20 FEATURES

LOGJAM

Tasmania's Labor-Green Accord, forged in optimism, has ended in bitterness. And it's mirrored elsewhere by a collapse of trust between the environmental and labour movements. Clare Curran looks at the competing interpretations of failure.

n 1 October Tasmania's brave new ex> But despite that prospect, neither Field and the Liberals periment in green and mainstream nor industry and union sources believe the Greens will take that step. Recent polls show support for both the politics was rendered meaningless. Greens and Labor has slipped. It is in no-one's interest to O The Labor-Green Accord, hailed by go to an early election. many throughout the world as a 'unique alliance', crumbled into dust in an impasse over That the Accord was a farce now seems generally accepted the future of the state's national estate forests. by the major players in this tug-of-war over the small state's natural resources. Serious questions have now sur­ The breakdown occurred after conservationists refused to faced over how the Labor government could have allowed support the forest industry strategy proposed by the Labor this internationally-acclaimed, 15-month agreement to be government - the product of a year's negotiations. deliberately set aside to meet industry and political inter­ ests. Right now the only winner appears to be industry • Once again the battlelines are being drawn in the Tas­ with the strong likelihood of a new major pulp and paper manian wilderness and neither side appears prepared to mill development of Wesley Vale proportions in the next budge an inch towards a compromise. Tasmania is now left few years. with a hung parliament. Instead of a Labor-Green alliance with a majority of one, Labor now governs with 13 seats, Alan Evans, head of the Premier's Office, is widely con­ the Liberal Party holds 17 and the Green Independents sidered to be a major force behind the government's five. decision to push for an outcome on the forest strategy and to have Labor seen to move away from the Green position. The situation is precarious for Labor, despite the It is this distancing tactic that is most significant, par­ government's prevailing 'no worries' attitude. It would ticularly in light of similar strategies used by the federal take just one Green or Labor member to cross the floor and government in the recent decisions over the East Gipps- vote with the Liberals in a no confidence motion to bring land and South East forests.The decisions indicate that, down the Field government. fearing an economic backlash for appearing 'too green",

A IR : NOVEMBER 1990 Graphic: Jenny Coopes be exerted on the Tasmanian government. In an economic an In government. Tasmanian the on exerted be interests. industry satisfy to desire the by purely the that supporters Labor among disquiet private is There an to open itself left has government the That made. be move­ environment the he claims And round. all positions But it is inevitable that significant industry pressure would would pressure industry significant that it is inevitable But motivated Labor's stupid", "politically consider as month last in the economic actions conservationists Labor's Predictably, from platform. themselves distance to wanting Greens the and show the running be to seen be to wanting Field - with stance a death into locked were Greens the and risk." that support withdraw to choose Greens the if election early to had decisions hard because Accord the from to away walk government the by forest decision the calculated a was it says accept He to prepared to working. seen be and it is in once place more instrategy industry shift much a be been will has ment there says He painted. been it's as interests. conservation and themselves tween it was inevitable that the Accord wouldn't last, that Labor Labor that last, wouldn't Accord the that inevitable was it say sources hasty. But too was Accord the to break decision accept to prepared are "We him. worry to seem not does bad as nearly not is situation Tasmanian the argues Evans be­ distance putting are everywhere governments Labor ALR: ALR: NOVEMBER 1990 be compatible? For now, it seems not. A few things seem things few A not. seems it now, For compatible? be trouble? the worth be of North Broken Hill at the negotiating table for three solid three for table negotiating the at Hill Broken North of presence silent the was talks strategy industry forest the of process­ the for guidelines new develop to need the given to five three years, within be mill will established the thinks He is when. remaining question only The possibility. a not of Tasmania. Association Industries Forest the of executive chief Addis, Mark said of compromise," the limit to have it seems industry; forestry the is backing as a whole it will But matter. is another dollars export and generation for job outcomes much-hoped-for the it produces Whether in parliament may be short lived, the movement is not not is movement the lived, short be may parliament in of Independents five the success the political While certain. ever interests economic and green Will of gains months. 15 the last the undermine to threaten interests green industry of and forces polarised the between hostilities Renewed need obvious is an there government, Liberal of previous the spending excessive the by affected dangerously climate ing. Further evidence of industry interest in the outcome outcome the in interest industry of evidence Further ing. reached "We've solutions. seeking of pretence all dropped industry Tasmanian And on. move and up pack to going conditions the seems to It occur. set infor asuch development now been place have industry. export-producing for Addis refers to a new pulp and paper mill as a certainty, certainty, a as mill paper and pulp new a to refers Addis fEATURES 21 22 FEATURES weeks. Alec Marr, campaign co-ordinator for the Wilder­ slightly different scenario. He says the increase in the ness Society, claims North Broken Hill has been frantically woodchip quota was largely to get rid of the existing waste lobbying the government for yet another mill. And Evans wood - not for processing downstream, but as unprocessed has indicated there is a strong likelihood of a world-scale export product. And it will remain so until another major bleached Kraft mill in Tasmania in the near future. processing plant (like Wesley Vale) comes on line.

Alec Marr is a member of the Combined Environment According to Beacon the unions want to get rid of the Groups (CEG) which represented conservation interests at export woodchip industry and are looking to a new the forest industry strategy negotiations. He argues that processing plant that would create more jobs. He points those talks were never meant to produce consensus be­ out that Tasmania doesn't have many options for in­ tween conservation, industry and political interests. At dustrial development. He accepts that a new mill won't first CEG believed a consensus might be possible, but create many jobs in the long-term and could mean fewer when the 1 September deadline passed and no one seemed as the processing industry sets about consolidating its bothered, the conservationists suspected another agenda 40-odd smaller plants into larger ones. Without the was operating. "They acted weirdly. We couldn't figure out strategy - and the increased woodchip quota - the pos­ what the hell they were doing." sibilities for job creation in the forest industry were pretty limited, he says. "It's better than nothing."

For Beacon, at the heart of the issue is the refusal by the conservation movement to place importance on preserv­ ing people's jobs and livelihoods. He says he would dearly like the interests of the union and conservation movements to draw closer. "But it won't happen until they recognise we have a responsibility to our members. Putting conser­ "A unique opportunity to vation interests above that responsibility is a price we're investigate alternative not prepared to pay." strategies has been Investigating alternative job creation possibilities for the forest industries does not appear to have been a priority, squandered" despite the injection of $8 million by the federal govern­ ment last year to find solutions that would protect both employment and the national estate. More than a year later, with a strategy formulated (without endorsement by con­ servationists), only $2 million has been spent. Some of it appears to have been well invested in researching alterna­ tive industry options. A dispute between industry groups and farmers over al­ location of woodchip export quotas raged around 1 Sep­ The most realistic - developing the veneer timber industry tember. Ten days later the parties were no closer to a final and plantation forests - could produce results, but not in strategy and, according to Marr, it was at this point that a the short-term. Overall, say the conservationists, a unique Forestry Commission representative proposed that the opportunity to investigate real alternatives - such as un­ government intervene with its own strategy. A proposal by bleached pulp processing - has been squandered. And CEG for a ten-week extension was rejected, and the there doesn't appear to have been an attempt to look for government imposed a four-day deadline instead. When alternative job strategies outside the forest industry. The that deadline passed and the government tabled its own remainder of the money will be used for implementing the proposal, the CEG refused to accept and withdrew from new strategy, developing more plantations and compen­ the negotiations. sation packages for job losses. Trades and Labor Council secretary Jim Beacon disagrees with the CEG version of events. He claims CEG had no Doesn't that concern the federal government? Bob Burton, intention of seeking a compromise. "We were anxious to from the Wilderness Society in Tasmania, maintains that develop a new position on conservation - looking for the attitude of the federal government since handing over common ground. In the first year of negotiations we were the money has been one of "bored indifference": "they just keen to bend over backwards to accommodate them in the hope the problem will go away". final position. But at the end of the talks it became clear that some people had no intention of reaching agreement." The extent of the state government's indifference to seek­ Beacon claims the final outcome is "good for workers and ing a solution of its impasse with the Greens was shown for industry" and "not so bad for the conservation move­ by the recently released Simons report - a consultancy ment". commissioned by the government to investigate overseas trends in the unbleached pulp industry. Marr: "The report While Beacon claims the strategy moves the industry focus doesn't say there isn't a market for unbleached pulp. But from woodchip exports to more downstream processing, it doesn't say there is. It maintains the information is with prospects for job creation, Mark Addis presents a confidential."

A LR; NOVEMBER 1990 FEATURES 23

Green Independent Christine Milne was recently quoted failure, it inevitably meant the Labor government would in the Launceston Examiner as saying the Greens were still compromise on matters of principle. "Rather than a failure opposed outright to a pulp mill unless there was no for the green movement, it confirms that neither party was organo-chlorine discharge. She said the Greens were sub­ capable of dealing with the major issues confronting the mitting a report on the Simons report into unbleached human race this century." products markets and it would be highly critical of the consultant's study. He said the Tasmanian conservationists would turn away from expecting support through a government process So will the Greens pull the plug on the Labor government? towards the community, its traditional base. "We will con­ Right now the general response is 'no, not yet'. It is not in tinue the struggle all over Australia...and hope to speed up the Greens' immediate interests to force an election where the formation of a political structure." MarT says it's no they would almost certainly lose two of their five seats. But secret that many Australians are seeking a political alter­ while Field's calculated risk depends on the Greens' desire native to the existing parties. "We've got to be prepared. for political power, there is no doubt that his government The Labor Party is not the party that will save the planet." is again at loggerheads with an old foe.

Marr says the conservation movement faces another five CLARE CURRAN is a journalist for Social Change Media in years' hard work. While he believes the Accord was not a Sydney.

What’s in the forest strategy?

The forest industry strategy proposes setting aside 1.1 months to draw up the legislation to implement it and million hectares for wood production to meet a sawlog to finalise precise boundaries for the wood production quota of 300,000 cubic metres a year. That is expected zones, new reserves, multiple-use reserves and to to increase the woodchip quota by 400,000 tonnes a decide the fate of the 580,000 hectares of deferred forest year, a move which requires federal government ap­ area. proval. Rejecting the government's strategy, the Green Inde­ The strategy also includes the immediate reservation pendents said they could not accept a lift in the wood­ of 4,300 hectares as additions to existing national parks chip export quota above 2.89 million tonnes, until there (an increase of less than 0.5%). It creates multiple-use was agreement over a range of other concerns. They reserves totalling 155,000 hectares and puts 580,000 want protection of all national estate forests, large areas hectares into a deferred forest area for further evalua­ of which are in the proposed deferred area, the intro­ tion. Eventual protection of these areas is dependent on duction of nature guarantee legislation to protect flora efficiency improvements in the industry itself. and fauna on private forest land and the rejection of the proposal to give legislative protection to the permanent Most significantly, the strategy proposes the creation of wood production zone. permanent wood production zones which would re­ quire the approval of both state and federal parliaments to revoke. Such legislation would in effect turn all The final cabinet decision offered the Greens some Tasmania's state forests into permanent wood produc­ compromises - legislation to protect rare and en­ tion zones, creating a precedent for other states to dangered species in private forests and a complete follow. scientific examination of 220,000 hectares of deferred forest by June next year. These were in turn rejected by Mark Addis from the Forest Industries Council in Tas­ the Greens for not going far enough. mania makes no pretence that this is merely a one-state campaign for industry. "There is a strong push in in­ dustry for that sort of legislation to get up elsewhere. Green Independent Bob Brown has said the implemen­ The federal government is coming under increasing tation process only meant funding forest groups to pressure from the states, industry groups and the union bring in the strategy, and the timetable for scientific movement to legislate to secure the resources for in­ investigation of the deferred forest areas was not new. dustry in state forests." The commitment to protect rare and threatened species was merely an expression, he said, because industry The Tasmanian government formally adopted the refused to allow use of the term 'nature guarantee forest industry strategy on 1 October, but will take six legislation'.

ALR : NOVEMBER 1990