Ken Jeffreys
Miles Hampton with Premier Giddings
The day after Milles Hampton resigned as Chairman of Forestry Tasmania Board, Leon Compton the presenter of ABC Hobart radio [i]Statewide Mornings[/i] introduced the topic of the day in this way:
Leon Compton: Well it was a pretty impressive resignation in terms of a Government Business Enterprise boss showing a lack of confidence – almost totally – in the Government that he nominally serves.
Yesterday Miles Hampton, the Chairman – of only day – of Forestry Tasmania quit with an explosive resignation that said amongst other things that he didn’t believe the Government had any intention of establishing a viable forestry business through its proposed restructuring of Forestry Tasmania, But perhaps as importantly he speculated that the Government was just lying to him about what they planned to do when it comes to FT and its structure into the future.
After Tony McCall UTAS Political Lecturer commented on Forestry Tasmania being split up and the sudden resignation of Miles Hampton, a combative Corporate Relations Manager for Forestry Tasmania rang the ABC.
Ken Jeffreys: I just wanted to go back to the Auditor-General’s Special Report No. 100 which is a favourite document for some of our critics to quote from. And Tony [McCall] does it again today. I wanted to say that that the Auditor-General’s report was a fantastic examination of FT but it needs to be read in its entirety. What the A-G found was that the Tasmanian economy is $111 million better off each year with FT than it would be without it. That the cumulative value of wood product sales from Tasmania’s state forests is $585 million annually and that… (interrupted) …and that… hang on…
Leon Compton: With respect… Ken Jeffreys, with respect… no, with respect … we’ve given you an opportunity to come on this morning. We’ve asked for Miles Hampton. We’ve asked to talk about the issues of the day… which is the quitting of the chairman and the history lesson not so interesting, this morning.
Ahh… the reason he quit… do you think… I mean, tell us about the reasons he quit? When did he tell you that he was going?
Ken Jeffreys: Ahh… Well he told me ahhm… on Sunday night in fact. But I do still want to make the point about the A-G’s report because it’s not ancient history, Tony McCall just quoted from it and ahh… that since corporatisation FT has made $200 million in profit averaged at $12.56 million per year and has returned $339 million in taxes and dividends….
Leon Compton: It’s a Government Business Enterprise fundamentally that requires enormous support from the taxpayer to keep it going at the moment?
Ken Jeffreys: How much?
Leon Compton: Well let’s compare it with Victoria… let’s… let’s compare it with Victoria
Ken Jeffreys: What… what…what subsidies do we receive… what subsidies do we receive…?
Leon Compton: Let’s compare it with Victoria at the moment and their forestry restructure which is in the same market conditions as you are dealing with, is looking at a $96,000 loss for 2011-12, to quote from Fairfax, according to the Group’s Annual Report. So less… or few than $100,000 going into the Victorian timber industry compare to what? – $100 million that’s looked at provisioning for FT here?
Ken Jeffreys: Well that’s what provision is for. But a let me say this… FT has a lot of non-commercial functions it has to perform. It has something like 700,000 ha of State forests that is in reserve that we care for. Ahhm… the A-G makes the point that those CSOs [Community Service Obligations] should be funded. And I’m pleased to ahh… say now that the Government has recognised that. Now ahh… ahhm
Leon Compton: The point is this morning, you’ve got a chairman of FT who quit because he says that the Government is lying to him and has plans to neuter FT. Do you agree?
Ken Jeffreys: Ahh… am I going to be able to answer the questions (chuckles) Leon?
Leon Compton: Here is …ahh…there is the question. You’ve got a chairman who says the Government’s lying to him and he thinks FT is going to be neutered. Do you agree?
Ken Jeffreys: (Laughing) Yes… I’ve spoken to Miles this morning, the reason he didn’t come on your program, firstly yesterday he said that ahh… that was the last comment he intended to make. Ahh… this morning he is gutted. Ahh.. he is very unhappy that he’s had to take the actions that he’s had to take. He is very, very disappointed that the assurances that he received, ahh… in his view, have not been honoured. And that he cannot ahh… ahhm, remain as chairman of the FT Board when he does have faith in the assurances that he’s been provided with will be honoured. …
Leon, I am always prepared to come on to your program. I’m prepared to take any questions you want. The fact is that Miles Hampton made a statement yesterday [Monday, 17 September], he said at the end of the statement ahh… that he wouldn’t be making any further comment. Ahhm… you know, he’s… he’s honoured that. He, he does what he says and that what he expects others to do.
Leon Compton: Good to talk to you this morning.
[Reference: ABC 936 radio – [i]Statewide Mornings[/i] audio-on-demand 18 September 2012]
• Word battles inside& outside the IGA Room
David Obendorf
First to those huffy-puffy words of the Commonwealth Minister for Regional Australia, [b]Simon Crean MP[/b] in his interview with ABC radio’s Leon Compton on 10 September 2012; an interview about the Commonwealth allocating $28 million to [i]Norske Skog Boyer[/i] to transition to glossy paper manufacture (those freebie advertising inserts that are put in newspapers to sell merchandise –more ‘stuff’ to buy – or that get pushed into our mail-boxes as ‘junk mail’):
Leon Compton: So what happens with this $28 million if the [IGA] deal fall over does the money [to Norske Skog Boyer] have to be handed back? Is this $28 million part of the IGA process?
Simon Crean: It’s a grant…the $28 million is a…. is an exit [for Norske Skog Boyer] … the due diligence comes first; the source of the funding comes second. … I believe we can secure the outcome with the IGA. We are operating ahh… with a degree of confidence around that, and this is a decision thatahh… couldn’t wait. … And we will find the funding for it accordingly.
Leon Compton: If this much moneyt is there to help Norske Skog expand, why not similar amounts of money to help a Pulp Mill on the Tamar?
Simon Crean: Well as you know, I am a supporter of the Pulp Mill… on… ahh… the Tamar; an absolute supporter of the Pulp Mill on the Tamar. But what is going to help secure the Pulp Mill on the Tamar is the conclusion of the IGA and securing private investment. Now the two do go together. What we’ve got to do is try and get the IGA process to a conclusion. And if you’ve got it to a conclusion, why wouldn’t investors be interested in a World Class facility given the increasing demand for paper and particularly packaging – as the Middle Class of Asia grows. But a Pulp Mill that is based on a totally sustainable resource [E. nitens plantations]; a pulp mill that would use state of the art technology; World’s best practice; and a Pulp Mill that would be powered by renewable energy. You can’t get more sustainable than that. And that’s the environment that we have to create.…
Leon Compton: What’s actually happening in the room at the moment Minister? Why can’t a deal be struck?
Simon Crean: Well, there might be public silence but there’s no silence internally. The discussions are proceeding; there are issues to do with verifications… alternate sources of supply, particularly for Ta Ann… technical discussions.
[b][End of excerpt][/b]
On 13 September[b]Lyndon Schneiders of The Wilderness Society[/b] – an organisation actually ‘in the room’ was interviewed. Mr Schnieders is a consummate laid-back, ocka-sorta guy. I’ve been to a few union rallies in my time and that’s the closest similarity I can get to Mr Schneiders style of communication.
Leon Compton: They [FIAT] have concerns about ‘durability’; that’s the key issue here. They’re worried about the guarantee of wood supply if this becomes the subject of a Govern met Department?
LS: Wood supply can only be guaranteed through long-term contracts… that’s somethingthat the conservation movement has agreed to.
…
If you’re committed fundamentally to a lasting binding agreement, were all the key players are saying: “This is the future”…
The solution will only come from takin’… it won’t come from perpetuating the stunts that have characterised this debate for years.
You know, I understand that a number of other members of the industry Caucus who obviously got a real interest in what happen to FT. they’re stinking with the process.
We’ve gotta keep on takin’.
Running the voluntary buy-back package… to take a bit a wood outa the system.That’sgonna help deliver a final agreement.
The talks do have to end [laughing]; this isn’t a 100-years war. We can’t go on for ever [laughing].
Mr Schnieders on the ‘Pulp Mill on the Tamar’:
Leon Compton: We spoke to Simon Crean earlier in the week and he certainly felt confident that were was something happening ‘inside the room’ that still make the prospect of a pulp mill – alive – if not more likely of this [IGA] deal. So what’s happening?
Lyndon Schneiders: (Laughter) Well, Simon isn’t in the room. And I reckon if Simon has got a lazy billion dollars to go and give Gunns creditors… ahh… maybe he knows something I don’t.
Ahh… the pulp mill has not been a feature of these discussions. The feature of the discussions in the room has all been about saw mills, saw logs, future value adding… you know, small-stream stuff. Like the idea about this being … repeating the mistakes of the past; going for the ‘big projects’ rather than goin’ for the sustainable projects, the niche markets, the quality wood products.
Ahh… to me the Pulp Mill is the wrong debate. And it’s not the debate that been happening inside the negotiations. Now Crean and others may well want that… but that has not been a feature of the negotiations.
Leon Compton: Good to talk to you this morning.
Lyndon Schneiders: Thanks Leon, good onya mate!
Listen yourself to the audios from the ABC 936 Mornings audio-on-demand podcasts.
Reference: http://blogs.abc.net.au/tasmania/hobart_mornings/?site=hobart&program=hobart_mornings[[i]Statewide Mornings[/i] with Leon Compton: 10 September and 13 September, 2012]
