Timber industry spurned compromise that could have saved forests … and them

Pic: Emma Capp

FOR much of the past six months I have been locked in a small room in Hobart trying to negotiate an agreement with Tasmanian timber industry representatives to end the 30-year war over the forests in that beautiful but divided state.

During that entire period I have retained confidence that a deal could be done despite the minefield of history, mistrust and animosity that has characterised the issue. I had faith all of us around the table wanted a new way.

As a result, I was prepared to argue for the overturning of the Wilderness Society’s policies opposing all forms of native forest logging, I was prepared to withdraw support for long-standing claims for protection of some much-loved and treasured forests. I have consistently sought to find common ground with the industry.

We negotiated through thick and thin, through the night and over weekends. We sought innovative solutions to intractable problems and tried to build a sense of trust and shared objectives.

My actions have been publicly criticised by Bob Brown and I have been admonished by Christine Milne. I have been called an ALP toady by fellow conservationists and reviled by grassroots activists. That’s OK, because all the while we have looked for the common ground to end the war, to protect the forests and provide a secure future for industry workers.

So imagine my surprise and anger when it became clear last weekend, at the 11th hour, the key negotiators for the big loggers and sawmillers were not prepared to move one inch from the position they had held since August last year, despite hundreds of hours of talks.

Imagine my bewilderment when I learnt that a major breakthrough that delivered a win-win for forest protection and wood supply was rejected because of an unwillingness to shift from demands for an annual 155,000 cubic metres of prized high-quality native forest sawlog timber.

Devastating does not begin to describe it.

Industry negotiators said they would not budge because the industry could not downsize and meet the demands for increased volumes of timber for large retailers such as Bunnings and Mitre 10 – a claim Bunnings has since denied.

Yet other industry insiders dismissed this as a smokescreen to cover the fact that the industry could not bring itself to do a deal with the hated greenies; that they would prefer to fight to the death than agree to peace.

But it doesn’t need to end this way.

At the conclusion of the last round of negotiations in August, it seemed agreement was possible. We reduced our claim for protected forests by 100,000 hectares, freeing up an extra 40,000 cubic metres of high-quality sawlogs annually for the next 15 years. Nearly a third of the total amount demanded by industry.

But we still fell just short of the industry’s 155,000 cubic metres and we could make no further cuts given the forests needed by the industry had been classed as World Heritage standard by independent experts early in the negotiations.

To break the deadlock, all negotiators agreed some wood needed to be freed up. Governments agreed to fund a “voluntary exit” of sawmillers with native forest wood contracts.

After expressions of interest closed about 60,000 cubic metres of timber became available, according to reports.

This would be more than enough to close the gap and seal a deal; deliver a sustainable supply of timber, help obtain Forest Stewardship Council certification, protect high-conservation-value forests such as the Florentine, Weld and Styx valleys and even provide wood for timber mills to actually grow.

So imagine my shock on Saturday when it became clear the industry wanted most, if not all, of that timber reallocated to other mills and expected us to find more wood from our reserves.

The blame game has now begun and while the fingers get pointed the drums of war start again, even as the industry sits on the edge of a financial precipice.

The Tasmanian forest industry model is broken and only this deal could have delivered the hundreds of millions of dollars required to save it.

The government enterprise that manages the forests, Forestry Tasmania, is virtually broke, having lost $45 million in the past three years. And it is predicted to lose $125 million over the next five years.

Gunns, the timber giant that once dominated Tasmania, has collapsed under at least a $560 million mountain of debt while 5239 timber workers have lost their jobs in the past four years in a state with the highest unemployment.

You’d think a haemorrhaging forest industry that faces environmentalists prepared to make concessions and back a new industry that includes native forests with a substantial financial dividend at play, would want to make a deal.

We made concessions to allow the industry to make an easier transition to a sustainable future but it seems it is determined to collapse in the same type of economic disaster that was the Gunns collapse.

The losers here will be the communities, the vulnerable and the forests. The war will continue and will be directed at the market place and in the retail sector. Australians have no taste for old growth forest products. Haven’t for years.

Despite all of this, peace is the desired outcome, even now.

Lyndon Schneiders is the national director of the Wilderness Society. This article first published in The Age:

http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/politics/barking-up-the-wrong-trees-20121030-28hlu.html#ixzz2AoYNuge1

Meanwhile, Tas Inc. Log Splits:

ABC Online: Gray lashes Lennon over forestry peace talks

Former Liberal Premier Robin Gray has weighed into the debate over the collapse of the forestry peace deal.

Former Labor Premier Paul Lennon supports the current Premier Lara Giddings’ moves to bring the forest peace talk signatories back together.

He has warned of job losses and economic trouble in regional areas without an agreement.

“In that environment it seems to me that it’s not an option to walk away,” he said.

“There will be more job losses and that will put serious pressure on regional communities in Tasmania.”

But former Gunns director Robin Gray, who was also the Liberal Tasmanian Premier during the bitter Franklin Dam dispute in the 1980s, has criticised Labor’s support for the talks.

He says Paul Lennon should know the Greens and environment groups can not be trusted.

“I can only think that Paul’s having a lend of himself,” he said.

“I am a great admirer of Paul Lennon but I think he has shown that he doesn’t really understand how serious this issue is and how vulnerable the Government is over it and that he’s giving way to pressure from people who really don’t understand the Greens.”

The peace talks collapsed at the weekend, although today is the deadline set by industry groups.

Full taste of a bitter Gray, ABC Online here

• Who killed Kenny? Answer: Bryan Green …

Dinah Arndt, The Examiner: Green misled Tasmanian public: Ken Jeffreys

FORMER Forestry Tasmania executive Ken Jeffreys has accused the state government of leaking information that damages the state-owned business and advantages its minority partner the Greens.

Speaking publicly for the first time since his position as corporate relations manager was made redundant, Mr Jeffreys said Deputy Premier Bryan Green had effectively misled Tasmanians by making public statements at odds with what had occurred.

“Confidential commercial information is being shared with our enemies straight away,” Mr Jeffreys said.

“There’s no point in people trying to deny that happens because as recently as Friday last week there was misinformation that was given to the minister about (FT chief executive) Bob Gordon’s contract, and who asked the question about Bob Gordon’s contract two days later? It was the Greens,” he said.

Mr Jeffreys said Mr Green had repeatedly claimed publicly that he was unaware of FT decisions until after they were made, which “doesn’t accord with what I know to be the truth”.

When asked if he was accusing Mr Green of misleading Tasmanians, Mr Jeffreys said: “Yes, I am. I’m not necessarily saying it’s always deliberate. The fact is it may be that the minister, under the sheer weight of all his responsibilities under his various portfolios, can’t recall specific conversations. I don’t know. But that was a classic example where you saw a piece of information went through the government which spoke to the Greens and it was used in Parliament to try and embarrass FT and attack another person.”

A week ago, Forestry Tasmania confirmed Mr Gordon’s contract was extended for five years, but two days later chairman Bob Annells said he had been mistaken and the contract signed off was actually open-ended.

Mr Jeffreys’ position was made redundant after he publicly criticised the government’s forestry policies, and came less than a week after incoming FT chairman and board veteran Miles Hampton quit over similar issues.

…

Before he became the corporate relations manager of FT six years ago, Mr Jeffreys worked with the Pulp Mill Taskforce. He headed the government’s media unit under Premier Jim Bacon. Details of his payout have not been made public.

Mr Jeffreys denied being bitter about his job loss, saying he’d do it all again. “In 1998, I was part of a group that helped set up a (Labor state) government that had three iconic leaders in Jim Bacon, David Crean and Paul Lennon, and that’s all dissolved into a green slime that’s clogging up the wheels of government and bringing silence to the engines of the economy.”

The full Kenny, The Examiner here

• Yesterday, John Lawrence on Tasmanian Times: Earlier this year Ta Ann was revealed as a loss-making dog. Now?

• Miranda Gibson on CNN: Why I live 60 meters up a tree

Earlier, ABC Online:

• Lennon urges last-ditch talks on forestry

• ANZ BANK URGED TO FORGO SECURE CREDITOR STATUS FOR GUNNS LTD

Kim Booth MP
Greens Forestry Spokesperson
Wednesday, 31 October 2012

The Tasmanian Greens have written to the ANZ Banking Group urging the company to forgo its status as a secured creditor of Gunns Ltd, to ensure that local businesses that were loaned money to fulfil contracts with Gunns don’t also end up in liquidation.

Greens Forestry spokesperson, Kim Booth MP said that the letter was to inform the bank of a Motion recently passed by the Tasmanian House of Assembly which asked banks “to consider the request to forgo their status as secure creditors of Gunns Limited to ensure that local businesses, farmers and contractors can receive their moneys owed.”

Mr Booth said ANZ had a particular responsibility to local businesses, because it continued to fund Gunns’ operations for the last two years, when it was clear that the company was on the path to insolvency.

“While it was propping up the corpse of Gunns, the ANZ Bank was also loaning money to businesses that had contracts with Gunns which they should have known were never going to be met,” Mr Booth said.

“This year the bank announced a statutory profit after tax of $2.92 billion for the half year, so it can clearly afford to forgo the $50 million that is owed to unsecured creditors.”

“Small businesses have not had access to Gunns’ balance sheets, as the banks have, and they were given the false impression that that Gunns was financially viable and would be able to pay its debts.”

“If the ANZ Bank wants to preserve its reputation in Tasmania, it will ensure that small businesses are paid out first and the Tasmanian economy does not suffer from a domino effect of bad debt.”

“It’s now time for the ANZ Bank to look after the community that has looked after it for so long,” Mr Booth said.

Download: Copy of letter from Kim Booth MP to ANZ Banking Group, October 24:
Oct31_Letter_from_Kim_Booth_MP_to_ANZ_Bank_ATTACH.pdf

• Jenny Weber, Miranda Gibson: Green groups question Ta Ann’s push for environmental endorsement

Huon Valley Environment Centre and Still Wild Still Threatened are today calling on Ta Ann to immediately cease accepting wood from all high conservation value forests and make a rapid transition out of native forests. Our organisations are raising concerns about Ta Ann Tasmania’s push to have negotiations continue in order to secure a controversial green tick from environmental signatories for their products, without making a transition out of native forests. In addition we are bringing into question Forestry Tasmania’s overcomittment of Ta Ann’s contract, which has not be adequately resolved.

Huon Valley Environment Centre and Still Wild Still Threatened have today stated, “With or without an agreement, Ta Ann Tasmanian cannot continue business as usual in regards to sourcing wood from native forest destruction. Not only is it unacceptable in the global market, it is also no longer a practical reality for the industry. Even without any new reserves, Forestry Tasmania have massively over committed the resource and there will not be enough native forest to continue Ta Ann’s current contract. The agreement has failed to adequately address Forestry Tasmania’s mismanagement of our state forests in regards to over cutting and over commitment of supply.”

“Ta Ann Tasmania has damaged its own markets by delivering a product and a promotional strategy that have contradicted one another. A flawed environmental endorsement from the forest talks will not deliver market security. A product that meets high environmental standards is a solution Ta Ann is refusing to take,” Huon Valley Environment Centre’s Jenny Weber said.

“It comes as no surprise that Ta Ann would be pushing for signatories to get back to the table, as the agreement would deliver a controversial endorsement for its product from the negotiating environment groups, despite the prospect of an ongoing supply from high conservation value forests to Ta Ann,” Jenny Weber said.

“Ta Ann need to take responsibility for their own business and cannot hide behind the forest negotiations. If Ta Ann are concerned about their future they need to be making the necessary changes to transition out of native forests and provide a product that matches their “eco” claims” Still Wild Still Threatened’s Miranda Gibson said.

“Ta Ann have come under the scrutiny of conservationists as international controversy surrounds their “eco” products containing wood sourced from verified national and world heritage value Tasmanian forests. Recently nineteen international organisations and high profile environmental advocates, including four Sarawakian ngos, wrote a letter of concern about Ta Ann’s products to Japanese customers. These organisations and individuals have expressed support for protection of Tasmania’s unique forests” Jenny Weber said.

“Ta Ann cannot rely on an agreement to deliver them customer support, because the international expectations for sustainability require higher environmental standards than this deal looks set to deliver. The only real solution for Ta Ann is to move away from expecting the negotiators to save them from their own mis-marketing failure, and to be proactive in making a transition out of native forest destruction” said Miranda Gibson

“Our organisations have been calling on Ta Ann to reveal the results of their plantation trials so the community can be clear about the prospects of a transition for the company away from a controversial wood supply. The message from markets is clear, they don’t want to be buying forest destruction,” Miranda Gibson said.

• SENATOR THE HON RICHARD COLBECK

Gillard Government reheats, re-serves two-year-old pulp and paper hash

The Gillard Labor Government’s appalling track record of indifference to the nation’s pulp and paper industry plunged to new lows this week.

Industry and Innovation Minister Greg Combet announced a Government advisory group for the pulp and paper industry, which includes deputy chairs Michael O’Connor (CFMEU) and Jim Henneberry (Australian Paper).

Coalition Forestry spokesman Senator Richard Colbeck said it came two years after the same Government appointed the same men to a pulp and paper industry strategy group – which never met and produced nothing.

“That Mr Combet’s announcement coincides with the ForestWorks Industry Development Conference in Canberra makes this look like a completely hollow and cynical exercise,” Opposition Forestry Spokesman Richard Colbeck said.

“Especially when you consider Labor’s has either not delivered or completely bungled every step of its reaction to the challenges facing Australia’s pulp and paper industries.”

Senator Colbeck said that went back to the announcement by then Industry Minister Kim Carr he would devise strategies for the future of the paper and pulp sectors, which was an exercise in crisis management rather than effective planning.

Two pulp mills had since closed in Tasmania, costing hundreds of jobs and battering regional economies.

Labor’s strategy was said to be based on the Regional Forest Agreement, which became embroiled in the farce which was Tasmania’s so-called forest peace talks, Senator Colbeck said.

“The Labor Government started too late, did too little and is now completely hamstrung by its Coalition with the Greens,” Senator Colbeck said.

“These proud industries need robust leadership, vision and certainty to help navigate considerable challenges. What they have is old, tired ideas reheated and served up again.”

TIMELINE OF PULP AND PAPER REACTION

March 6, 2009 – Minister Carr’s announcement of Pulp and Paper Industry Strategy Group and Report with the Minister stating the final report will be complete in June. It includes Michael O’Connor (CFMEU) and Jim Henneberry (Australian Paper).
March 20, 2009 – Minister Carr’s office says terms of reference for the group is still being decided.
May 15, 2009 – Minister Carr’s office says terms of reference will be announced within two weeks.
June 11, 2009 – Minister Carr’s office tells media there is no timeframe for the terms of reference.
June 19, 2009 – Minister Carr finally announces terms of reference for the review to be finalised by November 2009

August 21, 2009 – Minister Carr claims again report will be finalised in November 2009.

October 21, 2009 – Minister Carr’s Department says the report will be finalised on December 16.

December 16, 2009 – Minister Carr announces a further delay in the report – to end of March 2010.

March 31, 2010 – PaperlinX closes the Wesley Vale Mill and part of its Burnie operation.
April 20, 2010 – Minister Carr finally releases the report, but it contains no new initiatives and no action until the latter part of 2010. Not one cent of a $17 million rescue fund has been spent.
July 30, 2010 – Remaining staff begin their final shift at the Burnie paper mill.
October 29, 2012 – Industry and Innovation Minister Greg Combet announces a new advisory group for the pulp and paper industry. It is to include Michael O’Connor (CFMEU) and Jim Henneberry (Australian Paper).

• Lara Giddings
Premier
Wednesday 31st Oct 2012

Tasmanian Forests Agreement update

I have been speaking to signatories to the Statement of Principles to reiterate the State Government’s view that a negotiated agreement is the best way of managing the change that is occurring in the forest industry and to remind all parties of the consequences if no deal can be reached.

A negotiated agreement remains the best outcome for both the environment movement and the forest industry.

FIAT and the other signatories have indicated they are prepared to continue these discussions.