Fire sale question over plantations

THE ongoing delay in the announcement of the sale of Sustainable Timber Tasmania’s pulpwood plantations has prompted questions from Labor about the potential for a “fire sale”.

The State Government remains silent on the outcome of the sale process.

The sale of plantations was first flagged by then resources minister Paul Harriss in April 2015 as a way of keeping Forestry Tasmania solvent without continued public subsidies.

Last October, Resources Minister Guy Barnett said only the pulpwood plantations would be sold under a further tweaking of the restructure of FT.

As of July 1, Forestry Tasmania became known as Sus- tainable Timber Tasmania. When Sustainable Timber Tasmania was officially launched late last month, Mr Barnett said the entity had selected a preferred bidder.

In response to a question from the Mercury this week on the progress of the sale, a spokesman said “an announcement will be made in due course”.

Shadow Treasurer Scott Bacon said the Government’s plan to privatise Tasmania’s plantation timber assets had been a “disaster”.

“Labor has never supported the privatisation of our plantations, which provide for future growth in the industry,” Mr Bacon said.

“What’s worse the original sale timeline has blown out and it appears Guy Barnett is now engaging in an irresponsible fire sale.

“When New Forests purchased Gunns’ hardwood plantation estate in 2014, they paid around $6600 per hectare. It would be a financial disaster for the Liberals to finalise the sale for anything less.”

The sale of the plantations was identified by Treasury among a list of risks to the state’s finances in the May State Budget.

The sale of about 29,000ha of plantations was listed as a risk because it was impossible to know whether the proceeds would be a enough to support the restructure of Forestry Tasmania into Sustainable Timber Tasmania.

“Given the uncertainty regarding the timing and quantum of sale proceeds, the Budget does not include the impact of the plantation sale. No additional transition support has been included in the Budget, therefore there is a risk that proceeds will not be sufficient to support the transition,” Treasury said.

The Government says there will be no more public subsidies for Sustainable Timber Tasmania, but the Budget contained $12 million to cover the entity’s community service obligations such as tourist roads.