The Guardian 7 November, 2007
Gunns the carbon vandal
The Tasmanian Greens last week said that Premier Paul Lennon’s failure to answer questions in Parliament on whether Forestry Tasmania considered the potential financial value of Tasmania’s forests as carbon sinks prior to finalising the heads of agreement for wood supply for Gunns Ltd’s proposed pulp mill confirms that such analysis was not carried out.
Greens deputy leader and Climate Change Spokesperson Nick McKim MHA said that given the inevitability that a cost will be attached to carbon, Tasmania will either reap a massive financial benefit from not logging forests, or be saddled with a massive financial penalty for logging and releasing carbon.
Mr McKim also responded to Premier Lennon’s claims that the forest industry is emissions positive, saying that the calculations upon which he is relying massively underestimate the sector’s emissions for many reasons, including a failure to consider carbon loss from soils and sub-soils, and the use of a ratio based on merchantable log volumes rather than an actual assessment of carbon prior to harvesting.
"Forestry Tasmania is guilty of gross incompetence for not only missing a massive opportunity to maximise its financial return to taxpayers, but for failing to make Tasmania’s forests part of the solution to climate change rather than part of the problem", Mr McKim said.
"By failing to consider the financial implications of a cost on carbon prior to signing the pulp mill wood supply heads of agreement, Forestry Tasmania has ignored the biggest public policy challenge of our times."
Mr McKim accused Premier Paul Lennon of being "out to lunch" for failing to have taken legal advice to discover whether Gunns Ltd or the Tasmanian taxpayer would be liable for any future financial penalty for releasing carbon by logging for the pulp mill.
"Surely any half-way competent government would have considered financial liability in the context of a price on carbon prior to signing a 20-year deal which locks in emissions intensive industrial forestry."
Also last week the Greens gave notice to Parliament that they are demanding a state-wide plebiscite on the pulp mill, to be held in conjunction with the federal election.
Greens Shadow Pulp Mill spokesperson Kim Booth MHA explained that Tasmanians want an opportunity to make their views clear on the pulp mill, having been sidelined by the fast-tracked Tasmanian Parliamentary approval and the restricted Commonwealth assessment.
The questions to be asked in the proposed plebiscite would be the same as those put to Hobart City Council electors which produced an overwhelming anti-pulp mill result.
"Tasmanians have been denied their say on Gunns’ odious pulp mill but the ideal opportunity is just around the corner when people go to cast their votes for the federal election, as it would be easy to also conduct a plebiscite asking specifically for each person’s views for or against the mill", Mr Booth said.
"The only reason for not taking the public pulse on this hot issue would be if the government is determined to continue to ignore the people."