1 July 2009
Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries & Forestry, Tony Burke
Interview with Tim Cox, Statewide mornings, ABC 936 Hobart
(E&OE)
TIM COX: Sadly, the Federal Forests Minister, Tony Burke, didn't see The 7:30 Report last night. As you'll hear in just a moment, he was at a Community Cabinet meeting in [Brisbane], but I managed a few minutes with him this morning, talking about his Ministerial Statement of last week.
Of course this week, Gunns Ltd announced that it had secured a joint venture partner, not finance, and it didn't name the joint venture partner, but I was curious as to whether the Minister's ministerial statement was timed to pre-empt that announcement this week. I spoke to him earlier this morning.
TONY BURKE: Well we hadn't had a Ministerial Statement on forestry since 1995. It was a very long time since the Minister would get up in the Parliament and put together the different strands of what was going on in forestry policy.
So, there was very little in the forestry statements that was actually new, but I thought it was an important time to put it all on the record. I'd been in the job for 18 months. We're halfway through the term and it was important to bring those different threads together and to record in the Parliament how we're delivering on the commitments we made at the election.
TIM COX: Well it came not long after Kim Carr's announcement of the Forestry Industry Review Panel Taskforce, call it what you will. Was it in part to coincide with that?
TONY BURKE: I was aware of that statement, but there wasn't that level of timing [indistinct] always worked on the basis set at around the halfway mark in the term. I'd want to be making a ministerial statement on forestry, so I've been working on the concept of this one for a very long time.
TIM COX: All right. There are people in Tasmania, those with a stake in the Gunns pulp mill project who believe it was time to coincide with an announcement of a joint venture partner and funding for the pulp mill. Now there was an announcement, not a lot of detail in the announcement, but an announcement nonetheless. Is that what you were anticipating?
TONY BURKE: I've been hearing for some time, as much through the media as anything else, as to the anticipation of them finding a joint venture partner. But as I say, the timing of the statement is something that I'd always intended to do as - at the halfway mark in the term.
TIM COX: The statement that you made refers in some depth quite specifically to Tasmania and the RFA, and of course the pulp mill. Can you perhaps run through your line of thought on it and where you stand on it?
TONY BURKE: It's the same as what we said at the election: that we support the pulp mill, subject to it needing the environmental approvals. For the pulp mill to work it's got to stack up economically and it's got to stack up environmentally. And if it can meet both of those thresholds, then we have a great opportunity for jobs in Tasmania.
TIM COX: And do you think this is the best form of down-stream processing for the resource here?
TONY BURKE: The decisions about what's the best way for value-adding are always best made at the ground level itself. I'm against the process where as forestry minister, at a government level, I start telling people: I reckon this is the best business model for you. Those sorts of decisions are best worked out at the business level, but you have to make sure that they meet the federal environmental approvals process and that's something that's handled by a different minister to me.
TIM COX: Well you were unequivocal in stressing that last week. You said: “Let me state quite clearly that I want to see the Gunns Bell Bay pulp mill built provided the requirements of federal environmental law are met.”
Are you in some sort of dialogue with Minister Garrett on that or Minister Garrett's office to just keep a watch on how that's progressing?
TONY BURKE: I make sure that I follow how it's going in terms of those formal processes. But we have to remember on anything under the EPBC Act, the legislation that Peter Garrett had made his decisions under is very prescriptive, and it's quite specific what he has to take into account and what processes he has to go through and what he's allowed to consider and what he's not allowed to consider.
And this is not a situation where the forestry minister is able to exert pressure. It's actually in law exactly what Peter Garrett has to take into account or what he doesn't. Certainly, provided if you meet all of those approvals, I'm very enthusiastic for it to go ahead.
TIM COX: Now I know you came to Tasmania not long after taking up this ministry, and had a look at some of the working forests and so on, but did you have any discussion, or have you had any discussions at any time in 18 months Tony Burke about the socially divisive nature of the pulp mill proposal and how even Premier Bartlett here would say that the mill doesn't yet have a social licence.
TONY BURKE: The extent of division within the community I'm very much aware of. You know, I can't read every letter that comes to me obviously, because of the thousands that come through each week. But I make sure that I keep across the different views that are there and I am aware of the different views that are there in Tasmania
Certainly we held a Community Cabinet in the north as well, and when we held that it was clear as to the extent of different views that are out there. There are a number of people who, regardless of what were to happen with the environmental approvals, even if it were able to tick every box, there are some people who wouldn't want it to go ahead anyway. But that's not my view.
TIM COX: So - well what do you say to those people? And, is it a matter of economics and world's best practice? How do you describe it? How would you present it to those people?
TONY BURKE: Oh well in the way I did to you a moment ago which is say, that if it stacks up economically and it stacks up environmentally then it's a good opportunity for Tasmania.
TIM COX: Tony Burke, the Federal Minister here on 936 ABC Hobart and ABC Northern Tasmania. Last night on The 7:30 Report there was a story from Tasmania about the mill which contained some correspondence between the former head of the Resource Planning and Development Commission here, Julian Green, who wrote to Gunns chief, John Gay on odours or fugitive emissions escaping from the mill. Now Gunns isn't commenting, but is that the sort of issue that the mill will not be able to overcome perhaps minister, until it's too late?
TONY BURKE: Well the issues that you've - I've been made aware of The 7:30 Report program, but last night we had a Community Cabinet here in Brisbane where I am at the moment, so I haven't had a chance to view the program or to go back over the transcript of it. So, there's a limit to which I can actually provide you with a constructive response on that. We had 500 people in a school hall up here in Brisbane, so it wasn't a night where I was able to be sitting in front of the tele.
TIM COX: I hope we can discuss it some time into the future when you're fully appraised of it. How do you see the industry here progressing if a pulp mill, for whatever reason, perhaps at a ministerial level through Peter Garrett's office, or if there is a difficulty if funding does not go ahead? What would that mean for the forest industry in the state?
TONY BURKE: Oh well we would have a situation then where the job opportunities for downstream processing would be arrived at in countries other than Australia. The downstream processing will happen. I like the idea of it being as much of it as possible being able to happen in Australia. It's an environmental test that they have to get through to be able to do that and there's economics in it that businesses have to work through, but I'm not interested, as forestry minister, in seeing a situation where the same work's done – if it could have been done profitably here – instead being done in another country.
Can I add on the economics of it, if it's okay. There has been a story going around that I know Bob Brown has done some interviews on, claiming that my statement last week was flagging that the Government was planning to fund the pulp mill. There's nothing in the statement that says that. There's no proposal that's come to me to do that and there's no intention of doing that. So, I'm actually not sure where that one comes from, but I did want to take the opportunity to let your listeners know that the first I heard of that idea was when Bob Brown started talking about it.
TIM COX: That was in fact the last thing that I wanted to ask you about.
TONY BURKE: Okay...
TIM COX: So has there - so has there not been any approach from Gunns for any sort of - beyond the start-up capital that John Howard offered some years ago. Has there not been any approach from the timber company here?
TONY BURKE: Absolutely nothing, absolutely nothing. And I've met with them, I've had discussions with them. The first I heard of this theory floating around was when the criticism was made by Bob Brown. And it was made following a statement where there was no reference to it, nor could there have been a reference to something which I'm not doing and it's not happening.
TIM COX: Tony Burke, the Federal Forests Minister, an interview where I caught him a little earlier this morning.
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