Despite widespread opposition, forest giant Gunns Ltd is still pressing ahead with its proposed pulp mill in the pristine Tamar Valley in northern Tasmania. But the campaign against it shows no signs of going away.
Recently, Gunns told its shareholders it will have a new joint venture partner or financial backer for the project by the end of June. The Swedish pulp and paper company Sodra is one of the likely partners.
On June 12, the company released a statement on the mill. Sodra said it would be involved with the Gunns pulp mill only if it used chlorine free bleaching technology and used 100% plantation forest.
If met, these conditions would be a drastic change from the current plan for the mill. Gunns wants to include wood from old-growth forests and use chlorine-based bleaching technology.
The Wilderness Society (TWS) welcomed Sodra's statement but repeated its opposition to any mill in the Tamar Valley. TWS has launched an internet campaign asking Australians to express their concerns about the mill to Sodra.
The June 11 Australian said Sodra commissioned a Sydney-based consultant to report on the position of stakeholders, including opponents of the mill, before making a final commitment.
In the past few years local community group TAP Into a Better Tasmania (formerly called Tasmanians Against the Pulp Mill) has led a strong campaign against the proposed pulp mill. It still attracts 80 to 100 people to its fortnightly campaign meetings.
The mill has been delayed as the company fights for funding, final operating approval and the acquisition of land for a water pipeline.
TAP spokesperson Mike Adams told Green Left Weekly that although a generating plant for the mill had been shipped in, it is sitting in a shed on the wharf. Construction had not begun at the site, although the company had permits to clear the land and start building.
TAP has been running a boycott campaign, selling stickers saying "I no longer shop @ Gunns". Adams said community anger towards Gunns, as well as the recent downturn in the forestry industry, had led to Gunns sacking 13 staff at its main hardware store in Launceston. It has also closed its stores in the towns of Deloraine and Relba.
Pro-mill forces have also been active. The national forestry division secretary of the Construction Forestry Mining Energy Union (CFMEU), Michael O'Connor, told ABC radio on May 7 that he'd asked European forestry unions to lobby European banks to finance the mill.
The CFMEU said the public should now support the pulp mill because it would create jobs in a time of economic crisis.
The state ALP government has echoed this message. Premier David Bartlett told the May 12 Examiner: "I tell you what, we need that pulp mill now, we need the jobs it will bring, we need the investment it will bring. My message to [Gunns] today is to get on with it."
On June 5, TWS said that in response to the anti-mill campaign, "Gunns and lobbying interests have been picketing our offices, MPs' offices and the ANZ (Gunns' banker) demanding the pulp mill goes ahead."
ANZ is a target for the pro-mill forces because it decided against funding the mill a year ago after thousands of mill opponents pledged to boycott the bank.
TAP has pointed out that pollution from the pulp mill will cost thousands of local jobs in fine food production, wineries, agriculture, tourism and fishing.
An August 2007 report commissioned by Launceston Environment Centre estimated the mill would cost 700 jobs in the fishing industry and 1044 jobs in tourism. The total cost to the public (including health costs, government subsidies and the impact on other industries) would be about $3.3 billion, the report said.
Anti-mill campaigning by GetUp! and TWS has raised thousands of dollars for advertisements in Australian, European and Asian newspapers urging international banks not to fund the mill.
More than 15 major international corporations have now confirmed to TWS that they won't finance the mill.
On April 9, the Federal Court dismissed a legal challenge by Lawyers for Forests to the Federal government's approval of the mill. The group is awaiting a hearing date for an appeal.
Meanwhile, mill opponents are considering other legal challenges. The May 11 Australian reported that University of Tasmania senior law lecturer, Michael Stokes, said he had discovered a flaw in the government assessment process for the mill, potentially making it invalid.
Tasmania's Pulp Mill Assessment Act says a permit can be granted only after the consultants "undertake an assessment of the project ... against the (pulp mill) guidelines". However, the consultant hired by the government — Scandinavian firm Sweco Pic — conceded in its June 2007 assessment report that it did not assess the project against 15 of the mill guidelines.