The Tasmanian Greens are calling on the Department of Primary Industries, Parks, Water and Energy to explain the basis for its decision to process Gunns Ltd’s application for new dam permits.
Yesterday, General Manager of Water and Marine Resources, Mr Wes Ford, confirmed that Gunns Ltd had applied for three new dam permits for storm water ponds at the Tamar Valley pulp mill site.
Greens Forestry spokesman Kim Booth MP said that appears to contradict the Greens previous legal advice which states no extensions to legal permits would be possible if the application was made a month before the expiry date.
“Mr Ford has said that the ‘Crown has determined’ the ACDC can process the new dam permits under the Water Management Act, without stating what basis that Crown has determined that,” Mr Booth said.
“Have they got legal advice? If so why are they not releasing it, and why has nothing been transparent in this whole process?”
“This only underscores the need for Gunns claim of ‘substantial commencement’ to be tested in the courts.”
“The decision over the legality of these permit applications should not be left to bureaucrats.”
“Once again I am calling for the Attorney General Brian Wightman to step in, seek a court declaration on the status of the permit, and clear this mess up once and for all.”
• Huon Valley Environment Centre, Still Wild Still Threatened, Code Green: Ali Alishah is a Tasmanian forest activist who is spending his second week in custody after standing up for what is right in Tasmania
What is not right in Tasmania is the proposed pulp mill, the continued logging of old growth and high conservation value forests, and the logging company Ta Ann.
Ali Alishah has been fighting to protect ancient forests in Tasmania for over eight years.
The Tasmanian and Australian Governments as part of the forests peace process have promised to protect native forests but have failed to deliver on these promises. The industrial scale destruction of our world class forests continues right now.
Ali has been on the frontline of environmental battles in 2011 to show Tasmanians, that despite promises to the Tasmanian people, our spectacular forests are still not being protected.
Ali Alishah was taken into custody after locking onto a truck entering the Gunns pulp mill site despite permits allowing work to commence lapsing in August. Ali is still in custody and our globally renowned forests are still being logged. What price do people have to pay to stand up for Tasmania’s unique forests?
Ali was arrested at Gunns proposed pulp mill site on Monday 5th Sep 2011. He was held in remand overnight, appeared before a magistrate on Tuesday 6th Sep and was remanded until the 26th Sep 2011.
This peaceful forest campaigner is an upstanding, educated and highly intelligent member of society. Ali was prepared to accept the consequences of standing up for what he saw was a great injustice to Tasmania’s globally unique environment. Ali has taken a peaceful and noble stance to stand up and speak out for our forests, our endangered wildlife, our air and water, and our climate.
During his participation in the pulp mill campaign with CODE GREEN and ongoing campaign efforts with the Huon Valley Environment Centre and Still Wild Still Threatened since 2003, he has been a very committed, articulate and professional activist. He was a defendant in the Triabunna 13 case, recently dropped by Gunns.
Ali’s commitment to act on his conscience through nonviolent direct action for our forests has lead to repeated convictions. Ali has volunteered as a campaigner over a long period of time in Tasmania, he has a deep understanding of the politics of Tasmania, and the history of the campaign to protect Tasmania’s wild forests. He is strongly committed to nonviolence, a commitment so valuable in a time when intense violence is perpetrated in society against the environment and people.
Ali is known as a man who thinks and cares about the environment and about everybody else around him, and puts these before himself.
The sorts of action Ali was wholeheartedly committed to will be continuing. Support is urgently needed right now to help protect Tasmania’s environment. Please contact CODE GREEN, Huon Valley Environment Centre or Still Wild Still Threatened to get involved.
• HOW YOU CAN HELP
1) This Friday 16 September we will be sharing a vigil for Ali on Hobart Parliament Lawns at 1pm. Join a community of concerned citizens who would like to show support for Ali while he is held in custody.
2) If you are not able to participate on Friday, we are inviting you to write a letter of support for Ali and send it to the Mercury and Examiner newspaper. Send it to us and we will print it off and pass it to Ali while he is in remand.
3) Pledge your support for Ali, write a sign of support with the words “Protect Tasmania’s Environment” and take a photo of your sign, wherever you are around the globe and we will print them and use them at our vigil. Email your messages of support to [email protected]
4) Over the next few weeks community members we will be aiming for an action about the Gunns proposed pulp mill every day. We cannot do this with the amount of people currently in Tasmania. We are calling out to the Australian community to help us. You can take action from the local to the global level, by joining actions in Launceston or holding a solidarity event in your local city. How to get involved:
Email [email protected], [email protected]
Phone contacts: pulp mill action phone: 0488 451 501
• FRED GALE, The Conversation: Gunns heading for its Tasmanian endgame
In chess, the endgame takes place when only a handful of pieces are left on the board. In close games, the players must select the best move available to avoid being checkmated.
Gunns – Tasmania’s “forest products” giant – looks headed for checkmate. Its only remaining option seems to be paying down debt and building its pulp mill.
Every move it is making appears designed to achieve these linked objectives.
Genuine sale – everything must go!
To pay down debt, Gunns has taken dramatic action in the past couple of years, selling off just about every asset it owns.
Gone under the hammer are its wineries and hardware stores. Sold, for well below the listed value, are its Green Triangle softwood plantations and the Triabunna woodchip mill. Gunns has even recently sold the building that houses its Launceston headquarters.
Despite the fire sale, the company remains highly geared with debts of $628 million, the vast majority of which are current.
Second-quarter 2011 woodchips sales sank to an all-time low of about 0.6 green metric tonnes. This was no doubt a consequence of the general global economic malaise and the specific impact of the Japanese earthquake, tsunami and nuclear crisis.
There just aren’t many buyers around for woodchips at the moment.
And the future is not looking auspicious. The US faces a double-dip recession, Europe is mired in a sovereign debt crisis, and the Aussie dollar appears permanently stuck above US$1.05.
Getting the government to pay out
To avoid being checkmated, Gunns needs to do more than sell off assets.
To raise additional revenue, the company is demanding serious compensation from the recently signed Tasmanian Forests Intergovernmental Agreement for a 20-year Long Term Pulpwood Supply Agreement (LTPSA).
