CFMEU campaign for Gunns

WILDERNESS SOCIETY. GETUP.

The Wilderness Society welcomes the CFMEU’s campaign on Gunns’ pulp mill as it is helping to publicise the financial risks of the project and its controversial nature.

The Wilderness Society (Tasmania) Inc
130 Davey Street, Hobart, TASMANIA 7000 AUSTRALIA
Telephone 03 6224 1550 Facsimile 03 6223 5112 Email tasmania@wilderness.org.au
www.wilderness.org.au
MEDIA RELEASE May 7th 2009
CFMEU CAMPAIGN HIGHLIGHTS FINANCIAL RISKS OF PULP MILL
The Wilderness Society welcomes the CFMEU’s campaign on Gunns’ pulp mill as it is helping to
publicise the financial risks of the project and its controversial nature.
“The CFMEU’s campaign will help to highlight the financial risks and massive community
opposition to Gunns’ proposed pulp mill,” said Paul Oosting, pulp mill campaigner for The
Wilderness Society.
“By launching their own campaign the CFMEU is acknowledging that our international campaign
to inform financial institutions of the environmental, social and economic costs of Gunns’ pulp is
having an impact,” said Mr Oosting.
The CFMEU is focusing narrowly on potential jobs for Tasmanians in the construction and
operation of the pulp mill, but has ignored the very real risks of job losses in the forestry, tourism,
fisheries and winery sectors if the pulp mill proceeds.
Independent studies such as the Tasmanian Roundtable for Sustainable Industries (TRSI) found the
pulp mill will cost some 1,220 jobs in tourism and the fishing industry while Gunns has indicated
the pulp mill will only create 280 direct jobs.
“The CFMEU are selling out their members’ interests and the interests of Tasmania’s economy by
continuing to support one woodchipping company and one big polluting pulp mill over the need for
Tasmania’s timber industry to innovate and diversify in the 21st century,” said Mr Oosting.
“Working families deserve a sustainable future with clean air, healthy water supplies and natural
assets to help protect them from the risks of dangerous climate change,” said Mr Oosting.
“Tasmania deserves a sustainable logging industry alongside other burgeoning industries such as
fine foods, agriculture and tourism, but Gunns pulp mill threatens jobs in these other industries,”
said Mr Oosting. “We would like to work with the union movement to discuss opportunities to
reform the logging industry in a way that will protect jobs for all Tasmanians.
“The world has moved on from projects such as Gunns’ pulp mill, which destroy the natural
environment and pollute the atmosphere. It is time the logging industry got behind new and
innovative opportunities for job creation in rural Tasmania and work with us to build vibrant rural
communities,” concluded Mr Oosting.

Media Release

Thursday 7 May 2009 – for immediate release

Global Unions to push financiers for Gunns Pulp Mill

The CFMEU Forestry and Furnishing Products Division today announced it would enlist powerful global trade union confederations and individual European unions to push financial institutions for proper due diligence on funding for the proposed Gunns pulp mill in Tasmania’s Bells Bay Industrial Estate.

CFMEU Forestry and Furnishing Products Division National Secretary Michael O’Connor said that the 20 million member strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers’ Unions (ICEM) and the 12 million strong Building and Wood Workers International (BWI) had capacity to influence European financial institutions and ensure they were not stampeded by a deliberately misleading campaign by green groups in Australia.

“CFMEU officials in Australia hold key positions within ICEM. The Union will utilise structures within Europe, where union bodies have senior representation within financial institutions, to ensure the pulp mill is assessed on its merits and without influence from unrepresentative bodies.”

Mr O’Connor said that the Gunns pulp mill project would improve Australia’s current account by up to $500 million per year.

“The truth is that this worlds best practice, environmentally sound mill will complement Australia’s sustainable forest and forest products industry and be good for the environment, good for the economy and jobs, good for the nation’s balance of payments and importantly will ease our need to import timber and forest products from unsustainable sources, where environmental protections and sustainability are non existent.”

“Presumably the green groups who do not want the mill are happy to continue to have forest products from unsustainably harvested forests imported into Australia, rather than have value adding and downstream processing done here.”

“If these groups were really interested in stopping the export of woodchips, they would support the mill so that the exporting of woodchips can be reduced and we can do more downstream processing ourselves.”

“The people of Tasmania deserve this piece of nation building infrastructure. We intend to push hard with our international affiliates to ensure the mills funding is assessed on its merits.”

Paul IJ Oosting
Pulp Mill Campaigner

The Wilderness Society (Tasmania) Inc.

To find about Gunns’ proposed pulp mill go to:

http://www.wilderness.org.au/campaigns/pulp-mill

130 Davey St,
Hobart Tas. 7000
Australia

…

PO Box A105, Sydney South, NSW, 1235 02 9211 44 00 info@getup.org.au www.getup.org.au
PRESS RELEASE 7 May 2008
GetUp Welcomes CFMEU Call for ‘Due Diligence’ on Pulp Mill
GetUp has welcomed the CFMEU’s entry into the debate around international finance for
Gunns’ proposed pulp mill, saying that any push for due diligence is a welcome one. Their
claims about the mill’s positive economic impact, however, don’t hold up to close scrutiny.
“The CFMEU wants to push financial institutions for proper due diligence on funding for
the proposed Gunns pulp mill – we couldn’t agree more, and in fact our campaign is
asking for the very same thing,” said GetUp Campaigns Director Ed Coper.
“Any diligent assessment of the proposed pulp mill will show financial institutions that it is
not a project that should be financed.”
“Claims that the pulp mill will have a positive economic impact and create thousands of
jobs don’t hold up to scrutiny – independent assessment shows the mill having a negative
economic impact and costing more jobs than it creates.”
“With that in mind, it is surprising the CFMEU, who should be acting in the interests of their
members, are advocating a project that will lock in bulk commodity exports at the expense
of other potential jobs in the forestry sector.”
“Gunns have only assessed the potential economic benefits, not potential economic costs
nor the broader economic implications of the pulp mill, and have not considered the
opportunity cost implications of the pulp mill.”
“The Tasmanian Roundtable for Sustainable Industries found the pulp mill will cost over
1,220 jobs in other sectors, while Gunns has indicated it will only create 280 direct jobs.
The National Institute of Economic and Industry Research found the most likely economic
impact of the mill on the Tasmanian economy over 20 years would be significantly
negative.”
GetUp members have been funding newspaper ads in the European and Asian Financial
Times and The Australian warning potential financiers and joint venture partners off
involvement in the pulp mill project.

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