Forest Peace Deal – a game of multiple hoaxes?

[Definition: Hoax – trick, joke, fraud, swindle, deception, con, prank or ruse]

I hope in my heart that this protracted, secretive, unrepresentative negotiation process between seven forestry reps and 3 ENGOs has not been an deliberate exercise in delay, deception and hoaxing.

When this roundtable process commenced after the last State Election over two years ago, few people knew what was on the table – let alone what was under the table! Few understood who set the process up and how the round-tablers were selected. We were assured it was not orchestrated by new Labor-Green government led by David Bartlett and Nick McKim, but maybe that was the first of a string of deceptions.

When the so-called Statement of Forest Principles was signed by the ten signatory organisations in October 2010 – amid smiles and media fan-fare – few understood that the ENGOs had accepted ‘in principle’ a pulp mill in Northern Tasmania [but not Gunns proposed pulp mill]. Of course that agreed principle meant there was a ‘downstream processing’ facility for the claimed 300,000 ha of plantation pulpwood that were established mainly under MIS management to provide feedstock to the Tamar Valley pulp mill. Gunns and the Labor partners in the State Government saw it giving the Tamar Valley pulp mill proposal the ‘social licence’ Gunns needed to reassure prospective partners in their mill [JVPs, Richard Chandler, institutional investors, banks etc].

Hoax No. 1 – that ‘a’ pulp mill hoax that didn’t work.

By 2010 Gunns Ltd was in serious divestment mode. Under Greg L’Estrange Gunns Ltd was (1) fully exiting all native forest logging for sawlog and woodchip; (2) selling all its diversified assets to service a huge bank debt [a substantial list of fire sale assets] and (3) retrenching staff in sawmills and terminating contracts with logging and haulage companies.

Since March 2012 Gunns has been in an extended trading halt on the ASX; its share price was at 16 cents [from a high of $4.50 in ~2006]

Others have written in detail on Gunns slow train wreck that’s been occurring since John Gay left the company.

Back to the Forest Peace negotiations….

Former unionists Bryan Green and Tony Burke are now sequestering themselves into a roundtable in a ‘facilitation role’ offering ‘fresh eyes, fresh ears and a fresh approach’ as Premier Lara Gidding summed things up on Monday 6 Aug. ABC 936 radio presenter Louise Saunders asked Bryan Green why hadn’t professionally qualified facilitators been involved a lot earlier? Bryan was caught on the hop; perhaps that would have been a good idea he proffered… but they did involve former ACTU secretary, Bill Kelty to broker the IGA!

The Kelty-IGA deal was finalised after discussion with the ENGOs and forestry reps; they were tripped around from Canberra to the Head Office of Gunns at Lindsay Street in Launceston [another Gunns asset sold to Bunnings].

The shocker in that IGA agreement for the ENGOs was the quotas agreed to for the supply of sawlogs and peeler billets from the public forests.

Of course the ENGOs call for a moratorium on all roading and logging of High Conservation Forests under verification was summarily dismissed by Forestry Tasmania. But the ENGOs found themselves agreeing to at least 110,000 cubic metres of sawlog and 265,000 cubic metres of peeler billets per annum for Ta Ann, local saw mills and exports of whole logs in the Kelty brokered deal.
Hoax No. 2 – I call it the ENGOs’ own goal.

Whether this peeler billet quota – licenced until 2023 – could be sourced from plantations or regeneration native forests was always the secret mens’ business in these forest signatory talks. No one knew what the fuck was happening (excuse my French). Was Ta Ann and FT telling the ENGOs they were looking into where those peeler logs could be sourced to meet that quota? Those closer to the realities of the peeler technology saw this as a pretence to suggest that that wood resource could be sustainably sourced from State forests outside the verification areas and from plantations.
Who was kidding who?

Then on 23 July, the signatories ask for another delay on an agreement to allow Forestry Tasmania to do final modelling of a wood supply scenario. On 6 August glum signatory faces appear before the media in the Executive Building foyer – still no agreement.

According to Terry Edwards from FIAT, the apparent spokesperson for the signatories – “The modelling showed up ahh… less wood resource than we had anticipated from a given reserves proposal.”

So was this Hoax No. 3?

Don’t tell anybody but we can’t supply the peeler billets and sawlogs from the State forests and plantations outside the verified HCV forests of 570,000 ha. Something has to give and it’s not the quota because they are legally binding and there’s no more money to compensate Ta Ann.

Enter Forestry Tasmania stage left, right on command reassuring Ken Jeffreys tell us: “If sustainable yield calculations and resource modelling was an Olympic sport, I’m sure our blokes would be contending for the Gold Medal.”

Will Hoax No. 3 cause the ENGOs to blink and have them agree to a lesser allocation?

This game of multiple hoaxing was anticipated by many people outside the tent. The ENGOs were apparently deaf and blind to hoaxing.