Operators of tree nurseries in Western Australia’s south say their industry has been decimated by political changes to carbon pricing. Sources: 7News, Yahoo
Several nurseries have been pushed out of business and more are on the brink of collapse.
Across the Great Southern and lower Wheatbelt, business at many production nurseries picked up when the previous Federal Government set a $23 a tonne price on carbon, encouraging companies to offset emissions.
Many businesses turned to nursery-sourced programs to offset emissions through tree and vegetation planting.
Keith Parnell, who operates a production nursery in Tincurrin near Narrogin, said that changed when the price was dropped to match the European model, pushing him to the brink of collapse.
“It’s basically left us without a business,” he said. The change effectively cut the price of Australian permits by around 75% and brought the trade of people like Parnell to a screeching halt.
“It meant that the market completely collapsed and with it our tree growing industry,” he said. “It’s dismal, all of the production nurseries that were producing carbon-type trees and with the Landcare market, it’s all collapsed into a big heap at the moment.”
Steve Blyth operates a similar business about an hour’s drive south in Katanning. It was started by his parents in 1978 and again really took off due to the prospect of big polluters pouring millions into vegetation projects.
Blyth also said the switch to the European-based price was devastating.
“I’m very worried about my business’ survival,” he said. “For my business it’s dropped production down, we used to be producing 1.5 to 2 million stems per year, this year I’ll be lucky if I can get 200,000 stems.
“I’m in there fighting, someone has to grow these seedlings for revegetation works, otherwise nothing is going to get done.”
The change in Government has brought another change in policy with the Coalition bringing legislation to federal Parliament to repeal the Carbon Tax, after which it intends to implement its ‘direct action’ policy.
Ray Wilson is the chief executive of Perth-based Carbon Neutral, which works with companies to offset their carbon emissions. Its list of clients include some of WA’s biggest local governments, such as the cities of Joondalup, Rockingham and South Perth, as well as the Fremantle and Port Hedland Ports and the Water Corporation. It also works with a long list of private companies, including Wesfarmers.
Wilson said the political uncertainty surrounding carbon pricing has had a ‘big negative impact’, particularly amongst big private companies.
“Two years ago some of those said if they had the option of buying permits from the Government or paying the carbon tax or working with us to plant trees, they said it was a no-brainer,” he said.
“But as soon as it was announced that the coalition would repeal the carbon tax, they’ve had to sit on the fence and they’re still sitting on the fence waiting for us.”
Parnell said he’ll find out shortly if he continues to operate at all next season.
“There’s one small project that is possible; it’s sub-economic but at least we’re there for the hope that the Coalition Government will bring some useful policies with the Direct Action plan,” he said.
“If that doesn’t happen we’ll definitely close, we can’t continue doing what we’re doing at the moment, we’ll close down and look for other opportunities.
“There’d be a lot of infrastructure here on the property that is unsaleable at the moment anyway due to lack of demand for any of the products.
“So we’d mothball anything that’s storable and sell off any mobile plant and hope someone in the future might want to take it on and start up again.”
There are still organisations continuing voluntarily with their carbon offset plans, said Wilson.
Parnell and Blyth warn that while the voluntary market does good work, it is insufficient to sustain the many struggling production nurseries in the region.
The main other potential source of assistance is the Government’s direct action policy, details which are still to be finalised.
It’s expected to include programs to facilitate the planting of around 20 million trees, but Blyth said that will not make up the difference.
“It’s just a drop in the ocean, really,” he said. “In WA alone, I could count up five nurseries last year that would’ve produced 22 million trees between us.”
