A coalition of 10 Tasmanian family-owned sawmills has publicly called on the Tasmanian Government to commit to their security through access to the Tasmanian hardwood plantation resource. Source: Timberbiz
The resource was specifically established to secure the future of those mills after successive lockups of Tasmanian State-owned forests through the RFA, TCFA and the TFA.
“The Tasmanian industry was pulled kicking and screaming into supporting those lockups by successive Tasmanian Governments,” a spokesperson for the coalition, Terry Edwards, said.
“They only supported them due to assurances that the plantation estate would be created and managed to specifically provide a resource to those mills to support an incrementally increased reliance on plantation wood.
“We have met with the Premier with the assistance of Independent MHA, John Tucker and asked Mr Rockliff to ensure that those commitments are met.
“We’ve asked that these long-established mills, mostly operating in regional communities, are not thrown to the wolves in an unfair tender process that appears to have been established specifically to advantage the Victorian Government-owned company Australian Sustainable Hardwoods Pty Ltd (ASH). ASH has financed the purchase of the Western Junction Sawmill in Northern Tasmania with a soft loan to a ‘related company’ the details of which are secret.”
“Tasmanian private companies cannot be expected to compete on price with the Victorian Government treasury.
“This is a disgraceful misuse of a State Governments’ superior economic strength to destroy a Tasmanian industry and thousands of local Tasmanian jobs. The Tasmanian Government must stand up and be counted and intervene in this process now.
“We understand that ASH is currently getting approximately 40 truckloads of wood a week from Western Junction and importing them to Victoria to supply their mill. This is the fallout from the decision of Victorian Premier, Dan Andrews to close the Victorian native forest industry. It is appalling that the Andrews Government has deprived its own Victorian sawmill of its wood supply and is now threatening the future of the Tasmanian wood processing sector by buying native forest and plantation logs in Tasmania using inflated prices that are beyond the sensible economic reach of local mills.
“The Premier and the Minister for Resources Felix Ellis had been long on rhetoric in this space saying they want Tasmanian logs to be processed by Tasmanians.
“But what will they do when one mill, Western Junction Sawmill, seemingly favoured by their own GBE, Sustainable Timber Tasmania, is totally funded by the Victorian Government-owned company, ASH?
“Will the Premier and the Minister match their rhetoric with action and guarantee the local family-owned mills with long-term contracts that they will be provided fair access to the resource created for them on reasonable commercial terms in accordance with their commitment during the most recent State election?”
The mills have also proposed to the Tasmanian Government the establishment of an independent pricing oversight body to regulate the pricing of wood in much the same manner as occurs for electricity.
Mr Edwards said this would ensure that STT receives a fair price for its logs and would preclude gouging of prices, which is currently occurring with STT seeking increases in the order of 25% to 35% on top of increases of 7% for inflation.
“This will significantly increase the price of home construction when passed on to builders and exacerbate the social housing crisis facing the State,” he said.
Mr Edwards said STT’s own Sustainable Yield Report Number 6 demonstrated it could only provide the minimum legally required contracted volume of 137, 000 cubic metres of sawlog each year with a combination of native forest and plantation logs.
“So, any logs that are provided to a Victorian Government-owned mill will mean fewer logs for Tasmanian mills and that will threaten the viability of those mills and their capacity to maintain employment,” he said.
“The mills I represent are almost exclusively operating in regional areas such as Smithton, the Huon Valley and in Bridgewater.
“The loss of these mills through the export of the jobs and value-adding processes to Victoria will be hard felt in those regional, challenged socio-economic areas where alternative employment options are few and far between just to prop up jobs destroyed by the Victorian Government.
“We have undertaken a forensic examination of the ownership structure of ASH and the Western Junction Sawmill in Northern Tasmania. It has revealed comprehensively that the Victorian Government owns 99% of Heyfield ASH Holdings that in turn owns ASH who have totally funded the soft loan to purchase the Western Junction Sawmill.
“Has the Tasmanian Government or STT similarly ascertained the ownership structure before agreeing to a contract relationship for the supply of Tasmanian forest products to the Victorian Government owned business to the exclusion of locally owned businesses?
“If they have not, they are seriously derelict in their due diligence processes, so we have to assume this has been done with a deliberate strategy in mind.
“Will the Tasmanian Government allow STT to run a blatantly unfair Expression of Interest and Tender process where it is almost preordained that the winner will be the Victorian Government that can use its vast access to money to nullify any commercially sensible bids from local businesses and thereby send Tasmanian jobs and wealth offshore?
“We call for an immediate commitment from the Premier that this farce will not be permitted to run and that the Tasmanian Government will act to protect Tasmanian businesses and jobs. We seek that the Premier respond positively to the requests presented to him in a meeting on 15 June.”
