It reads like a John Grisham novel ­ a story about corporate greed, political corruption and environmental destruction that demonstrates how parties on both sides of the political spectrum, and business can collaborate so an organisation is protected by legislation to become Australia’s largest woodchipping company.

Brothers John and Thomas Gunn established their timber company, Gunns Limited, in 1875. Today it is listed on the Australian Stock Exchange, directly employs more than 900 staff and has an annual turnover of $240 million dollars.

Photo: www.arttoday.com

Last year Gunns bought out Boral's Tasmanian woodchipping interests and recently secured a $2.25 million loan from the ANZ Bank to acquire North Forest Products despite ANZ’s supposed environmental policy that includes “carefully analysing environmentally sensitive customer lending proposals”.

These deals saw Gunns become Tasmania’s only woodchipping company, exporting 5.5 million tonnes of woodchips from Tasmania per year, with almost half derived from old growth forests including the Styx Valley of the Giants where the world’s tallest flowering eucalypts live. Gunns’ success can be explained in part by parliamentary processes, which have guaranteed it continued access to Tasmania’s old growth forests, and have managed to diffuse the influence of their green antagonists.

One of Gunns’ current directors is ex-Tasmanian Liberal premier Robin Gray, who called a state election in 1989 only to lose his majority. Labor and the Independents (as the Greens were called at the time) combined to become the Labor Green Accord (LGA) to prevent the Liberals remaining as a minority government. This upset the forest industry which campaigned for a second election before the LGA could take power.

The campaign collapsed when Edmund Rouse, the Chairman of the then Gunns Kilndried Timber Industries, was imprisoned for attempting to bribe Labor MP Jim Cox to cross the floor to prevent the LGA from taking power. During the investigation into these bribery charges it was revealed that the campaign for a second election actually stemmed from Gray’s office, though it was funded by the forest industry.

A royal commission also implicated another of Gunns’ current directors, David McQuestin, who was Managing Director of Examiner National Television (ENT) of which Rouse was a substantial shareholder. McQuestin was cleared of being unlawfully involved as a principal offender in Rouse’s bribery charges though the investigation acknowledged his acquiescence with Rouse’s direction was highly improper.

The Labor Green Accord eventually came to power and a Forest and Forest Industry Council (FFIC) was established in an attempt to settle the forest industry/conservation debate. The conservation groups involved withdrew after they realised the FFIC’s main concern lay with preserving the forest industry, not the forests themselves.

The FFIC attempted to pass Resource Security legislation that would give the forest industry guaranteed access to the forests. At the same time the publicly owned Forestry Commission became a government enterprise, and was made exempt from freedom of information legislation. Labor’s attempt to pass the Resource Security legislation caused the downfall of the LGA coalition and Labor called an election in 1991.

Ray Groom’s Liberals returned to power and furthered the forest industry’s interests by introducing anti-forestry protest laws that made protesting a criminal offence with heavy financial penalties making it virtually impossible for protests to take place.

These laws were later repealed because they were so effective they infringed the National Competition Policy by giving Tasmania an unfair advantage over other states’ forestry industries.

Meanwhile, the Labor Opposition sought to win back forestry votes. When a Regional Forest Agreement was signed in 1997, Labor actually criticised the Liberals for going too far in protecting the forests. Labor campaigned to decrease the number of seats in House of Assembly from 35 to 25 to reduce the Green’s chances of holding the balance of power. The Liberals and business groups naturally supported the successful bill and the next state election saw a Labor majority after just one seat went to the Greens.

Woodchipping operations in other Australian states are being forced out of business but Tasmania’s two major parties, without the Greens to moderate them, have created the perfect environment for the timber industry.

Coupled with the financial backing of ANZ Bank, this political situation undoubtedly made Gunns’ decision to buy out their rival woodchipping operations an easy one. And there is no doubt that all these events have transpired to propel Gunns to their position as king of the Australian woodchip pile.