Onya Barry. Keep playing the blame game.
Don’t confront reality old son.
You just keep riding that big crumbling forest industry into the ground.

Looking forward to the next act in the show.

And what do the banks hope to gain. 75,000 ha of land with plantations. I understand that the land is often the land Gunns deemed unfit for plantation but like all land it will have a value. A relatively new automated sawmilling business. And perahps a new loan to the purchaser.

Who looses. The investors in the trees who have valueless FEA shares. Those who had jobs althought they might come back if a buyer can be found.

I suppose they will learn, the question is when.

Gee Barry, I never saw you write an article when we at Auspine were in the shit.  That’s because you and a group of others were busy backing that great Tasmanian company FEA. 

It’s always amazed me how readily the demise of Auspine has been accepted by the same people who claim that the pulp mill is vital for Tasmanian jobs.

Auspine called for a transparent process of mediation.  You and your organisation chose not to actively support that process.  Yes it would have flushed out a lot of the muck that Forestry Tas and it JV partner was putting Auspine through but it also would have saved jobs.

Now that FEA is smashed, what is Plan B Barry?

It is probably useful to remember that back in 2007 FT decided to back FEA against Auspine because it had such a secure and sustainable future.

Remember FT’s MD Bob Gordon:

“…we had to make a decision on what we thought was the best long-term solution in the sustainable sense.” 

“Separate from Forestry Tasmania or the GBE, what we had to do as individuals ... was act in the best interests of the softwood joint venture entity, taking into account that one of our objectives is to have a long-term sustainable industry that is able to withstand competition from all other sorts of players.”

“We took the best advice available to us acting in the long term and in what we believe to be the long term interests of the softwood joint venture and, more broadly, the sustainability of the softwood sector.”

Perhaps he had been influenced by FEA spin:

“When fully operational, the new mill will employ approximately 120 people and will provide a significant additional employment and economic boost to northern Tasmania,” he said. “In addition, as a direct result of the technology being utilised on the site, the on-going competitiveness, viability and security of Tasmania’s plantation based forest industry will be strengthened. Furthermore, an operation of this capacity will mean that we can provide a long-term, modern and dynamic environment where people who choose to work in the processing industry can pursue a clearly defined and rewarding career path.”

How long did that sustainable, secure, viable, competitive, high-tech, modern, dynamic and rewarding future last?  Two years.

Clearly the fact that Auspine had been running successful processing operations in Tasmania for more than thirty years employing literally thousands of Tasmanians was not sufficient evidence of sustainability in the face of so called “expert opinion” about a mill proposal from a business that, as Mr John Lawrence pointed out, never made any profits from sawmilling - only MIS’s.

Why didn’t you mention any of these issues and your role in it all Barry?

Don’t be fooled by the spin.  There can only be one jarvis.

x

Is there a possibility that Gunns large shareholding in FEA has anything to do with Bazza going into bat on this issue.
He wasn’t there for Auspine, Frenchpine,the Burnie Paper mills, the forest contractors but all of a sudden he is there for FEA.
I thought that he was supposed to represent Timber Communities, not Tax avoidance Companies.

I hope poor bastards, the real workers and meat in this sandwich, like Dean (#3) can organise themselves to pay a visit to Mr. Chipman and his cronies to ask “what happened to Latham’s bailout offer?” and “who’s going next?”

It’s about time the REAL timber industry WORKERS made their peers accountable before the only forestry jobs left are those currently occupied by the likes of Barry Chipman, crf, hugoagogo, Mark Wybourne, mjf, Shane Weatherall, anita, mary and co.

Gee, who else in the timber industry is going to get a regular column in the Examiner?

The paper must be growing in size.

Maybe that’s the plan, to create demand for pulp locally?

It’s tragic to see a “great” Tassie company treated with the contempt you normally accord to the Great Western Tiers.

FEA’s big mistake, Bazza, was relying on private charity when it’s the public stuff that is your industry’s bread and butter.  The Tas Govt would have forgiven their debts and loaned them more, as they always do with FT. 

The bloody banks, however, are commercial players and now expect to be repaid!

Stage a mass rally of all woodchip spin merchants, Bazza, and demand an immediate end to all financial accountability. You are being treated no better than common leeches.

John Hayward

Well Barry, after this effort you really should stick to the stuff you know.  The MIS business model, reliant as it is on forward sales to fund current liabilities, is fundamentally flawed.

http://imagesignal.comsec.com.au/asxdata/20100504/pdf/01061131.pdf

Blaming the receiver or the banks when TCA and FIAT were warned this would happen speaks volumes about your motives.  The reality is that if you were truly concerned about “timber communities”, you would have backed sustainable and profitable companies like Auspine (4).

I can hardly wait for Terry’s article.

It really is amazing that Tasmania’s forestry industry has cultivated such champions as our ‘Bazza?’
No doubt he is right up there with Lester Barker, helping to hold together the forestry Flag of Fortune that only goes to the management of both Forestry Tasmania and Gunns Ltd?