Open letter to timber workers about the pulp mill

An open letter to Tasmanian timber workers about Gunns proposed pulp mill

Dear fellow workers,
Socialist Alliance is totally committed to workers’ rights. But we are also totally opposed to Gunns’ pulp mill.

We’re not against all pulp mills, but we are against this one. It would poison the environment, endanger other industries in the region, and put other workers’ livelihoods at risk. More jobs would be lost in industries adversely affected by the pulp mill than would be created.
And it would not provide long-lasting benefits to timber workers and their families.

The only lasting winners would be Gunns and its big shareholders, who would trash the forests and when there’s not enough profit to be made, pull out, leaving workers and local communities in the lurch.
Gunns' mill would pour cancer-causing chemicals, furans and dioxins, into Bass Strait and pump more than 100 million tonnes of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.

The mill threatens the organic status of Tamar Valley vineyards and farms. And it threatens people’s health so much that the Australian Medical Association opposes it.

The economic report commissioned by the Tasmanian Roundtable for Sustainable Industries found that even though the pulp mill may add 280 jobs to the Tasmanian economy, it would be at a cost of 216 lives lost in extra deaths from respiratory disease and log truck accidents.

In addition, the negative impact of the pulp mill would cost 1044 jobs in the tourism industry and at least 175 jobs in the local fishing businesses.
Then there are the government subsidies, state and federal. The subsidies to be handed to Gunns for the mill would far exceed the benefits reaped from increased company tax payments.

The direct subsidies paid to the pulp mill for associated infrastructure, feasibility studies, new roads and rail would total $30 million from the state government and $65 million from the federal government. Canberra would also hand Gunns a subsidy of $242 million through the tax benefits of plantation managed investment schemes over the mill's 24-year life.

That money could and should be spent on creating sustainable timber-based industries and jobs. Since 2004 more than 300 jobs have been shed in the Tasmanian forestry industry and highly mechanised projects like this pulp mill will continue the trend.

Gunns has no ongoing commitment to timber workers. We already see this when log truck drivers have their contracts ditched, leaving them with huge debts to pay for the trucks that they are in the middle of buying.

Gunns doesn’t care about environmental impacts but working people must. We workers would have to live with the environmental and economic consequences of a bad development like the pulp mill.
If big businesses such as Gunns really were the “friends” of the workers and the environment, they wouldn’t be building this pulp mill, but follow scientific and industry best practice. That would mean a plantation-based, chlorine-free, closed-loop pulp mill that doesn't use a Kraft (sulphur-based) pulping process.

In this election the only alternative to the non-choice that the major parties offer (either jobs or the environment) is for timber workers, environmentalists and industry experts to develop their own plans for a sustainable, forest-based industry that provides jobs while protecting our environment and our communities.

Timber workers should demand that their union adopt this approach and stop simply backing whatever Gunns, the timber industry and the Lennon state government proposes.

That’s what the Socialist Alliance stands for. It’s why we’re standing in the present election. Stop this pulp mill, and let’s build an alternative future for Tasmania’s timber workers, environment and communities!

Susan Austin Matt Holloway

Authorised by: Dick Nichols, 23 Abercrombie Street, Chippendale NSW 2008

Media Release: SA candidates release open letter to timber workers

MEDIA RELEASE

Socialist Alliance election candidates release open letter to timber workers

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

16th November 2007

Socialist Alliance candidates for Franklin and Denison have released an open letter to timber workers explaining why Socialist Alliance supports workers but is opposed to the Tamar Valley pulp mill.

In launching the open letter, Susan Austin, Socialist Alliance Candidate for Denison in the upcoming Federal elections, said “We’re not against all pulp mills, but we are against this one. It would poison the environment, endanger other industries in the region, and put other workers’ livelihoods at risk. More jobs would be lost in industries adversely affected by the pulp mill than would be created.”

“Gunns has no ongoing commitment to timber workers. We already see this when log truck drivers have their contracts ditched, leaving them with huge debts to pay for the trucks that they are in the middle of buying,” said Matthew Holloway, Socialist Alliance candidate for Franklin. “In addition, we know that Gunns doesn’t care about environmental impacts, but working people must. We workers would have to live with the environmental and economic consequences of a bad development like the pulp mill,” Holloway said.

Both candidates will be attending tomorrow’s anti-pulp mill march organised by The Wilderness Society. “We have been helping to promote this rally because it is important that the large majority of people in Tasmania and throughout Australia voice their opinions publicly. We expect the incoming government will eventually have to listen to the people, because the people are not giving up!” said Austin.

Susan Austin Ph: 0418 643 133

Matthew Holloway Ph: 0419 582 372

Letter to the editor - Drop charges against Weld Angel!

I breathed a sigh of relief when I found out that Tasmania Police were withdrawing their claim for costs from the Weld Valley forest activist and 'angel' Alanna Beltram. But the relief didn't last long - the Police Commissioner said he wants to change the laws so that police can regularly charge forest activists for the costs of attending protests! And Forestry Tasmania are still pursuing their compensation claim, obviously having learnt a few lessons from Gunns about how to tie activists up in ongoing court cases. These people (Gunns 20 defendants and our Weld Angel) are highly respected by many in Tasmania for devoting themselves to saving our precious old-growth forests from profit-driven destruction. We cannot stand by and watch the authorities further erode our civil liberties. It should not become possible for the police to determine that a healthy democracy is something that we cannot afford. That is when we become a police state.

Susan Austin
Socialist Alliance candidate for Denison

Note: See http://www.greenleft.org.au/2007/727/37711 for latest article by Susan Austin "Weld Angel faces Court"

Tasmania pulp mill outrage

Alby Dallas, Hobart

23 March 2007

On March 22, some 1500 protesters on Parliament Lawns denounced Tasmanian Labor Premier Paul Lennon's push to fast-track the building of a $1.5 billion pulp mill in Bell Bay, in northern Tasmania's Tamar Valley.

On March 14, logging giant Gunns Ltd had withdrawn its pulp mill proposal from the Resource Planning and Development Commission (RPDC) assessment process (through which all developments of state significance must pass), claiming it was too slow. Lennon moved quickly to introduce tailor-made legislation for a new approval process that precludes public hearings and is based on an assessment by private consultants within a limited time frame.

The protesters' chants could be heard inside parliament, where the House of Representatives was discussing Lennon's bill. The bill was passed with Liberal and Labor party support after just 14 hours' debate.

The mood of the crowd, which was more than double the size of a protest the previous week, was outrage. "Premier Lennon's mill approval legislation stinks and is a serious erosion of due process and democratic values in Tasmania", said Vica Bayley, spokesperson for the Wilderness Society (TWS). "This legislation has one purpose: to approve Gunns' controversial pulp mill with minimum fuss, limited scrutiny and no public involvement."

Michael Morris from Tasmanians Against the Pulp Mill described the huge drain the pulp mill would have on local water resources, which combined with declining average rainfall will create ongoing problems for the region.

Gunns says that each year it will require 26 billion litres of water and discharge 30 billion litres of effluent containing organochlorins into the Bass Strait. According to TWS, "Highly toxic persistent organic pollutants, such as dioxins and furans, will be discharged into Bass Strait, which has limited water movement, where it can take up to 160 days for flushing of water to occur".

Lee Bell from the National Toxics Network last year accused Gunns of contradicting global scientific opinion by falsely claiming that the bioaccumulation of dioxins and furans in marine animals is not an issue.

According to the Australian Medical Association, the outdated and polluting technology that the mill will use will result in more people dying from air-quality related diseases. At the rally, Gardening Australia's Peter Cundall likened the mill to a rotting compost heap where pristine wilderness went in one end and waste came out the other.

Geoff Law from TWS said in January, "The Pulp Mill Task Force has masqueraded as a public information body, but has mainly been providing blatant propaganda services to Gunns' proposed pulp mill at taxpayers' expense". It is estimated that the PMTF has received in excess of $6 million in government funding so far.

In late February, Gunns asked Lennon to speed the assessment process up. Legally, no minister may direct or order the RPDC in a way that changes or influences the outcomes, but on March 22, Christopher Wright, RPDC chairperson and former Supreme Court judge, made headlines by claiming that he was pressured by the premier to complete the assessment by July 31, or risk his role in the RPDC process being undermined by possible new legislation.

Wright's disclosure of the time line he was given for the process revealed that the premier intended to put the mill development proposal to parliament for approval, even if the RPDC found that the proposal did not meet the guidelines. Wright claimed that the pressure exerted on him was such that he offered his resignation.

In parliament on March 21, Lennon denied that he had exerted any undue pressure. However, the Greens and the Liberal Party requested that Attorney-General Steve Kons ask the director of public prosecutions to investigate. Kons refused to do so, claiming that the premier had done nothing wrong.

While state Liberal leader Will Hodgman accused the attorney-general on March 22 of being derelict in his duties, the Tasmanian Greens' Peg Putt said that a motion of no confidence in the attorney-general, put by the Greens, was voted down by Labor and Liberal.

Now that the bill has passed through the lower house, anti-pulp mill campaigners are urging people to lobby the upper house MPs. Environmentalists are worried that the pulp mill will set a precedent whereby other projects, such as Walker Corporation's proposed development at Ralph's Bay, will be fast-tracked without going through the proper assessment and approvals process.

A major protest rally is being planned for Launceston on April 1.

From: Australian News, Green Left Weekly issue #

http://www.greenleft.org.au/2007/704/36565