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A Message to Our Readers

On 9 January, Business Review Australia published a company profile about Gunns Limited, a forestry company with deep roots in Tasmania's hardwood and softwood manufacturing industry

TAGS: gunns limited



17 Jan 2012 Allie Schratz

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

(SAN DIEGO, 16 JANUARY 2012) – On 9 January, Business Review Australia published a company profile about Gunns Limited, a forestry company with deep roots in Tasmania’s hardwood and softwood manufacturing industry.

WDM Group produces profiles from the point of view of the company, where its policies and projects are explained by its top executives. These profiles are then available for use as promotional material by companies such as Gunns. We have run hundreds of these profiles since the magazine’s inception to give readers an inside look at some of Australia and New Zealand’s biggest industry players.

However, this profile in particular ignited several Australians who do not support Gunns’ “sustainable” pulp mill project plans. In reply, we are sharing their side of the story:

Residents of Tasmania’s Tamar Valley and nearby city of Launceston have firmly stated that the building of Gunns Limited’s proposed Bell Bay Pulp Mill would be detrimental to the serene, protected landscape bordering the Tamar River. The picturesque valley is filled with locally-owned businesses and wineries, including a vast conservation area and wetlands reserve.

The divide between Gunns and the people of Tasmania was initiated by the removal of the RPDC (Regional Planning and Development Council), a body of resident representatives and environmental activists, from the Tasmanian government meetings surrounding the pulp mill proposal. The RPDC was working with the government to ensure that the pulp mill, first proposed in 2004, was thoroughly assessed for all sociological, environmental, economical and health-related impacts its operations would have on the surrounding region.

Upon realising that their project proposal would not be endorsed by the Tassie community, Gunns – then headed up by John Gay – dropped the RPDC from its negotiations. With the support of then-Premier Paul Lennon, the company drafted its own Pulp Mill Assessment Act in 2007 to speed up the approval process. Shortly thereafter, to the dismay of the RPDC and community members, Gay and Lennon’s efforts proved successful.

The community had voiced several issues with the proposal:

Tourism. According to a dossier drafted in November 2010 by the Friends of the Tamar Valley, the Launceston-Tamar Valley region is Tasmania’s third most-visited destination and tourism brings in approximately AU$465 million annually.

“[Gunns] has taken into account nothing about the businesses or tourism that will be lost,” said Glennis Sleurink, a Launceston resident who began attending Tasmanians Against the Pulp Mill (TAP) meetings four years ago.

Location. The pulp mill’s name was also misleading: according to Sleurink, the proposed location for the mill was actually situated six kilometres from Bell Bay – on a nature reserve.

“The pulp mill site is at Longreach, not the Bell Bay industrial zone as they constantly state. It is approximately 1km across the river from Rowella, an area zoned rural residential, NOT industrial. Rowella is full of family homes, vineyards, orchards, (some organic), dairy, cattle, horse breeding and training, all of which will be adversely affected by having a pulp mill in their midst,” said Stephani Taylor, the spokesperson for Women Against the Mill and a public officer for Pulp the Mill.

Environment. According to Wilderness Society Tasmania campaign manager Vica Bayley, the proposed location is “the worst possible area in the state” to operate a mill due to the level of population, diversity of the natural valley, and the existing air pollution problems. In addition, the area of the Bass Strait where Gunns proposed to dispose of toxins is extremely staid, threatening the marine environment.

Economy. While Gunns forecast the creation of 3,000 jobs at the pulp mill, ITS Global argued that its operations would cause the tourism and fishing industries to lose more than 1,000 workers.

Apart from the pulp mill, according to Bayley, Gunns is making strides in the right direction.

“Over the last year, [Gunns] has gone through a pretty comprehensive restructure, where it’s shifted out of native forest [processing] to plantation-based harvesting. This has been very welcomed [and] we want the entire industry to move towards this model,” Bayley said.

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Allie Schratz
Business Review Australia

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