Turnbull May Delay Pulp Mill Decision

24 August 2007

Australian Environment Minister Malcolm Turnbull has signalled he may not make a decision on Tasmania's controversial proposed pulp mill before the federal election.
Turnbull said he would not be bullied into making a hasty decision on environmental approval for the $2 billion facility planned for the Tamar Valley by timber company Gunns Ltd, and backed by the Tasmanian Government.
The federal environment department has recommended approving the facility and Turnbull this week invited 10 days of public comment before deciding.
"I have made no decision," he said in a radio interview on 22 August. "I can't tell you (when) ... I don't know when the election's going to be.
"The great mistake that people make is that I am on some kind of timetable. I am not. I am not going to be rushed into making a hasty decision. Equally, I'm not going to be bullied into not making a decision at all."
Turnbull would be unable to make the decision once an election is called. Prime Minister John Howard is expected to call the poll after next month's APEC summit.
On 19 August, Turnbull invited comment on the proposed decision and conditions recommended to him by his department relating to the pulp mill project. He said that while the Federal Court recently endorsed the rigour and objectivity of the Australian Government’s assessment process, he wanted to ensure that there was as much transparency and accountability as possible in the decision-making process.
“It is important to point out that the commonwealth’s independent assessment of the pulp mill was triggered by the abandonment of the previous assessment process being conducted by the Resource Planning and Development Commission of Tasmania (RPDC) on 14 March.”
The RPDC was accredited by both the Tasmanian and Australian Governments to consider and make recommendations upon all of the environmental and planning issues, most of which are solely under Tasmanian jurisdiction.
“It is important to remember that only a small number of the environmental issues associated with the proposed mill come under commonwealth jurisdiction,” Turnbull said.
“As far as forestry is concerned, as Federal Court Justice Marshall made clear in his recent decision, section 75(2B) of the Act precludes the Australian Government from considering any claimed adverse impacts of forestry operations associated with the sourcing of timber for the mill so long as those forestry operations are undertaken in accordance with the Regional Forest Agreement.”

Further Investment Needed to Capitalise on Plantations

A Bureau of Rural Science report shows the plantation resource supplies two -thirds of Australia’s wood production, but warns further investment is needed to support new processing facilities.
The report – Australia’s Plantation Log Supply 2005-2049 – says the industry requires further investment in long rotation plantations to continue its significant economic contribution, particularly in regional areas such as the New South Wales South West slopes, Green Triangle region and southeast Queensland.
The report once again confirms that despite a booming plantation wood supply, the wood resource available in a number of regions is still not large enough to support new investment in processing,” the chief executive of the Australian Plantation Products and Paper Industry Council (A3P) Neil Fisher said.
“It isn't just about the national numbers; it is about achieving the necessary scale in each region where plantation growing is significant,” Fisher said. “We need to increase the wood supply from long rotation plantations to support new investment in internationally competitive processing facilities such as sawmills and particleboard plants.”
The Government has implemented A3P’s proposal for new taxation arrangements enabling immature plantations to be traded prior to harvest. A3P encourages investment companies to offer innovative investments in long rotation plantations based on a number of different investors buying and selling the plantation during its life and providing returns from the increasing value of the plantation during its life.
The report also highlights a decline in Australia’s softwood pulpwood supply from around 2020. A3P believes this supply decline could be topped up by establishing new long rotation plantations now. While the plantations wouldn’t reach maturity by 2020 they would produce pulpwood in the required timeframe.

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