Gunns have or are negotiating various agreements with State and Federal Governments over the planned pulp mill. This page is monitoring the negotiating process and its failures from the perspective of fair dealing, democracy and fulfilling the requirements of the EPBC Act.
State Government Sovereign Risk Agreement and Wood Supply Agreement with Gunns
Federal Government Environmental Impact Management Plan and Modules
Failures of Module C - Roadkill Survey Report by TAP Research
State Government Sovereign Risk Agreement and Wood Supply Agreement with Gunns
November 30, 2008 is a key date for the status of both the $15m Sovereign Risk Agreement and the 20 year Wood Supply Agreement between the State Government, Forestry Tasmania and Gunns.
The Government has said it has drawn a "line in the sand" of no further assistance to Gunns past November 30. However, author Peter Henning has pointed out "It is clear ... that the Bartlett government and the Hodgman opposition will ignore the interests of the people and communities of the Tamar Valley in whatever further legislative or regulatory action the Parliament takes on behalf of Gunns. That is a foregone conclusion, as has been consistently demonstrated in all their actions in relation to the pulp mill." See http://tasmaniantimes.com/index.php?/weblog/article/the-millstone/ for the full article.
The secret shadowy history of the Agreements below shows the rotten heart of “parliamentary democracy” in Tasmania.
Sovereign Risk Agreement
5 May, 2008 - The Treasurer, Michael Aird, announced that the State Government signed a tripartite sovereign risk agreement with Forestry Tasmania and Gunns Ltd in January 2008. This agreement was kept confidential for four months. The agreement relates to the wood supply agreement between Forestry Tasmania and Gunns Ltd and provides for compensation of a maximum of $15 million over the 20-year life of the Agreement if Forestry Tasmania cannot supply the wood. The compensation will be considered if both Houses of Parliament pass a law that directly results in Forestry Tasmania failing to supply wood under the terms of the Wood Supply Agreement.
The Agreement ties the hands of a future governments, especially in the context of carbon trading to control climate change likely to offer huge financial rewards for not logging Tasmanian forests.
The Pulp Mill Assessment Act blocks any person or business adversely affected by the pulp mill from seeking compensation. The agreement can be viewed at the Government tenders website www.tenders.tas.gov.au .
Tuesday 18 June 2008 - The Treasurer, Michael Aird revealed that Gunns requested an extension to the sovereign risk agreement condition that construction of the pulp mill start prior for June 30, 2008. Gunns requested to extend the start-up condition agreement to November 30, 2008.
Wood Supply Agreement
On the 26 February 2008, one week after Premier Lennon asked the Rudd Government's climate change adviser, Ross Garnaut, to examine how forestry affects warming, Forestry Tasmania sealed a twenty year wood supply deal with Gunns. The Gunns Pulp Mill Wood Supply Agreement was negotiated in secret, the two agreements - "Sawlog and Other Products Supply Agreement", and the "Long Term Pulpwood Supply Agreement" - sign away 1.5 million cubic metres of timber each year, for two decades. Neither agreement makes any reference to climate change and the certainty that native forest logging will become commercially unviable once markets fix a true price on carbon.
18 June 2008 - Forestry Tasmania extended the wood supply agreement from June 30 to November 30 2008 to enable the company to comply with the wood supply agreement contractual conditions.
29 August 2008 - Forestry Tasmania released a statement stating that "The Long Term Pulpwood Supply Agreement contains a clause which would allow either Gunns Ltd or Forestry Tasmania to give notice to terminate or re-negotiate the contract if construction of the proposed pulp mill was not underway by November 30." See www.forestrytas.com.au/news/2008/08/long-term-pulpwood-supply-agreement .
Federal Government Environmental Impact Management Plan and Modules
Pulp mill modules - state of play (as of 5 November 2008)
The Minister for the Environment, Heritage and the Arts, Peter Garrett's approval for the pulp mill project is subject to the preparation and approval of an Environmental Impact Management Plan (EIMP). This EIMP is being submitted by Gunns in a series of 16 modules. Each module of the EIMP must comply with the 48 conditions of
approval for the pulp mill.
Four modules have been approved:
Module A - Overview
Module B - Vegetation clearing mill site and wharf access
Module C - Bulk earthworks mill site
Module E - Construction of the accommodation facility located on the outskirts of George Town.
Thus only four of the 16 modules have been approved.
Note the deadline to have the modules finalised has been extended from October 4 2008 to January 5, 2009. Gunns will have until January 5, 2009 to complete the Environmental Impact Management Plan (EIMP) for its proposed pulp mill. Minister Garrett could extend this deadline but he has no legal obligation to do so.
Failures of Module C - Roadkill Survey Report by TAP Research
Minister for the Environment Peter Garrett, has signed off on the road kill element of the Gunns’ Pulp Mill's Environmental Impact Management Plan despite the process and data being fatally flawed, missing numerous animals including three Tasmanian devils.
Commonwealth pulp mill approval (module and conditions)
Minister Garrett’s flawed acceptance of Gunns’ work
TAP roadkill survey conclusions
Despite the Chief Scientist's clear requirement for 3 months of daily monitoring of all five routes to the proposed pulp mill, Gunns only monitored part of two routes for 24 days.
Tasmanians Against the Pulp Mill (TAP) have conducted more complete monitoring on one of the routes, recording many more animals, including several threatened species. See the TAP Roadkill Survey Findings available as a download below.
Senator Milne said "The more detailed monitoring of road kill around the pulp mill site has found a tragic toll including three Tasmanian devils, five spotted tailed quolls, seven eastern barred bandicoots and a masked owl. It is horrible to contemplate how many more threatened animals would be killed if the mill were built, with log trucks hurtling down every route, every day.
"These appalling revelations about road kill around the pulp mill site make a mockery of Peter Garrett's assurances that he would only sign off each environmental assessment module once it fully addressed the approval conditions.
"Gunns' road kill monitoring utterly failed to meet the requirements of the Chief Scientist and the approval conditions, and yet Peter Garrett has signed off on it.
"This raises very serious questions about the other three modules of the Environmental Impact Management Plan that Mr Garrett has already signed off on, as well as the remaining 12 modules that he recently gave Gunns five extra months to complete.
"If Gunns cannot be trusted to properly complete a basic road kill survey, and Mr Garrett cannot be trusted to require it, how can either be trusted on issues as complex as toxic effluent mixing in Bass Strait?"
Commonwealth pulp mill approval (module and conditions)
Approval for the pulp mill project by the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and the Arts, Peter Garrett, is subject to the preparation and approval of an Environmental Impact Management Plan (EIMP). This EIMP is being submitted by Gunns in a series of 16 modules. Each module of the EIMP must comply with the 48 conditions of approval for the pulp mill. To date 4 modules have been approved (i.e. finalised) including Condition 26, which is part of Module C (approved 2 April 2008).
Condition 26 of Module C
Page 22 of Condition 26 reads: "2.1.1.6 Establishment of baseline surveys to assess risks associated with road kill of listed terrestrial species, especially Tasmanian Devils and Spot-tailed Quolls Baseline monitoring of roadkill along the East Tamar highway and other major access routes for construction should commence immediately. On a daily basis, the roads should be driven and all roadkill data collected, identified to species and the location recorded using GPS. Three months of data before construction commences, analysed in relation to known seasonal variation elsewhere in Tasmania, is a minimum requirement."
To manage the risks to listed threatened species associated with roadkill, Gunns Limited must, in accordance with the EIMP:
- Immediately following the date of this approval, establish baseline monitoring of roadkill along the East Tamar highway and other major access routes for construction.
- Monitor roadkill and implement response strategies, as necessary, in accordance with the EIMP if the number of road killed mammals exceeds the trigger levels in the EIMP Module C.
Module C contains the work commissioned by Gunns to meet Condition 26. A consulting firm, Genames, was commissioned to undertake a 3-month baseline survey of roadkill on the East Tamar Highway. A report (Genames [February 2008] Baseline Roadkill Monitoring Programme for Bell Bay Alliance. Report prepared for Gunns Ltd) has been provided to DEWHA and is attached in Module C as Appendix F. Monitoring and response strategies are described in section 3b of Module C .
Minister Garrett’s flawed acceptance of Gunns’ work
Garrett stated in a Media Release on the 8 September 2008 “that every finalised module fully addresses all the relevant environmental matters set out in the 48 approval conditions for the proposed mill”. TAP has found that this is not the case for Condition 26 as there are significant deficiencies in Gunns’ survey methodology. If this is the case for a basic roadkill survey, what are Gunns and the Commonwealth government missing in their other assessments of the mill?
Deficiencies uncovered in Gunns’ survey
1. Three EPBC listed species were recorded by TAP but only two by Gunns. Gunns’ consultants did not record the Tasmanian devil. This may have been a reflection of their inadequate survey methodology.
2. Gunns only monitored once every four days instead of seven days per week. In Gunns’ report (Bell Bay Pulp Mill Environmental Impact Management Plan Module C: Mill site bulk earthworks, Table 3: absolute count of carcases by date within zones) Gunns' consultant surveyed on only 24 days of the 90 days recommended by the chief scientist, i.e. the survey was grossly incomplete. For time, data is incomplete for 73% of the recommended three month daily monitoring program. (i.e. (24/90 x 100 = 27%. 100 - 27 = 73%). See Page 1 of Appendix F, Module C located at page 53 of 62 last paragraph.
3. Gunns’ data were collected over only 8 kms of the total 33 kms that Gunns had nominated for monitoring for the first five of twenty four sampling days. For distance, Gunns’ data is 76% (i.e. 8 km of the 33 km) incomplete for this period. Gunns later extended the length of road sampled to 33kms from the sixth sampling run. So for half (i.e. nine of the 18 sampling zones which represents the vast majority of the distance - 25 km - not monitored of the 33 km) of the sampling zones they did not monitor for five of the 24 sampling days. See Figure 1 and Table 1, Appendix F of the Module C located at pages 58 and 59.
4. There is Gunns' data for part of only two of the five “major roads associated with construction, commissioning and operation” (Rec. 2.1.2.2) as required by the Chief Scientist. The five major access routes to the planned mill are:
- East Tamar Highway – George Town south to the mill*
- East Tamar Highway – Launceston to the pulp mill site*
- Batman Bridge road approach
- Exeter to Devonport
- West Tamar Highway
* Gunns only surveyed part of two of the major access routes to the mill. That is, from Bridport junction south to the mill site and from the mill site south to Dilston junction. This is especially surprising given that the workers accommodation facility is to be located at George Town. See Figure 1 map page 58 in Module C
TAP roadkill survey conclusions
Conclusions TAP conclude that Gunns has not complied with Condition 26. The main differences between the Gunns’ survey and the TAP survey are:
- Gunns surveyed for less time than the TAP surveyed.
- Gunns only surveyed part of two of the five major access routes to the mill.
- Three EPBC listed species were recorded by TAP but only two by Gunns. Gunns’ consultants did not record the Tasmanian devil.
TAP roadkill survey methodology
The survey was conducted daily from October 21 2007 until the 1 May 2008 by TAP Research to help ensure Gunns’ compliance with Condition 26.
Survey usually started at 8 am and continued for up to two hours, depending on road kill levels.
The surveys were conducted along both sides of 22 km’s of the East Tamar Highway from Darymple Road, Mt Direction, to Mowbray junction on the outskirts of Launceston.
All specimens were photographed (majority of photos were dated) and GPS located as per the Chief Scientist’s recommendations. The threatened species records were verified (all specimens were photographed and GPS located) by threatened species experts such as Dr Sally Bryant and the State Government’s Devil Taskforce.
The data was collated by date, species and location onto a spreadsheet prior to analysis.
TAP roadkill survey findings
The total road kill for the period from 21/10/007 to 1/5/08 was 655 animals and birds of all species. Species of interest (endangered, vulnerable, threatened) totals:
- Eastern Barred Bandicoot = 7 carcasses
- Spotted Tail Quoll = 5
- Tasmanian Devil = 3
- Masked Owl = 1
Eastern Barred Bandicoot – Listed Vulnerable under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999.
Spotted Tail Quoll - Rare on Tasmania's Threatened Species Protection Act 1995 and Vulnerable under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999.
Tasmanian Devil - Endangered on Tasmania's Threatened Species Protection Act 1995 and Vulnerable under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999.
Masked Owl - Endangered on Tasmania's Threatened Species Protection Act 1995
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| TAP Roadkill Survey Findings.pdf | 7.23 KB |
