Rushy Lagoon had extra $8.8 million leg-up

FULL VIDEO OF PUBLIC COMMENT FROM SCOTTSDALE MEETING BELOW

Rushy Lagoon farm’s new owner Tasmania Natural Asset Trust (TNAT) received an $8.8 million government grant in May to help establish the forest carbon project, months before the sale was approved, it has been revealed.

TNAT has confirmed it received a Federal Government Support Plantation Establishment Program Grant - on top of $69 million in taxpayers’ money through the Clean Energy Finance Corporation which shored up the $142 million deal.

Shareholders Gresham House and Aviva Investors jointly contributed $73 million.

While grant applications closed on November 5 last year, TasFarmers president Nathan Cox said radiata pine seedlings were observed on site at a size that indicated they could have been purchased before September.

TNAT had applied for the grant just six days after setting up the trust on October 31.

Questions were raised by north-east farmers, who were aware that seedlings had been on-site at Rushy Lagoon for months, at a protest meeting in Scottsdale last Friday.

The seedlings will be used to plant more than 5000 hectares of the approximately 10,000ha pine plantation that will be grown on Rushy over the next 30 years.

Mr Cox said that the fact that an entity can be given the nod to purchase seed stock for a property that hasn’t yet been approved for sale “has got knobs on it”.

“This just doesn’t happen in anyone else’s business - when you’re buying a farm you don’t purchase cattle before the deal goes through,” he said.

“It’s now obvious the project was inappropriately supported financially and guaranteed before FIRB and the Treasurer approved the sale of Rushy Lagoon.

“There was a smell already surrounding the deal, and it’s now rotting. We know the deal was bad and the process was crooked. Tasmanian farmers’ concerns were right.

“Multiple Commonwealth arms appear to have supported the same transaction before the statutory approval process had run its course.

The paperwork for the Rushy Lagoon sale is expected to be officially signed in coming weeks but the state’s agricultural community and supporters of retaining the land for food production remain hopeful that the decision can be reversed.

TasFarmers has requested a meeting with Federal Treasurer Dr Jim Chalmers, who it believes has been misled on the ability of the farm to maintain traditional agriculture. 

“Somewhere, a backroom deal was done and money has been allocated in such a way there is no traceability or accountability,” Mr Cox said.

“Our treasurer has a case to answer on the allocation of taxpayers’ money, and our federal agriculture minister - a Tasmanian - has a case to answer why she approved this before the deal was settled knowing full well this was going to displace agriculture from Rushy Lagoon.

“We want a meeting and we’ll take a delegation to wherever we have to and provide more insights and ask that the decision be reversed.”

The meeting in Scottsdale was well attended by more than 150 mainly concerned farmers (See video below, pinch out to view full size).

Following an opening address by Mr Cox a panel made up of Primary Industries minister Gavin Pearce, North East Tasmania Chamber of Commerce president Fiona Auton, Senator Richard Colbeck, federal member for Bass Jess Teesdale and Dorset Council mayor Rhys Beattie put forward views and took questions from the floor.

In the audience was Tasmanian premier Jeremy Rockliff, Liberal member for Bass Michael Ferguson, Shooters Fishers and Farmers member for Lyons Carlo Di Falco, former TasFarmers president Ian Sauer and Health, Mental Health and Wellbeing minister Bridget Archer, along with a broad mix of farmers representing forestry, dairy, beef and cropping enterprises in the north-east and other concerned citizens.

Ms Teesdale fronted the disappointed crowd on behalf of Ms Collins and attempted to explain why treasurer Jim Chalmers approved the sale. 

Scottsdale resident Di Arnold, who has farmed with her husband near Rushy Lagoon, said that no-one had successfully grown trees in that area.

“There’s only a shallow depth of topsoil and what is underneath the locals called native cement - a layer like sandstone that tree roots can’t penetrate,” she said.

She asked Ms Teesdale: what is more important, trees or food security?”

Ms Teesdale said that Australia is blessed with good food production but houses are needed too.

“The timber that will be planted here is needed for housing - we need both,” she said.

Mrs Arnold said that Tasmania has a sound agricultural economy because of the people in the room who farm it.

“What we need is a government that is going to stand behind the farmers and protect their livelihood and that means giving them the ability to invest on a level playing field which is not what is happening here.

“We know that they’re not going to work, we know the land, it’s our land, and no-one in the community has been property consulted.

Ms Teesdale said after the meeting that attendees had aired concerns that she had been hearing for some time but still backed the decision to tree farm on Rushy Lagoon.

“We desperately need investment in this region, it has to be the right investment and it has to go to the right priorities,” she said.

“We have an opportunity with Gresham, who is taking on this farm at no debt - it needs a lot of work and it wouldn't matter who took this on it has to have a lot of money go into it, it hasn’t been fertilised for a long time and the dairies haven’t been maintained well.

“We need to make sure that whoever takes on this property they have the money to be able to do it and they have those long term prospects.

“Now we need to make sure that our community will have a say in making sure that they’re local contracts and local workers wherever possible and I do think we have an opportunity in that.”

The new owners estimate that 190 new  jobs will be created over the life of the project however TasFarmers refutes that, saying there will only be a handful of jobs after the trees are planted.

Mr Pearce said that Ms Collins has run from her responsibilities on Rushy Lagoon.

He said he had called on her to back Tasmanian farmers and use her powers to veto the project but had then learned that Ms Collins had delegated her responsibility to review the project to her department.

“Minister Collins' betrayal of the Tasmanian people is another devastating blow to the community and to farmers across the State,” Mr Pearce said.

“Faceless bureaucrats in Canberra should not be making decisions about the future of Tasmania’s biggest farm.”

TNAT will answer questions directly from the public when it conducts information sessions about the Rushy Lagoon Project at the Gladstone Hall, 1 Carr St, on Saturday, July 25, 10am-3pm (1 Carr St, Gladstone) and again on Sunday, July 26 at the Scottsdale Recreation Ground, 49B George St, 10am-3pm.

Ms Collin’s office and TNAT were both contacted for comment.

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