Gunns Ltd continues to pursue its goal of a very large chemical pulp mill in the Tamar Valley.
You are invited to register your interest in being part of a potential class action seeking compensation for damages arising from Gunns Ltd planned pulp mill should it be built.
Tasmanians Against the Pulp Mill (TAP) has initiated the register to collate details of interested parties and to determine the extent of possible damages to the community and businesses if the proposed pulp mill proceeds.
The next TAP public forum in the series will be on alternative futures for our forests.
When 7pm - 9.45pm Monday 25 February 2008.
Where Riverside Community Centre, off Brownfields Lane behind the Riverside High School, West Tamar High way, Launceston.
Speakers
Speakers
Mike Scott (engineer) email - Mike_Scott@acl.com.au
Frank Strie (master forester) email - schwabenforest@connect.net.au
Kim Booth (Greens MHA) email - kim.booth@parliament.tas.gov.au
Decisions by Forestry Tasmania about the State's forests centre on producing one main low value product – pulp wood, but at what cost?
The Tasmanian Government has not investigated the financial risks of the mill to the State and documented the subsidies. The economic viability of the pulp mill has not been tested in public.
Below are five documents of the financial impact of Gunns' proposed pulp mill that attempt to redress this important gap in the assessment.
1. Landowners to carry risks of Gunns' pipeline (added September 2008)
The benefits of the pulp mill are spruiked by the Government but:
Wood for biofuels; a missed opportunity
Summary
Throughout the pulp mill saga, the politicians have assumed that there is no alternative use for Tasmania's plantation resource. But the rapid change in concern for global warming and greenhouse gas emissions has brought biofuels very much to the fore.
The only source of renewable biomass capable of replacing the amount of fossil fuel required to meet greenhouse gas reduction targets without detracting from food production is plantation forest grown on low value land.
A forest biofuels industry to produce fuels from wood in Tasmania would be substantially more beneficial than pulp at every level, economically, environmentally and socially. However, no one is going to invest in biofuels when the forests have already been promised to a powerful monopoly.
Ignoring the prospects for a biofuels industry exposes the failings of both major parties and demonstrates how short sighted the 20year contract with Gunns is.
Economic and planning risks have been updated in Pulp finance.
Tasmanian Roundtable for Sustainable Industries report
The Tasmanian Roundtable for Sustainable Industries report (August 2007) analyses both the costs and the benefits of the proposed pulp mill. To-date, Gunns’ Allan Consulting report and the Government’s ITS Global have been limited to only the possible benefits of the project.
The Roundtable report is a conservative analysis of both the costs and benefits of the proposed mill. Further, the model used to examine the profitability of the mill can be found at www.lec.org.au where the model can be downloaded and the volatile nature of the proposal explored.
The risks of the Tamar valley pulp mill for investors, the community, tourism, fishing, farming, businesses, taxpayers and the government are described in Pulp finance.
The TAP Community Impacts Response submission to the Resource Planning and Development Commission (RPDC) takes a whole-of-systems perspective and comments on all impacts of the proposed mill and wood supply and not just those within the terms of reference as given to the RPDC by the Government.
No 280: TAP (CIR) submission 741Kb
1. Fact sheets and charts showing the essentials
TAP and SAS is producing a series of fact sheets and charts describing significant impacts of the proposed pulp mill and its wood supply on the economy, environment and population of Tasmania. These impacts are largely being ignored by the Government and the proponent.
