Bell Bay Pulp Mill - Opposition

Opposition

Opponents of the mill include a number of environmental, social activist and political groups including The Wilderness Society, and TAP into a better Tasmania (formerly Tasmanians Against the Pulpmill).

There have been numerous rallies, public meetings, actions and protests around the entire state and especially in the north since the pulp mill was proposed. In September 2006, a protest rally against the proposed pulp mill was held in Launceston with speakers, included Greens politician Christine Milne and TV gardener Peter Cundall. In June 2007, an opposition rally to the mill attracted a crowd estimated at 10 000 and Richard Flanagan made a speech at a rally in the state's capital, Hobart, in November 2007. In August 2008, approximately 5 000 people attended a protest rally in Launceston and in March 2011, a 'No Pulp Mill' rally was held at the iconic Batman Bridge in the Tamar Valley. In May 2011, another rally was held in Launceston opposing the pulp mill where Greens MP Kim Booth stated he would move a no confidence motion in the government if any more money was spent to support the pulp mill project. Protesters listened and watched outside parliament as the Tasmanian Greens attempted a last-ditch bid to revoke a law allowing Gunns to build the $2.3 billion pulp mill in the Tamar Valley. It failed when Labor and the Liberals joined to vote down the bill to repeal the Pulp Mill Assessment Act, which was fast-tracked through Parliament in 2007.

In addition to these, there have been numerous community meetings in Launceston including one regarding concerns surrounding the pipe line in 2008 a pulp mill information night in 2009 and No Pulp Mill public meetings in December 2010 and March 2011. There have also been protests outside the ANZ bank, at Gunns' AGMs at their headquarters in Launceston and at the offices of state and federal politicians.

In April 2007, allegations were made that a Gunns lawyer was involved in preparing new legislation introduced by then Premier Paul Lennon which bypasses the Resource Planning and Development Commission and replaces it with a government-appointed consultant which raised questions about Gunns influence over the current State Labor government. There are other allegations of collusion and co-operation between the company and Tasmania's political leaders. Professor Quentin Beresford from Perth WA has written an academic paper citing the Lennon government's approval of the Gunns pulp mill in Tasmania as a case study to illustrate the notion of institutional corruption.

Gunns sued 20 environmental organisations and individuals for some $6 million in the days preceding the announcement of its plans to build a pulp mill in the Tamar Valley

The proposal had been criticised for not using accepted technology for the bleaching process and instead involved the presence of elemental chlorine at an intermediate stage (rather than hydrogen peroxide or methanol) in the production of the main bleaching chemical chlorine dioxide. This particular criticism could only refer to Gunns' original preferred chemical plant design termed and 'integrated' chemical plant, which was one of three chemical plant designs presented for assessment. The integrated process as then described by Gunns had not been approved by the United Nations Environment Programme as Accepted Modern Technology (AMT) for this purpose and therefore was inconsistent with Tasmanian guidelines. By comparison, the two alternative chemical plant designs, presented by Gunns as 'merchant chemical plant alternative 1' and '2' were AMT. According to, Dr Warwick Raverty, a chemist with over 20 years experience in the Kraft pulping and paper, a hiccup with a waterspray within an 'integrated' process could cause the bleaching chemical chlorine dioxide to be contaminated with elemental chlorine. Elemental chlorine contamination of the chlorine dioxide bleaching chemical could in turn lead to the release of persistent organic pollutants (dioxins), potentially causing environmental harm and a subsequent breach of the Stockholm Convention. The 'integrated' design for chlorine dioxide generation was not selected by Gunns to proceed as it was effectively prevented from implementation by the State Permit (Condition 3GN9.1). Gunns has subsequently indicated it will move from 'ECF' to 'ECF-Light' bleaching, which is facilitated by moving from 'Merchant alternative 1' to 'Merchant alternative 2' within the final design of the chemical plant described above. Dr Raverty resigned from the now defunct Resource Planning and Development Commission (RPDC) panel on the mill, citing undue political interference.

In July 2007, The Wilderness Society launched a legal case against the federal government, claiming the Federal Minister for the Environment and Water Resources, Malcolm Turnbull, acted illegally by allowing the pulp mill to escape proper assessment by the independent RPDC. Turnbull agreed to withhold a decision on the approval of the mill until after the 6 August conclusion of the case. The case was dismissed in August 2007.

Former Gunns director, John Gay, had previously put pressure on the state government to approve the mill quickly by threatening to take the project interstate or overseas: the company has already invested an estimated $100 million (5% of expenditure) on plans and consultants for the $2.3 billion project. Geoffrey Cousins, former adviser to John Howard, has also been a vocal opponent of the mill, comparing it to the Franklin River Dam.

Paul Lennon has claimed that the wood supply agreement "will not provide for any old growth timber to be used in the pulp mill.", while Peter Garrett has said that the tracts of old growth forest that will supply the mill were already earmarked for logging under the Regional Forest Agreement.

the company told the Australian Securities Exchange that the mill would not use any old growth or other native timber, and would be 100 per cent plantation timber fed from start-up.

A second legal challenge against the Federal approval process for the Pulp Mill was undertaken by a group known as Lawyers For Forests (LFF). The case questioned the legality of the decision making process taken by former Environment Minister, Malcolm Turnbull. The LFF claimed in court that Mr Turnbull did not adequately assess the proposed mill as he was required to by law. The case was dismissed in April 2009 and costs awarded against Lawyers For Forests.

The Wilderness Society, Environment Tasmania and the Australian Conservation Foundation have welcomed the Gunns pledge to improve effluent standards and promised to support them if the details released by Gunns matched the commitment but agree that the community would never give a 'Social Approval' for the mill. The Wilderness Society spokesman Vica Bayley has stated that The Wilderness Society would never approve the contentious pulp mill, regardless of any future changes to its design or operations citing the "corrupted" approval process making it forever unacceptable. This new tough stance coincided with further splits emerging between Tasmanian environmental groups over the failure to halt logging in all high-conservation-value forests in an immediate moratorium. Dr Phill Pullinger of Environment Tasmania stated in March 2011 that "It's not a proposal that we'll ever be in a position that we'll endorse or support".

Gunns shares were trading at A$4.50 in December 2004 (announcement of Bell Bay Pulp Mill). Gunns have been in a trading halt since March 2012 with the share price at A$0.16 and have yet to relist (as of 17 September 2012 (2012-09-17)).