Kim Booth
Acting Greens leader Kim Booth MP said Gunns Limited appeared to be blatantly lying in its letter sent to Tasmanians just seven weeks ago, and called on the Australian Stock Exchange to investigate whether Gunns has been misleading shareholders and the wider market over this issue.
GUNNS LYING TO TASMANIANS
As Another Rainforest is Trashed for Plantation Conversion
Kim Booth MP
Acting Greens Leader
Friday, 23 January 2009
www.tas.greens.org.au
The Tasmanian Greens today released correspondence sent by Gunns Limited to Tasmanians on December 4 2008 which claims that “Gunns are only establishing plantations on cleared or existing plantation lands,” as well as photographs and overhead images of a primordial rainforest adjacent to Quamby Bluff that has been recently logged and is now being converted to plantation by Gunns Ltd. [1]
Acting Greens leader Kim Booth MP said Gunns Limited appeared to be blatantly lying in its letter sent to Tasmanians just seven weeks ago, and called on the Australian Stock Exchange to investigate whether Gunns has been misleading shareholders and the wider market over this issue.
Mr Booth also pointed out that Forestry Tasmania was caught telling an identical lie in September last year, when it claimed that ‘the truth is no state forest is being converted to plantation. The practice of conversion ended in 2006,’ only to be forced into an embarrassing backdown after it was revealed that the FT annual report showed over 3,000 hectares of native forest had been converted to plantation in the 2007/08 financial year, and that another 48 coupes were slated for conversion in coming years.
“Just seven weeks after Gunns sent a letter to Tasmanians claiming that they only establish plantations on ‘cleared or existing plantation lands,’ we find a clearfelled rainforest next to Quamby Bluff that is in the process of being converted to plantation by Gunns,” said Mr Booth.
“The ASX needs to urgently investigate whether Gunns’ dishonest conduct is artificially inflating their share price or misleading shareholders and other market players.”
“Is the forest industry in Tasmania undertaking a coordinated campaign to mislead Tasmanians about the conversion of native forests into plantations, or are these recent misleading claims from Gunns and from Forestry Tasmania just coincidence?,” said Mr Booth
Mr Booth also pointed out that a number of photographs of the clearfelled rainforest clearly show myrtle trees that have been wounded by the logging operation and then left standing, and called on the Forest Practices Board to take action over this clear breach of the requirement to remove all damaged myrtle trees to prevent the introduction of myrtle wilt.
Download
Jan23_Google_Map_ATTACH4_K_Booth_MP.pdf
Jan23_Gunns_Coupe_Sign_ATTACH3_K_Booth_MP.pdf
Jan23_Gunns_Letter_and_Pamphlet_ATTACH2_K_Booth_MP.pdf
Jan23_Gunns_Logging_Letter_re_MQ238A_ATTACH5_K_Booth_MP.pdf
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[1] “Our Commitment to Native Forests,” Gunns Limited pamphlet, Released with letter attached 8 December 2008
