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.

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.

Questions were also 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.

TNAT applied for the grant just six days after setting up the trust on October 31, and while it has been approved based on the required criteria, the money has not yet been released.

A Tasmanian Natural Asset Trust spokesperson said that the Trust undertook a range of activities in parallel to the Foreign Investment Review Board process, including land use studies and due diligence to inform the purchase and planned developments.

They noted that the FIRB process was extended multiple times and was originally expected to be finalised last year. 

“The nature of plantation establishment, including the long lead-in time to establish seedlings, meant we needed to commence this process while the FIRB was underway,” the spokesperson said.

“As part of this process, our forestry manager made an application to the Support Plantation Establishment program – a publicly open and competitive grant round established to support softwood plantations and meet growing demand for domestic timber supply. A number of Tasmanian businesses successfully applied for the most recent round of grants.

“The grant will be matched by TNAT as planting activity commences, in accordance with the program’s conditions.”

The seedlings, propagated by Hills Transplants in Devonport, 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 treasurer may have been misled on Rushy Lagoon, as the Agriculture Minister’s own department handed the buyer $8.8 million before the sale was even approved.

“The $142 million sale of Rushy Lagoon, one of Tasmania’s largest farms, is now mired in so many unanswered governance questions that only one conclusion is available to the ordinary observer: the financial, funding and approval processes do not add up,” he said.

“Months before the Treasurer approved the foreign purchase of Rushy Lagoon, the Commonwealth had already backed the buyer twice over.”
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.

“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 of public reaction, 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?” 

TNAT said that it undertook extensive due diligence as part of the sale process, informed by expert advice and site assessments. 

“We are extremely confident the property will provide favourable growing conditions to achieve our target to produce around 5 million tonnes of softwood for the domestic housing market,” a spokesperson said.

At the public meeting 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.

The drop-in sessions will be hosted by Tasmanian Asset Manager Jonathan Craven, Gresham House Forestry Consultant Brent Donaldson and plantation asset manager Delta Forestry.