Pulp mill site
To listen to our pathetic Lib/Lab leaders in State parliament is to confirm the smallness and simplicity of their inward looking minds … combined with their lack of understanding of the real world of debt and finance.
The best thing that has happened to investment in Tasmania so far this year is the demise of Gunns in its current form.
Why?
The Gunns debt mountain has now gone, completely vanished, courtesy amongst others of the Shareholders, the Banks, Managed Funds such as UniSuper and the Liquidator.
Gunns’ remaining assets are now unencumbered and potentially profitable in the hands of new owners.
The saw mills and the plantations when sold will still employ all the previously good and skilled workers.
The Pulp mill will now find a buyer who will acquire the permits, the plans, the approvals and what little infrastructure has been created from the Liquidator for under $150 million.
Gunns have spent $250 million over 8 years to gain this fast track approval, an approval that only Tas Inc could buy, and Gunns have gone broke in the attempt.
It was Gunns’ inability to fund the debt mountain, created by no FSC, (causing a collapse in the Woodchip business which is booming on the mainland for plantation FSC accredited chips) the implosion of the Abetz MIS Ponzi scams, (which took with them Great Southern, FEA and Wilmot), the very poor management of Gay and Gray in pushing a pulp mill in the wrong place at the wrong time and the hubris they gained from the unquestioning support of our pollies and media.
These are some of the principal factors that have combined to put Gunns out of business.
The Greens, although they probably think otherwise, were a mere sideshow by comparison.
The new owners will have a debt free start; no partners and all the hard work and corruption of due process supported by our easily-led pollies will be forgotten and in the past.
I have knowledge of one investor, who as I have mentioned in the past on TT, has been waiting for this moment.
The pollies will then give a guarantee with our money that any future losses will be covered in exchange for the political Kudos accruing to them from the building of a mill.
A no lose situation for the purchaser, a political win for Labor and a disaster for the taxpayer.
There is as always one problem: the TCT case over permits and the eventual progression to the High Court.
The State’s Legal system, like the EPA, will rule that “substantial commencement”, had taken place; that is why the pollies appointed them.
The High Court will not be so easily convinced over this lack of due process.
This is when the dream will come undone.
Be warned Mr Investor it will be a long, very long and uncertain legal wait.
Tasmanians will fund this case, out of a dislike and distrust of outsiders in particular foreigners; also in their own self interest.
In that order.
• ABC Online: Call for Tas to change focus
An economic researcher has slammed the proposal for a pulp mill in the Tamar Valley.
Phil Ruthven from business group IBIS aired his views on the project at an economic workshop in Hobart today (Fri).
The 2-billion-dollar pulp mill may never be built after its proponent, Gunns, went into voluntary administration this week.
Mr Ruthven says even if it was built, it would struggle to be competitive.
“It might be a bit hard to say that the Gunns paper mill shouldn’t have gone ahead but I’ve never thought it should because it’s yesterday’s industry,” he said.
“How would it ever, in the very long term, compete with other countries like China?”
Mr Ruthven is urging Tasmania to move away from forestry and to focus on tourism and agriculture.
“You’ve got to start thinking five, 10, 15 years into the future, otherwise you’re going to build an old state with old industries and wonder why the kids keep going to where the grass is greener.”
The Economic Development Minister, David O’Byrne, has denied the state is too reliant on the timber industry.
“Tasmania is more than forestry, although forestry does play a role in our economy,” he said.
“I can tell you 99 per cent of my time as Economic Development Minister is focussed on diversifying the Tasmanian economy.”
The State Opposition Leader Will Hodgman has seized on Bureau of Statistics figures showing in the six months to March, about 7000 people moved interstate.
“Uncertainty, surely, with the Green-Labor government that’s costing Tasmanians their jobs, for example, in the forest industry is literally leading to many people leaving our shores,” he said.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-09-28/criticism-for-forestry-focus/4286906?section=tas
