Boycott Woodchipping Campaign
North Ltd Corporate Profile

The Wesley Vale pulp mill debate was a catalyst for the Tasmanian "Green" Independents, who achieved five Lower House seats in the 1989 elections. This led to a balance of power and resulted in the Green Labor Accord and the Salamanca Agreement, which delivered 600,000 hectares of additional World Heritage Areas.⁸²

This situation was not to the liking of APPM. According to General Manager David Bills, the Accord gave the Greens "an inordinate scope to interfere with the operations and the future directions of the industry ... providing a stage from which the Conservation Movement can manipulate public opinion".⁸³

APPM recognised that it had to improve its community relations image. This led to the development of "A draft strategy plan to take the high ground in environmental communications" with a view to challenging "environmental groups' unbalanced views". This wide-ranging strategy had a number of elements:

• "to create a forest industry position"
• "form alliance with mining campaign"
• "investigate resources of conservation groups"
• "sponsorship of community, sporting and cultural events"
• "production of paper/timber industry resources kits for schools run by the National Association of Forest Industries".
  Furthermore, the campaign was to
• "discredit National Estate arguments [and] push for Heritage Commission reconstruction".⁸⁴

In 1993, North created a specialist corporate External Relations Department with a view to promoting its desired image to its key audiences - investors, government, media, employees. In addition there was the need to deal with "interest groups",² who had become increasingly troublesome. The company was now spending significant sums of money in an attempt to influence public perceptions of its activities.

Schools and "Education"

One of NBH's first actions in this new public relations climate was to approach the Tasmanian Department of the Education and Arts (DEA) in 1989 with a view to writing and producing curriculum materials for schools on forestry and the forest industry. The DEA agreed to a joint project to develop curriculum materials for primary schools as well as for inclusion in the syllabuses of years nine and ten. APPM provided schools with access to expertise and provided $15,000 towards costs. The state Labor government also reallocated between $4,000 and $6,000 of Commonwealth funding to "release teachers to develop materials".⁸⁵ In Burnie, APPM's heartland, five school principals and twelve teachers were involved in a working group with the company to develop project materials.⁸⁶ After questions were raised by the Tasmanian Greens, the project appears to have been dropped.

North Forest Product's relationship with the DEA continues. In 1994 as part of the Department's "Student Enterprise Program" North presented ten schools with a total of $3,500.⁸⁹ In conjunction with the Department, NFP also runs education courses from its custom-built outdoor centre on its Surrey Hills estate.³⁷ The Forest Education Foundation, sponsored in part by the Forest Industry Association of Tasmania to which North is a financial contributor, also provides a science syllabus course "Forests and Human Activity". The course places a strong emphasis on native forest logging and includes field trips to forests clearfelled for woodchips.⁹⁰

On a local level, APPM began providing sponsorship deals with schools. In Orford, adjacent to the Triabunna woodchip mill, North subsidiary Tasmanian Pulp and Forest Holdings (TPFH) provided the primary school with $1,000 of paper in exchange for displaying the TPFH logo on the school newsletter, with the words "proudly sponsoring education".⁸⁷ APPM public relations spokesperson Chris Oldfield admitted that the company would probably not provide sponsorship if the logo was removed.⁸⁶ In addition TPFH provided assistance to plant company trees and for school trips to the forest. In Triabunna it provided a bursary for the District High School.⁸⁸

North's mining division is also active in currying favour with schools. In WA, it sponsored the establishment of a weight and exercise room at Kalgoorlie's Eastern Goldfield's Senior High School.² North's uranium partner, Energy Resources of Australia (ERA) has even gone so far as to fund a Chair in Aboriginal Studies at the Northern Territory University at a cost of $500,000.² This is most ironic, given that ERA is mining radioactive "yellowcake" from Aboriginal land at its Ranger Uranium Mine.

Subverting the Arts

What is objectionable is that North are not just passively sponsoring the show; instead they have taken the opportunity to 'identify' totally with Streeton's environmental concerns in what can only be seen as a marketing exercise of the most hypocritical kind. One example of their blatant misuse of the artist's intentions was the erection of a large notice in the National Gallery of Victoria exhibition, with the extraordinary claim: "Our goal is to leave a landscape worthy of a Streeton painting". Perhaps North was thinking of the artist's treeless vision of Sylvan Dam and Donna Buang in the year 2000, which shows a landscape cleared, denuded and devastated by logging.⁹¹

The pamphlet which accompanies the exhibition contains more propaganda about North's forestry, uranium and mining operations than it does about Streeton's works.

Artist John Wolseley, who draws much of his inspiration from the natural environment, and who has painted areas devastated by North, made the poignant comment: "What are we to see next, an exhibition about peace sponsored by arms dealers?"⁹¹

The exhibition is on show in 1996 in South Australia, Western Australia and New South Wales (11 October - 24 November).

"Community" projects

North Forest Products has developed a position of "Community Liaison Officer" which is currently occupied by "world champion axeman", David Foster. Foster regularly features in North's promotional and charity exercises, and even has his own column, courtesy of North, in the industry journal "Australasian Forest Logger and Sawmiller".

North plays a significant role in perpetuating the romantic myth of forestry in Tasmania, while its practices are a far cry from olden times. In addition to its donation of $30,000 to the La Trobe "Axemen's Hall of Fame",² North recently donated a giant old growth forest log - previously used as a promotional gimmick at agricultural shows - to Parks, Wildlife and Heritage for inclusion in a display at Port Arthur. According to John Smith of NFP Tamar North they; "developed the log particularly for children ... by relocating the log ... we are confident that locals and visitors will understand the fine balance between the industry and the environment".³³ In another project with Parks and Wildlife, North has produced a leaflet on the vulnerable Swift Parrot, which includes free Blue Gum seeds, the parrot's main food source. The leaflet fails to inform readers that the east coast - the parrot's main habitat - is being affected by clearfelling for woodchips.

Exerting regional influence

North has spent over $300,000 in the community of Parkes, near its Northparkes mine in order to enhance the company's positive profile in the region.² Immediately after the deaths of over 2,000 waterbirds at the mine, the company distributed public relations broadsheets throughout schools and shops emphasising North's commitment to "sound and responsible environmental management", while referring only to "some bird deaths".²⁵ During the early construction phase of the mine, company strategies involved filling a local branch of the National Parks Association (a conservation group) with the spouses of company employees. These left once the mine had been completed.⁹²

North Forest Products and the Police

NFP sponsors "Neighbourhood Watch" in Tasmania. It has also provided Tasmanian Police with equipment used in an operations shack from which dozens of arrests were co-ordinated during protests against the construction of the 5 million dollar "road to nowhere" through the Tarkine Proposed Wilderness Rainforest World Heritage Area. The sponsorship sign was removed after it was photographed by protesters. Conservationists have consistently argued that North intends to use the road for transporting logs from the rainforests of the area.⁹³

Environmental Profile

NFP has consistently sought to deflect public criticism away from its woodchipping operations by promoting its "green" image. This type of PR, increasingly common in the United States, has been termed "greenwash".⁹⁴ One graphic instance of greenwash is the justification of clearing oldgrowth native forests for plantation substitution on the basis that "growing trees absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere at a much faster rate than mature trees and therefore help to reduce the build-up of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and any resultant greenhouse effect".⁹⁵ This philosophy originates from the broad collection of US mining, forestry and petroleum interests generally known as the "Wise Use Movement", and is part of the movement's "Wise Use Agenda", which also advocates resource extraction from national parks.94 Such simplistic claims also conveniently avoid the issues of habitat loss, soil erosion and catchment degradation associated with native forest logging, as well as the release of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere from subsequent burning.

A good example of NFP greenwash is Project Greenleaf. The project, advertised on a billboard in Launceston as being "For Tasmania, For the Planet" involves the distribution of North's genetically altered "super tree" Blue Gum seedlings to schools and local councils.² The company provides help with planting, gaining valuable photographic opportunities.⁸⁹

The company has also associated itself with Landcare, Australian Trust for Conservation Volunteers and Greening Australia, and has given money to the latter. Christopher Deeley, former managing director of ICI and chairman of North since 1992, is director of Greening Australia Ltd and Greening Australia Victoria.³

Landcare has become increasingly popular with large corporations, who now fund a number of its awards. In 1993, in a move which outraged conservationists, North was given an award by Landcare Tasmania, which claimed that NFP "practiced Landcare ethics in its own operations" and pointed to Project Greenleaf in particular.⁹⁶ Landcare Tasmania failed to make mention of the thousands of hectares of cleared forest across the island, the result of North's woodchipping operations.

NFP has made considerable use of the Award, claiming it as "further recognition of the genuine environmental concern of people who work in the forest industry".⁹⁷ One employee, in a blatant grandstanding exercise, was nominated for his "concern for Landcare principles during road construction". North Ltd has bulldozed over 1400 km of roads into Tasmania's native forests since 1972.⁹⁶ Logging roads are known to introduce weeds, feral animals and dieback and facilitate arson in previously inaccessible areas.

Industry awards

North Forest Products participates in judging entries for the "Tasmanian World Forestry Day Awards". These awards have been developed by the Launceston and Burnie branches of the international timber industry group known as Hoo Hoo.⁹⁸ The 1995 winner, Andy Padgett, is a prominent logging and trucking contractor⁹⁸ and has logged National Estate-Listed forests in northern Tasmania to supply North's Tamar mill.⁴⁹

North Ltd was awarded the NSW 1994 Mineral Industry Environmental Excellence Award for its Northparkes mine for its "commitment to environmental best practice".³ The award - conceived by industry for industry - dismissed by NSW Environment Minister Pam Allen as a sham.¹⁸ North's 1995 Annual Report makes no mention of the bird deaths.

Industry-Funded Front Groups

The Forest Protection Society Limited (FPS) was created in 1987 in south eastern News South Wales by timber industry sympathisers and claims to have forty-eight branches nationally⁹⁹ - nine in Tasmania.¹⁰⁰ It states that it is "a grassroots organisation which provides a national, independent voice for the thousands of people who are concerned about the future of forests".¹⁰¹ Its close ties to industry has led to assertions that this "community" lobby group acts as a front for the woodchipping industry. The National Association of Forest Industries, of which North Forest Products is a member, paid more than 20% of its budget to the FPS - or $905,800 - for the financial year 1994-599. While the FPS claims to "protect forest jobs"¹⁰¹ it has come under fire for remaining silent over the sacking of six hundred industry workers by APPM in 1992.⁹⁹

The FPS has exacerbated bitter division in the bush. In 1994 the FPS founded a new branch in Meander, a rural community at the foot of the Great Western Tiers, northern Tasmania - a prime source of woodchips for NFP's Tamar woodchip mill. Acting as the industry's eyes and ears, the ground members of the FPS "Meander Resource Management Group" regularly monitored protests in forests destined for the mill throughout the year's logging season.¹⁰²

North has been involved with other industry-funded initiatives involving the FPS. In May 1994 woodchippers North, Boral, Bunnings, Harris Daishowa and Midway Forest Products announced in The Australian that they would be funding a 2 million dollar pro-woodchipping advertising campaign to be developed by media guru John Singleton. Spokesperson Chris Oldfield, one of North's most adept Public Relations operatives, commented that "the campaign was the first to focus solely on woodchipping" and that he "expected the 'extreme' segments of the green movement to object". Under the banner of the "Pulpwood Producers' Group", which included Forest Protection Society figurehead Robin Loydell as a "community spokesperson" the campaign was launched by footballer David Campese, an ex-sawmiller.¹⁰³

Forest Industries' Association of Tasmania

FIAT is an employers' body formed in 1983 and includes hardwood producers and woodchipping interests. Needless to say this group is highly antipathetic to conservation interests. North plays a significant role in FIAT, with the 1995 Annual Report stating that Les Baker (General Manager North Forest Products) is one of the Association's Directors.

According to the Annual Report, one of FIAT's main roles is to provide financial support for Tasmania's annual "World Forestry Day", a showcase PR exercise designed to shore up support within the industry. The dinner and awards ceremony is bankrolled by FIAT and co-ordinated by timber industry "front" group the Hoo Hoo Club, an international pro-industry lobby group created in the US. FIAT has also been involved with the FPS on a number of projects including the organising of a rally in Launceston in January 1995, which featured Premier Ray Groom, federal ALP member Dick Adams and a wide range of pro-woodchipping interests.

Promoting the myth of "eco-extremists"

One of the tactics adopted by the timber industry in North America, and quickly copied in Australia, has been the concerted attempt to label almost any conservation group as "extreme". FIAT is one of the main timber bodies in Tasmania responsible for perpetuating the myth that mainstream environment groups are comprised of "extremists" and "radicals". The 1995 Annual Report uses such loaded adjectives over thirty times. The strategy behind this campaign is to marginalise environmentalism as something akin to terrorism and is a clever public relations stunt. This term has become so commonplace that even participants at the National Forest Summit - a regular, joint meeting of all major environment groups in Australia including state conservation councils and the Australian Conservation Foundation - have been labelled "eco-extremists".¹⁰⁴

In Tasmania, these smear tactics were first promoted in 1992 by the Forest Industry of Tasmania, of which North is a member group, in a campaign called "The Fight Against the Big Lie",¹⁰⁵ a direct borrowing from a US timber industry campaign.¹⁰⁶ Co-incidental to this campaign was the sudden increase in so-called "tree-spiking" incidents. On March 21, 1994, for instance (on the day that North Forest Product's logging contractors moved in to log the Great Western Tiers), an anonymous press release was issued detailing grid co-ordinates of forests in the south of the state that had supposedly been spiked.¹⁰⁷ This story was run on television, alongside images of peaceful protests on the Great Western Tiers.

Subsequently the 'extremist' adjective has been applied with almost tireless enthusiasm by the industry. North Ltd has been active in attempting to discredit environmental groups with this epithet. On October 26, 1995, a day of national protests directed against North Ltd to co-incide with the company's annual general meeting, Dr Robert Bain, Executive Director of the National Association of Forest Industries, issued a press release stating "Forest protests mask extremist social and economic agenda".¹⁰⁹ This was backed up by Brain Hayes, manager of North's Tamar mill, who labelled people who had gone to the mill merely to hold banners - not to blockade - as "dark green".¹¹⁰

In 1994 FIAT took this propaganda war one stage further and undertook to finance a Tasmanian "Bush Watch" program in conjunction with Tasmania Police:"The decision to facilitate the development of a Bush Watch was made after a number of tree spiking incidents which put workers in sawmills in danger of serious injury and possible loss of life"(Annual Report, 1995)

Conservation groups throughout Australia have consistently repeated their commitment to non-violence and have condemned vandalism. Bush Watch has made them a convenient scapegoat for timber community prejudice and smear campaigns.

North's Industrial Relations: Assuming the mantle of the New Right

Robe River

By the mid 'eighties an ever-increasing body of anti-union opinion had begun to coalesce around a group known as the H.R. Nicholls Society. Industrially, the Society aimed to render unions ineffective by unprecedented use of existing civil laws - as well as new, specially designed legislation - and to abolish the arbitration system.¹¹¹ Another founding member was A. C. (Charles) Copeman, Chief Executive Officer of Peko-Wallsend.¹¹² The Society's constitution was drawn up by current Federal Treasurer and Liberal Party Deputy, Peter Costello, at that stage a barrister who had achieved national notoriety for representing employers' interests in the "Dollar Sweets" case. On its election in March 1996, the Liberal Government indicated that the "Award" process of union negotiation for wage claims was at an end. The powers of the Industrial Relations Commission have been reduced, including arbitration in cases of unfair dismissal.

On 13 August 1986 Peko-Wallsend, in a cost-cutting and anti-union drive, sacked 1160 of its workers employed at its Robe River iron ore mining and processing facilities in the Pilbara region of Western Australia.¹¹³ Although industrial unrest had been simmering at the plant since the early 'eighties this event was to mark one of Australia's most bitter industrial disputes, highlighting the union-management conflict over the employment of non-union, contract labour. Despite being ordered by the Industrial Relations Commission to re-instate its workers, the company refused, and began further purges of "unsatisfactory" executives unhappy with the situation.¹¹⁴

Copeman's actions led him to be dubbed the "Robe River Rambo".¹¹⁵ but privately Peko-Wallsend received support for its position from other mining companies including CRA and BHP.¹¹⁶ This round of industrial unrest continued into the new year, with Robe River Associates filing writs against unions for costs incurred and unions fearful of reprisals.^117,118 Meanwhile, Copeman urged the coal industry to adopt similar tactics against unionism.¹¹⁹ Unrest at the mine continued through the year, with unions clashing with management over wage fixing in early '88 and a major new strike being narrowly avoided.

In January 1988 North Broken Hill lifted its stake in Peko-Wallsend to 19.9%, which rose to 35% by the end of February. Prior to this, North and Peko had discussed a friendly merger, which Peko had helped along by buying up considerable quantities of NBH shares. By March however, NBH had merged with the company, having paid about 1.04 billion dollars. Throughout the year North Broken Hill concentrated on selling off unwanted assets, such as Elders Resources and Peko Oil, for which it obtained about 770 million dollars, and gaining control of Robe River and Energy Resources of Australia, in which NBH had a minority shareholding prior to the takeover.¹²⁰

Although Copeman rejected the job as executive director of the new North Broken Hill Peko,¹²¹ other members of the Peko board remained and the company's anti-union philosophies continued. In fact, it wasn't long before unions and the company were again at war, this time dragging in the WA Government, who slammed the company for its continued harassment of unions.¹²² This conflict with unions was to lead to strikes in 1990 and was further exacerbated by Robe River's attempts to ban union cover for workers in 1991.¹²³ At the same time, the company took on the Maritime Union of Australia (MUA), responsible for the Pilbara docks.¹²⁴ Having given Robe River the public running, BHP and CRA announced that they would also now be using similar tactics in their own iron ore heartlands.¹²⁵

Sackings continued throughout 1992-93, with 110 workers being retrenched. While the Industrial Relations Commission ordered the company to reinstate 60 of those sacked, it declared that it did not have jobs for them to return to.¹²⁶ In 1994, the United Mine Workers succeeded in achieving the reinstatement of 28 of those sacked.¹²⁷

Conditions for workers continue to be sub standard: in 1994 a man was crushed to death at the company's Cape Lambert operation by a poorly-serviced iron ore reclaimer, which collapsed on top of him.¹²⁸

Burnie

In March 1992 North announced that it would cancel all non-award agreements to its Associated Pulp and Paper Mill employees, excluding certain benefits such as superannuation. In essence, the dispute centred around North's ultimately successful attempt to increase the level of contracted, non-union employees at its facilities and to negotiate directly with workers at the expense of unions.¹²⁹

The dispute was resolved only after a four week strike, with both sides agreeing to negotiate an enterprise agreement. North however took legal action over workers who had refused to unload a consignment of paper from a ship during the dispute. The company initially sought 10 million dollars damages, but subsequently reduced its demands to $500,000 - the biggest civil damages suit by an employer since the Dollar Sweets, Mudginberri, action. North is still harassing workers by continuing to pursue the case - four years on.¹³⁰

In the succeeding months, employee numbers at the Burnie mill were to plummet from over 1200 to less than 600 at the time of the November 1993 Australian Paper (Amcor) buy out. Contract labour has subsequently been used by Amcor, and unions at the mill reduced from eleven to two.¹³¹

In December 1994, North again entered the industrial relations fray with an announcement in Tasmanian newspapers that it was seeking expressions of interest for operators at its new Hampshire woodchip mill and its associated woodchip stockpile at the port of Burnie, as well as operators for its pine chip stockpile at the port, and general shiploading duties.¹³² At the same time, North made it clear that they would consider non-union applicants.¹³³

The Maritime Union of Australia, the official union handling all waterside activities at the port expressed its concern that North had refused to reply to earlier letters and threatened a waterfront strike.¹³⁴ The situation worsened in April after North's submission to the Industrial Relations Commission that no MUA member handle woodchips at the port. A picket was established at the port, part of a series of industrial actions that were to last five months. North inflamed the situation further by sending in Construction, Forestry Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) members from the Massey Greene pine mill into the disputed port facility to begin loading, placing them in an impossible situation.¹³⁵ At the same time, North's Hampshire Mill manager John Guest hinted in a letter to Massey Greene employees that jobs would be lost if CFMEU members working "as an incidental part of their ordinary duties" at the Burnie wharf enrolled with the MUA.¹³⁶ According to MUA official Noel Rafferty, "There's no doubt part of North's right-wing approach is to abolish the Trade Union Movement".¹³⁷

The "reform" of the MUA has subsequently become the cause celebre of the Liberal Party under Prime Minister John Howard, who declared himself a defender of the philosophies of the H. R. Nicholls Society in a "Canberra Times" article in 1986.

Industrial accidents

There have been a number of appaling accidents associated with North Forest Products. In 1992 an employee at the Massey Greene mill had both his feet severed at the ankles after becoming trapped in a pine shredder. Magistrate Mr Tim Hill fined the company $10,000 and the former mill manager Dr Michael Beardsell (now assistant to Malcolm Broomhead, executive director - operations) $3,000.¹³⁸