Christine Milne (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I am very pleased to hear through you, Mr Deputy President Parry, that Senator Colbeck aligns himself to Forestry Tasmania and to the Aprin Logging deal in relation to the purchase of Triabunna. I think, when the truth comes out about this, everybody will be running a mile from having anything to do with it.

What have we got? We have got a scenario where Gunns wants to sell the woodchip mill and needed to do so by 30 June and could not get anyone in the forestry industry to buy it. The forestry industry wanted that woodchip mill to continue in complete defiance of the forest principles process, which is meant to be resolving the longstanding conflict in Tasmania's forests.

Then what have we got? We have got Forestry Tasmania, a government business enterprise which is supposed to be support­ing the Tasmanian government in the forest principles process, doing some deal with Aprin Logging to provide them with a wood supply so that it would be viable for them to purchase the woodchip mill. Then we discover that the Tasmanian department of economic development has let it be known that should Aprin Logging ask for a loan it would be favourably looked upon.

And what do we find? They then apply for a loan from the Tasmanian government to buy a woodchip mill for which Forestry Tasmania has given them supply, and now we discover in the Tasmanian parliament that Forestry Tasmania has entered into a profit-sharing arrangement with this very same company. The joke about that is that a profit-sharing arrangement will be a loss-sharing arrangement. Forestry Tasmania has posted yet another loss, another $6 million loss. It is lose, lose, lose. It is in debt and, if it were a private company, it would be insolvent. It has had to get letters of comfort from the Tasmanian Treasurer in order to even keep operating. That is the state of Forestry Tasmania.

Aprin Logging, we now discover, does not have the resources in order to buy this mill; it has done it through a shelf company, which has set up Fibre Plus. It has got 24 shareholders and a capital of $24. A $24 shelf company buys a woodchip mill with a loan from the Tasmanian government promised with Forestry Tasmania putting up the wood supply agreement and, at the very same time, they are in negotiations with the Commonwealth saying, ‘Get out the Commonwealth chequebook; Tasmania needs the cash here to protect our forests.’

Who is being deceptive here? In the forest principles process, there is a statement that clearly says: no new contracts for logs—no new contracts. Yet Forestry Tasmania has just entered into a profit-sharing arrangement with Aprin Logging in relation to a woodchip mill. I would like to know, as I am sure the minister will need to know, exactly whether Forestry Tasmania has entered into any kind of agreement with Aprin Logging on that wood supply, because that would be in total contravention.

What is more: where did Aprin Logging get the rest of the money from? It has not got that sort of money. We do not know who the principals are of Fibre Plus, but it is about time the Tasmanian community did. Senator Colbeck may know, given his support for this arrangement. I do not know and I think the Tasmanian community deserves to know.

I asked the minister yesterday to guarantee that no Commonwealth money would go to Tasmania as a result of this forest principles process until we know what this deal is—and I believe it will be a corrupt deal—before the Commonwealth parts with a cent going to Tasmania, because this kind of dealing is what has given the Tasmanian logging industry such a bad reputation for such a long time. There is a cosy arrangement in Tasmania between politicians, the wood­chippers and this industry that has led to a disaster for the environment, a disaster for the Tasmanian community in terms of the state of the state and the finances there. Now we have got this deal going on and the Commonwealth is apparently oblivious to this particular deal. So let us hear what the Commonwealth is going to do about it.