It's Greens v. Gunns

It's Gunns v. Greens next week (August 29) , and to rev up the debate, herewith some logs, damn logs and statistics courtesy of Kate Carnell and Eddie Storace...

Kate kicks it off with this contribution to Crikey:

13. GREENS VS GUNNS - KATE CARNELL HITS BACK

Crikey's recent thoughts on Gunns, Gerry Harvey and the approaching EGM are here:
http://www.crikey.com.au/business/2003/08/05/20030805gunnsegm.html

And former ACT Chief Minister Kate Carnell, now head of the National Association of Forest Industries, writes:

"Crikey you seem surprised that the Gunns share price has gone up to a record $12.40 and that the Tasmanian Government continues to support the timber industry. Well here are some statistics that might help you understand. On July 31, The Australian Bureau of Statistics released "Australia's Environment : Issues and Trends" and here is what they said about Tasmanian forests:

*Forest covered 3.1million hectares or 46% of Tasmania in 2001 - the second highest proportion of any State or Territory

*Almost one-third (0.9 million hectares or 30%) of Tasmania's forests were in conservation reserves in 2002

*Regional Forest Agreements have added one million hectares of old growth forests to conservation reserves across Australia with a good proportion of this being in Tasmania

*Tasmania's rate of land clearing was the second lowest of any State or Territory

*Tasmania had the highest proportion of people employed in the forest sector (5,430 people).

Crikey , these are ABS statistics - not industry figures.

Gunns is Tasmania's largest private sector company, making significant contributions to employment and to economic growth . Export growth to Japan and China is providing new dollars to the Tasmanian economy as is Gunns' extremely successful Plantation prospectus which attracted so many investors that it had to close before the end of the financial year.

There is no doubt that Gunns are performing well from an environmental as well as economic perspective and that is why investors and the government are so supportive. It is a great pity that some elements of the green movement seem intent on undermining this very successful AUSTRALIAN company.

Regards
Kate Carnell
National Assoc of Forest Industries

To which, Eddie Storace has repied...

Crikey!

Kate Carnell has grossly misrepresented Australian Bureau of Statistics figures in her quest to support Gunns land clearing in Tasmania. These figures were sourced from a questionable and secretive agency (Forestry Tasmania) in a debate that Kate conveniently forgets is centred on OLD growth forests on taxpayer’s land.

The ABS document ‘Australia’s Environment: Issues and Trends’ says a lot more than Kate wishes to relay. Kate forgot to include in her 3.1 million hectares of forests: 1 million hectares of private forests and 2 hundred thousand hectares of plantations.

Eighty per cent of Tasmanians (‘Tasmania Together’ figures) are asking that only particular sections of the old growth forests on Crown land should be spared the bulldozer’s blade (this does not include vast areas of re-growth native forest).

Also Kate’s figures are 2 years old so what’s left now? Will mono-culture plantations be allowed to mature to 500 years like the forests they have replaced? Kate says we are the second lowest in the land clearing stakes but this is misleading and nothing to brag about when you consider Tasmania’s small area that equates to the highest per capita land clearing rates in Australia or in simple language-10 footy fields per day!(Based on Forest Practices Board figures. The Forest Practices Board annual report on page 21 says since 1996, 72,000 hectares of native forest will have been cleared mostly for plantations. In footy fields that equates to 50,000 footy fields! This figure is just for forestry, it does not include agriculture, suburban expansion etc.