No to Gunns’ pulp mill! Invest for sustainability and jobs!

The environmental case against Gunns’ proposed pulp mill is so overwhelming, that only Gunns’ own commercial interests and the blind support it is getting from the Lennon government are keeping it afloat.

The Tasmanian government dare not risk a truly independent assessment of the mill’s viability, and is subverting environment and planning processes to get its way.

What are the facts about the mill?

• It would use 80% native forest timber at start up, threatening habitats of endangered species like the wedge-tail eagle and the orange-bellied parrot;
• It would use 26 billion litres of fresh water a year, adding to the risk that if the drought continues Launceston could be forced to adopt household water restrictions;
• It would pump toxins like dioxin into Bass Strait, threatening the very existence of the fishing industry, marine life and tourism in northern Tasmania;
• According to the Australian Medical Association, air pollution would bring an increase in respiratory diseases, already a problem in the Tamar Valley;
• As the timber for the mill is increasingly sourced from plantations, prime farmland would be used up and food production would decrease; and
• The mill would increase heavy semi-trailer traffic on roads in the area leading to the mill, increasing air and noise pollution and the risk of serious accidents.

What about jobs?

The only arguments in favour of the mill that have any weight with working people are that it will create jobs and increased export income for Tasmania. Unfortunately, the timber division of the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union continues to lend its weight to this argument, which is false to the core.

Gunns claim that the mill will directly create 300 jobs, as well as having a flow-on effect into the local economy. But how many jobs would be lost in agriculture, fishing and tourism?

Gunns’ argument gives us an impossible choice—either jobs or the environment. Fortunately, we don’t have to accept this choice, because there’s an alternative.

Many more jobs would be guaranteed by a publicly owned timber industry based on sustainable plantations, with a focus on value-added processing by locals mills, such as processing timber for furniture and housing. Access to specialty timbers for craftspeople from certain native forests would be ensured. Ending old-growth logging would create long-term jobs in tourism and forest conservation.

It would make it possible for workers involved in old-growth logging to be retrained on full pay, with no threat to their livelihoods.

Tasmania could also build on its clean, green reputation by further exploring options for researching and developing renewable energy sources.

Of course, such a plan requires the expansion of the public sector and the reversal of the policies of privatisation that both the Coalition and the ALP support.

But that’s the only way we can meet the twin goals of sustainability and work for all. Only with such policies can we begin to put people and the planet before production for private profit.

Build the alternative for sustainability and social justice.

In 2006 Gunns made $87 million profit, while Forestry Tasmania made almost none. The Lennon government’s collusion with Gunns to increase the wealth of John Gay and his shareholders at the expense of the great majority of Tasmanians is one more argument why we urgently have to build a people’s political alternative to Liberal and Labor.

The Socialist Alliance is committed to building that alternative, not just at election time but in all struggles for environmental sustainability and social justice.

Join us!

Download leaflet protesting Gunn's new pulp mill