignorami will be eating their ass-hats in 2015 when the first Pacific nations disappear and the Australian public turns on them for years of lies, deceptions, and promotion of fake modelling that never includes the economic upsides of creating markets in and exports of new technologies and carbon credits? No.
Big f$%&ing;surprise. Now that Mike Carlton is unemployed, he should eat this sack of crap in order to survive.