Jan Davis: TFGA calls Gunns landowners’ meeting

The Tasmanian Farmers and Graziers Association (TFGA) has arranged a special meeting of Gunns Plantations (GPL) woodlot scheme landowners in Launceston on Monday, July 21, so they can assess their options for trees on their land leased to the company.

This follows the May 21 decision of the Victorian Supreme Court after it had evaluated the rights of landowners and the rights of the liquidators of the company.

In short, landowners now have three options:

• to buy trees from the liquidated company

• to harvest the trees

• to terminate their lease with GPL.

“There are significant implications carrying with each option,” TFGA chief executive Jan Davis said today.

“You regain use of your land/trees but at what price?

“What happens to the accrued rental on your land that you are still owed?”

The meeting will be at The Boathouse in Lindsay Street from 2 pm to 5 pm on July 21.

There will be an update from liquidator PPB Advisory and an independent lawyer will offer observations and advice on the options.

The TFGA would like RSVPs by Thursday, July 17.
E-mail reception@tfga.com.au or phone 6332 1800

• Pete Godfrey, in Comments: Well Jan,you can’t say that you weren’t told. I feel sorry for the people that were parted from their money and land. They were given poor advice, often not told how much commission they were paying to the people who were selling them on the scheme. A lot of people were yelling from the rooftops that the scheme was a dud and didn’t stack up. Unfortunately the TFGA were not one of them. The late and wonderful man Bob Loone spent a lot of time and money putting full page ads in the papers warning people of the dangers of the schemes. Robert Belcher from Sustainable Agricultural Communities Australia gave up many years of his time trying to warn people. The TFGA well they just went along with the greedy bastards and Liberal Party hacks and sold their members down the river.