Barnaby Drake
Currently it is not illegal to actually take legal action against Gunns, as the PMAA only prevents this once the construction phase has started. Now is the time for a Class Action for damages to be launched against the company, and the damages could amount to many billions of dollars. With that type of action pending, Gunns are finished. The project can be held up and many injunctions can be raised, that will actually make it impossible to complete many of the required modules. There are many supporters and many people who have or will lose a tremendous amount of money if this project goes ahead. Per capita, this may only need a small contribution from each of them. A small price to pay for their future and the future of their children.
AS predicted, Rover has rolled over and damned us all to another two years of waiting-to-see if Gunns can raise the finance to build their mill.

It’s not about the effluent and other permissions – those they will overcome with either lies, false reports, fast-track legislation or public funds to build treatment plants etc. I even saw one suggestion that the government would actually help them with their modelling – presumably at public expense. There will be huge support and publicity from local and federal governments for ‘the economy’, ‘jobs’, ‘local industry’, ‘value adding’, and other perceived advantages. Yes, it will probably be an election issue, but in two years from now, public memory will have become inured to these consequences and a publicity war will have been going on at our expense in favour of Tasmania’s destruction. The environment and logging will hardly get a mention. I doubt whether the government will change, and even if it does, the consequences won’t. Gunns and their shareholders will be the sole beneficiaries of all this publicity and support. Tasmania and the local tax-payers will be the BIG losers.

Even though they didn’t get quite what they wanted, Gunns will still have breathed a sigh of relief. A two-year breathing space and they do not have to write off the money they have already spent from their books. They have basically got their permissions, but do not have to do anything about it immediately. In two years time, the financial crisis may be over, and with everything in place, including a tame government, they will be looking good again – well, at least to the investors.

However, it has opened another door.

In the last year or so, the environmental issues have been growing in momentum. There are already many thousands of ‘eco-terrorists’ in Tasmania, as the government fondly dubs all environmentalists. Opinion polls show massive support for retaining our forests. The world is also looking. Carbon Trading and conservation are the ‘in’ thing, and everybody is trying to jump on the green bandwagon. What Garret has done is also given US a breathing space as well.

Despite their rhetoric, it is doubtful whether Gunns are able to commit to starting on the mill construction without some positive funding, and that is still a long way off. The markets are far from stable and money is in very limited supply and is likely to remain that way for a long time. Pulp prices have dropped by $200 per tonne in the last two months alone, and there is now a glut of pulp on the market with a threat of closure to many world mills. In this market, given the problems that Gunns still face, it is unlikely that they will find a backer for a very long time. But that doesn’t mean that they are not going to do so eventually. They still have the advantage of a Forestry logging contract.

The problem that the conservationists face is that although there is a large ground swell over the various issues, it is not organised. Small protests make little impact, and sometimes work in favour of the actions they are trying to prevent. For example, small protests in the forest give the government the excuse to change the law in favour of the very people who are destroying our heritage and the imposed fines on the protestors actually swell government coffers which can then be used to subsidise the villains of the piece. All small protests draw down a strong-armed police action, yet when 11,000 or 16,000 people march, there are no arrests. What would happen if instead of half a dozen people holding up a chipmill for seven hours, a thousand people stopped the mill working for a week? Or even better, stopped three mills working for a week! That would then seriously impact on the balance sheet of Gunns and Forestry and would certainly raise world consciousness to the plight of the forests in Tasmania. If the police moved in, it would be another ‘Franklin’ and I don’t think the government would want that!

But apart from protest, the serious business is to stop the mill finally, even though it has a two year period of grace. The damage it is doing by its very existence is inordinate, and this damage has never really been fully evaluated. I personally received a letter signed by Paul Lennon stating that the Section 11 of the PMAA only applies to the CONSTRUCTION PHASE of the pulp mill. As the construction has not yet started, there is actually no protection for Gunns from any public damages claims. Already, property prices have plummeted in the Tamar Valley, the Wine industry and the Fishing industry are under threat, Health issue have never been evaluated, the Tourism Industry must be suffering losses, and the Forestry is selling our assets at approximately $6 per WET tonne – delivered! Even the mere threat of polluting the Bass Strait can kill our fish exports and if it ever does happen, a fine on Gunns cannot repair the damage. Meanwhile MIS schemes, in which Gunns is heavily involved, are rorting our tax system and destroying both our forests and agricultural land and decimating our water supply. So much for Bartlett’s dream of Tasmania being the food bowl of Australia as our farmers are driven off their land!

This Mill is a monster and it is devouring our future.

It must be stopped!

But how?

There ARE ways, but it needs a concerted and combined effort. This is not a time to relax vigilance, or they will slip under the radar. In Tasmania there must be at least a hundred or so action and protest groups, mostly looking at their own small patch. There is a petition signed by 18,000 people saying they will not vote for anyone who supports the pulp mill. There have been huge marches, but all, unfortunately a one-off and several opinion polls have shown overwhelming support to stop the current forestry practices. Yet all of this is totally ignored by both sides of government, and as far as they are concerned, they are just a nuisance value.

These groups, while they act only on their own local issues have no teeth, and are easily dealt with. What it needs is someone or some group to properly co-ordinate all these people and publicise their actions. Someone to guide their efforts into effective demonstrations and effective action. There are enough of them to even form a political party, and if the figures are to be believed, they outnumber the current incumbents!

There are actually four things that Gunns needs before it can even consider building this monster.

Firstly, it needs finance. Already people action by demonstrating outside banks has caused their main supporter to back away, and that has sent the signal out to many other banks. Finance is now extremely difficult to find. Gunns statement to the stock exchange have been a continuous set of lies and false claims, and despite objections, their statements have never been retracted. It is time that a concerted action be taken against the stock exchange itself to have these statements corrected or banned. A few hundred letters and emails could achieve that.

Secondly, they need water. The supply to them is already under doubt, but there are two years in which they will lobby the government to make access compulsory. This must be countered and the local landowners must be fully supported. The area councils must be kept under pressure to not grant easements with the threat of legal and voter action if they try to grant these easements. Lines in the sand will not protect us.

Thirdly, there is the timber supply. Forestry is acting as an autonomous body and granting rights to Gunns that no other company can get. They are guardians of OUR forests. They do not own them and they are trustees for US. They have a duty of care, and they are totally ignoring this. We are subsidising them and Gunns via this back door and they make an annual loss. Without these Forestry agreements and huge subsidies, we would be able to afford all the hospitals, health service and education we need. It is time that Forestry, as an enterprise were closed down.

Maybe a mass blockage and demonstration that prevents them logging in sensitive areas and stop the forest trucks from delivering old growth to the chip mills. Stop them actually gaining access to the Florentine, Styx and Weld, etc.

Meanwhile Forestry has both government and police support. Has anyone thought of demonstrating against the police themselves? They are there to protect the citizen and here they are again failing in their duty. This is not yet a police state. Why should they target and hold exercises against so-called ‘green terrorists’? Is this sanctioned by the government and are they acting purely for private business? This maybe civil disobedience, but what choice have we when our own elected authorities act against us?

Fourthly, Gunns currently only exists because the subsidies they receive. Over the years this has amounted to billions of dollars from the public purse. Without tax breaks and government support, they would not be profitable. It must also be realised that they pay very large subscriptions into Government election funds, and this should also be stopped. We are actually paying to maintain Gunns and their corrupting influence on every aspect of government. This is a problem that definitely needs to be addressed.

Currently it is not illegal to actually take legal action against Gunns, as the PMAA only prevents this once the construction phase has started. Now is the time for a Class Action for damages to be launched against the company, and the damages could amount to many billions of dollars. With that type of action pending, Gunns are finished. The project can be held up and many injunctions can be raised, that will actually make it impossible to complete many of the required modules. There are many supporters and many people who have or will lose a tremendous amount of money if this project goes ahead. Per capita, this may only need a small contribution from each of them. A small price to pay for their future and the future of their children.

Barnaby Drake