Tamar valley pulp mill - key issues

The Tamar valley pulp mill story is complex but cut to the chase here.

Read the Gunns Dossier: Pulp Mill Smoke and Mirrors

Pulp and paper expert Dr Warwick Raverty, reached the “sad conclusion that Gunns is not a fit and proper company to build a pulp mill anywhere” in Tasmania (14 March 2007). That conclusion is supported by the Gunns Dossier: Pulp Mill Smoke and Mirrors, a record of 186 statements from CEO John Gay and Gunns Ltd, and State and Federal governments relating to the planned pulp mill in the Tamar Valley.

The statements have been collated by TAP Research from media reports, documentaries and publications from 2004 to the present and are hyperlink referenced for easy checking. The ‘Gunns Dossier’ will be updated periodically as new evidence emerges.

This work has been driven by disgust with four years of systematic corporate and government spin and manipulation. Tamar Valley residents and others firmly believe that no one should have to put up with this form of disruption and level of violation of their rights as Australians. Their lives have been put on hold: they cannot improve their properties, have children, decide whether to stay or sell up and try to recoup anything like the real values of their properties.

Download the 16 page version 003 pdf from below.

Did you know?

The proposed pulp mill is (May 2008):

yet to receive all federal permits
yet to be approved for finance
yet to be signed off by the Gunns Board
still subject to a court case

The State government promotes only the benefits of the pulp mill, and ignores the harm to:

farming
our water supply
roads and bridges
fishing
our health
house values
tourism
our safety

Some risks:

To food supply. On good soils, crops deliver four times more value for our water investment than plantations.

To markets. It takes only one Bass Strait fish contaminated by dioxin for us to lose the Japanese market; probably others as well.

Estimated subsidies to Gunns from both state and federal levels of government:

One time capital costs = $399m (so far)
Ongoing taxpayer-funded support = $360m/yr
Cost if mill operates for 30 years = $10.8bn (30 yrs x $360m/yr)
Total over 30 years = $11.2bn

And the latest public subsidy?

The state government has committed the community to pay Gunns up to $15 million any time in the next 20 years should future laws disrupt the supply of wood to the proposed pulp mill. Signed in January 2008 but made public on the 6 May 2008, two days after voting in the Legislative Council elections.

These subsidies are better spent on our hospitals and schools, not supporting private business.

Want more information, then click on the links below:

Legal challenge. Lawyers for Forests is seeking judicial review of the Federal Environment Minister’s decision to approve Gunns’ Tamar Valley pulp mill. The judicial review process challenges the way the Minister made the decision to approve the pulp mill on 9 grounds. Legal challenge by Lawyers For Forests.
Pulp mill risks from the perspective of pulp and paper expert Dr Warwick Raverty. Read the transcript of a lecture delivered to a crowded hall in March 2007, Launceston. Gunns pulp mill risks
Analysis of the strategic environment surrounding the pulp mill approval process and the main areas to focus efforts to stop the mill. Strategic analysis
Some inconvenient truths for Gunns proposed pulp mill. Facts the Tasmanian Government and Gunns Ltd don’t want people to know about the proposed Tamar valley pulp mill, Tasmania, Australia. Some inconvenient truths for Gunns
Pulp mill site on banks of Tamar River. The 'world scale' pulp mill project site will occupy approximately 600 ha on the banks of Long Reach south of Bell Bay, Tamar River, Tasmania. The area is shown in red and the mill site at the yellow dot (Gunns IIS). Pulp mill site at Long Reach, Tamar valley
Unequal influence of big business. How donations to political parties are linked to the conversion of farmland to trees at taxpayers expense Federal cash on demand
All benefits but no costs. The benefits of the pulp mill are spruiked by the Tasmanian Government, but ... Why-are-they-hiding-the-cost
The lure of $1.5 billion. The business of investing in a pulp mill that is manufactured in Finland and assembled in Tasmania works this way. Pulp mill ‘investment’
Unrepresentative government. For Sale "Tasmania". Exciting features. Agents Lennon, Green, Kons and Associates. For Sale
Democracy "Tasmanian style". Pulp mill promises in 2004 and reality in 2007. The Premier's promise
All 'bark' but no teeth. Lennon's 'tough' guidelines allow a mill to stink out the Tamar valley for 2 years before the regulator even makes a phone call! The new meaning of 'tough'
Wrong mill in the wrong place. The State Government wants the pulp mill to be built in the Tamar valley which is regularly subject to thermal inversions and air pollution. Launceston's air
A world scale mill and plantations on a small island. The plantations for the proposed ‘world scale’ pulp mill are too large for Tasmania’s water supplies. Catchments-impacted-v2 Tasmanian-water-use1.jpg