Gunns Ltd continues to pursue its goal of a very large chemical pulp mill in the Tamar Valley.
You are invited to register your interest in being part of a potential class action seeking compensation for damages arising from Gunns Ltd planned pulp mill should it be built.
Tasmanians Against the Pulp Mill (TAP) has initiated the register to collate details of interested parties and to determine the extent of possible damages to the community and businesses if the proposed pulp mill proceeds.
Did you know that the State Government passed a law in 2007 that removes your right to appeal for compensation for any harm caused by Gunns’ planned pulp mill?
Report prepared by TAP, 2007.
Gunns Ltd and the Tasmanian Government both trumpet the economic benefits of an anticipated $6.7 billion boost to the state economy with 1617 new jobs from construction and 292 jobs long term.
A Better Australia and TAP conducted two workshops with approximately 120 members to plan strategies to stop the pulp mill.
Sorted outputs from TAP/ A Better Australia presentations on 21 Jan 2008
What concerns does audience have for the future?
Social issues
Unrealisable expectation
George Town municipality rate payers can now vote on four questions on the pulp mill elector poll. TAP recommends the following guide to voting.
Question 1 A - the approval process - Vote NO
We were told that the mill had to be fast tracked through Parliament for commercial reasons. But project finance has not been secured, the required studies are not complete, final federal approvals have not been given and construction is at least 6 months away.
The group ‘A Better Australia’ www.abetteraustralia.com has developed an overview of threats and opportunity costs of Gunns’ pulp mill proposal. It is also available as a high resolution down-loadable image below.
Lennon's priorities
Pulp mill apologists have represented the mill as an economic boon to the state but they have concealed the huge public subsidies currently being paid, and still to be paid, to help the project be ‘profitable’.
Our governments are paying hundreds of millions of dollars a year to prop up our unsustainable pulpwood industry, money that is sorely needed by our essential services, particularly health and education. If the subsidies being paid to support the pulp mill and the logging industry were used instead to properly fund our hospitals and schools, then we would have worthwhile health and education services populated by properly paid staff and equipped with modern technologies.
The Tasmanian Government has not investigated the financial risks of the mill to the State and documented the subsidies. The economic viability of the pulp mill has not been tested in public.
Below are three studies of the financial impact of Gunns' proposed pulp mill from individual members of the community, presented in an attempt to redress this important gap in the assessment.
The air in a valley
Launceston lies in the Tamar valley and is regularly subject to thermal inversions that trap particulates and smells. Gunns want to build the pulp mill in the Tamar valley.
Credentials
Dr Warwick Raverty has over 25 years experience in the pulp and paper industry. He has been a research manager and senior principal research scientist in the pulp and paper research group of Ensis (formerly CSIRO Forestry and Forest Products) for the past 7 years. Prior to joining CSIRO, Dr Raverty gained 20 years industrial experience in manufacture of pulp and paper as an independent consultant and also in a variety of research, technical and managerial roles as an employee of Amcor and Australian Paper Manufacturers.
