On Saturday I attended a conference at the State Library of New South Wales sponsored by the Independent Scholars Association of Australia, NSW Chapter, entitled “Looking for Forests, Seeing Trees: A Continent at Risk”.
Senator Bob Brown of the Australian Greens was the keynote speaker.
It soon became apparent that many of Sydney’s ‘Independent Scholars’ hold Bob Brown in the highest of regard. The audience was clearly enthralled as he told the story of Recherche Bay – Tasmania’s equivalent of Sydney’s Botany Bay but still essentially a beautiful wilderness area of incredible historical significance according to Bob Brown.
He told of the first friendly encounters between French scientists and the local Aboriginals in 1792 and how now – shock and horror – timber company Gunns Ltd was going to clear fell the forests of Recherche Bay. And it was all for woodchip that would be sold to Japan for $10 a tonne.
We were repeatedly told that Gunns Ltd turns 90% of the 200 year old trees it fells into woodchip which are then sold to Japan for $10 a tonne. We were told it was the same across Tasmania. There would soon be no old growth forest left in Tasmania if the ruthless company Gunns Ltd supported by the horrible Howard-government had their way – and all for $10 a tonne. He described the situation as “a holocaust”.
During question time I asked Brown a question that went along these lines. Wasn’t 80% of old growth forest in Tasmania reserved, as well as 70% of the original extent of forest still being in existence? Hadn’t Recherche Bay already been logged? So to suggest that the last tree was about to be cut down in Tasmania was, to say the least, an exaggeration.
He responded along the lines that there are statistics and statistics (you know: ‘lies, damn lies and then there are statistics’) but the bottom line is that as more is logged, “the percentage protected increases and eventually all will have been logged and then they (Gunns Ltd) will claim that 100% is protected”.
The audience loved Bob and it was with gushing praise he was cheered off the stage and then departed the conference.
Maybe I should have asked a question about the $10 per tonne. I thought it was more like $150 per tonne, but I wasn’t sure.
I have just checked some sources tonight.
Brown is not alone is claiming a low price for woodchip. Jared Diamond in his much acclaimed book ‘Collapse’ quotes $7 per tonne (pg. 404).
When I queried this figure with Alan Ashbarry from Timber Community Australia early in the year he emailed me a copy of the Woodchip Settlement Price dated 18th February from Gunns Ltd for 2004 showing the price per tonne at $159.00 (Download file) and the note:
“Diamonds un-referenced figures on the value of export woodchips do not stand scrutiny. The current price for woodchips is the leading Australian Hardwood Chip Exporter (LAHCE) benchmark price settled at AUD 159.00 per BDMT (bone dry metric tonnes). This equates to US$120, it takes two bone dry metric tonnes of chip to make a tonne of pulp used in paper manufacture. The price for paper quoted by Diamond is overstated when compared to international benchmarks.”
I have checked this value against the value in the most recent publication from ABARE, see http://abareonlineshop.com/PdfFiles/PC13135.pdf (pg. 51).
The most recent figures here are for December 2004 with a total volume of 1,413,300 tonnes exported to Japan at a value of $214,147,000 which gives a value of $152 per tonne. This confirms the value of $159 to be about right and suggests the value of $10 per tonne to be complete rubbish.
I did suggest at the conference that they should check the price for woodchip. I hope that there were some independent and scholarly enough in the room to do so. If Brown could get something so basic, and readily available, wrong, as the price for woodchip, can you rely on much that he says?
Jennifer Marohasy BSc PhD has worked in industry and government. She is currently researching a novel technique for long-range weather forecasting funded by the B. Macfie Family Foundation.