“… what has held this mill up has got nothing to do with political support, or legal support. The project received support from susccessive State Government in Tasmania and it’s had support from successive federal Governments. It’s had every permit and approval it could possibly get for years… there isn’t any mill there however. And there isn’t any mill there because the activism that’s taken place; no just political activism but the fact that we went to potential bankers for the project and convinced them not to fund it; we went to potential customers and convinced them not to buy the product, and so on, and so forth.”
This part of the interview between ABC 936 presenter Leon Compton and Geoffrey Cousins was not broadcast to air but is available via the ABC 936 Statewide Mornings audio on demand file here.
Leon Compton: If any parties want to argue that the pulp mill shouldn’t happen because the economics [don’t] stack up, whose business is that apart from those who might seek to buy it. I mean if the market thinks it’ll stack up, let the market take the risk.
Geoffrey Cousins: Oh well indeed, they’d be taking a risk alright. And one of the other risks I pointed out to KordaMentha was that if in fact the effluent flows were found to pollute the waters – and it’s very easy to test these things these days. It used to be expensive and difficult and only Governments could do it; any citizen could do it now, and send the material off to a recognised laboratory and get the results back very quickly; the world has changed. So, in fact there were consistent breaches, the federal Minister would then be ‘compelled’ to require an upgrade to tertiary treatment. The cost of upgrading to tertiary treatment would be about $500 million – a half a billion dollars just for that. And again I put that to KordaMentha, in the meeting I had with them, and they did not dispute that figure. These risks are enormous.
Leon Compton: What confidence do they have that will be able to find a buyer for the pulp mill permits or indeed for the plantation assets … and a pulp mill permit?
Geoffrey Cousins: Well again, I said to them do you actually have anyone specifically who has said that they wish to bid for this mill licence. And they said we cannot know that until the bids come in. So in other words I see statements or, or speculation that they two parties who have specifically said that. I put that to KordaMentha and they said: ‘No we don’t know, at this point and we won’t know until the end of March when the bids come in’.
Leon Compton: What do you say to people who look at both major political parties in Tasmania supporting this project; who believe that environmental approval agencies are capable of looking into any issues that might go with pollution, and look at the jobs and economy situation in Tasmania and say that a pulp mill if it can be sold on the open market is a thing worth prosecuting.
Geoffrey: Yes, again I said to those persons [in Korda Menthsa] ahh, ahh … what has held this mill up has got nothing to do with political support, or legal support. The project received support from susccessive State Government in Tasmania and it’s had support from successive federal Governments. It’s had every permit and approval it could possibly get for years… there isn’t any mill there however. And there isn’t any mill there because the activism that’s taken place; no just political activism but the fact that we went to potential bankers for the project and convinced them not to fund it; we went to potential customers and convinced them not to buy the product, and so on, and so forth.
So, ahh… also you say how important it is to the economy of Tasmania. And it’s always amazed me that Tasmanians seem to think the timber industry is some large percentage of the State economy. It’s about 2 or 3%; people seem to think it’s 30%.
Leon Compton: Notwithstanding that Mr Cousins we’ve got 200,000 hectares of plantations in Tasmania that have nowhere to go at the moment, and the pulp mill might present an end use for that plantation stock.
Geoffrey Cousins: Well, they won’t have anywhere to go, unless somebody restarts the public hearing process, puts forward plan for a mill that is truly ‘World’s Best Practice’ and even Gunns just before they went into receivership admitted that the original proposal to use native timber and to use high chlorine levels was a very poor one, and they said they were now upgrading it. So, unless somebody is prepared to do that, to build it somewhere other than the Tamar Valley; which not an appropriate location, and to have all that tested in the court of public opinion … there’s never going to be any mill. And Governments and Premiers can say what they like, but look what’s happened so far; they’ve been supporting this thing for years and years by doing backroom deals; changing laws, and what have they got? A fast process for the mill? No … absolutely nothing. So they gotta go back to square one and clear the air.
Leon Compton; Geoff Cousins before we leave you this morning, I’ll just mention again that the Tasmanian Government absolutely reject any, ahh, … any suggestion that they gave KordaMentha copies of the legislation before… before it went to Parliaments or was release publicly.
Geoff Cousins: Well, I draw you attention to the fact that, ahhm … there is a letter actually, and I think it’s been published from KordaMentha, ahh … thanking the Premier and saying they look forward to receiving the draft. And, ahh… as I say, the two persons that I met confirmed that they did receive a draft to the legislation. I asked them if they changed anything in it and they said, no they were completely happy with it. So, in other words they got exactly what they wanted.
Leon Compton: and the follow up question is, and this is, and this is where we started the interview: Why is that necessarily a bad thing? These people are stakeholders the legislation was looked at and reviewed in Tasmania’s upper house and got support.
Geoff Cousins: Well, ahh… as I say it is extremely unusual for governments to be sending legislation to interested commercial parties to see whether they like it or not. And KordaMentha told me that they had a meeting with the Premier not long before that and had, you know, obviously put forward their requests, and indeed all those requests were met in the legislation. So, in other words, the legislation was being designed to meet the needs of the commercial interest. That’s not the way governments are supposed to deal, is it? And as I say, in my experience, that is not just unusual, ahh … it’s pretty much unheard off. So, anyway… any … everybody can make their own judgement on what they think of the Tasmanian government and I think quite a few have.
