Outrage as Taib’s Ta Ann Files Losses in Tasmania
- By Sarawak Report
The Leader of Australia’s Green Party, SenatorBob Brown from Tasmania, has issued a statement deploring the fact that the Taib family timber company Ta Ann has once again declared losses in the state.
Ta Ann is the world’s biggest hardwood timber company in terms of market capitalisation, achieving a revenue of over 800 million ringgit last year, a 25% increase on the year before. The company has also declared a 25% profit margin in its latest Annual Report.
Yet, to the fury of environmentalists, the company managed to extract massive public subsidies to set up business inTasmania. It is now extracting timber from the remaining wild forest areas, amid huge controversy.
And, despite those subsidies the company has just announced further losses. Yesterday the senator stated:
“Since it began operation in Tasmania, Ta Ann has made a net loss of about $18 million, despite receiving $10 million in direct public subsidies and being housed in premises which cost Forestry Tasmania $22 million and which it runs at a loss….When public money is poured into poor business models in forestry, we have less to spend on our hospitals, schools and national parks” [Senator Bob Brown]
Australians overwhelmingly reject logging
The protest comes hard on the heals of a recent opinion poll conducted by the Green Party, showing just how unpopular logging is in Australia. 88% of people surveyed said they want all logging of their wild jungle stopped immediately and that the 570,000 hectares of native forests in Tasmania should be turned into a National Park.
The Greens are therefore demanding to know why an apparently powerful lobby has nevertheless managed to extract such subsidies for Ta Ann and gain the company access to the state, only to see the money wasted?
The poll was carried out late last month:
