Forestry Tasmania today released its trading result for the 2008-09 trading year.
We are pleased to report that the business recorded an operating profit of $9.3 million for 2008-09, up from $8.6 million in the previous financial year.
The result continues our record of delivering an operating profit every year since we were corporatised in 1994.
About 92 per cent of the $170 million dollars spent by Forestry Tasmania last year was returned to the Tasmanian economy via local suppliers.
That equates to around $344 for every man, woman and child in the state.
Key points:
Profit: $9.3m
Revenue: $182m
Expenditure: $173m
Salaries: $30m
Contractor payments: $88m
We have taken the decision to make our financial information more accessible to the community, by releasing our results early, placing advertisements in the daily newspapers, issuing this edition of Branchline, and holding a media conference this morning. We hope that these efforts will destroy some of the myths surrounding our business.
Myth number one is that Forestry Tasmania loses money. In fact, we have never made an operating loss since corporatisation.
We could easily double or treble our profits, if we ruthlessly pursued profit.
However, we believe that investments in recreation infrastructure, conservation management, fire fighting and scientific research are equally as important, and we have invested around $10 million in these community services.
Polling conducted for us by EMRS shows that the community agrees with us on this – 53% believe that our principal responsibility is to ‘manage forests for the next generation’.
Myth number two is that Forestry Tasmania relies on government hand outs. That is not true. Funds that we receive under the Tasmanian Community Forest Agreement (TCFA) are provided as compensation for forests that are no longer available for harvesting because of the expanded reserve system.
Our results include income of $13 million in TCFA funds in 2008-09, which was spent on transitioning the business from a reliance on old growth timber to regrowth and plantations. The funds would not have been spent if they had not been received, and therefore have had a neutral impact on our operating financial result.
The decision has been taken to publish Forestry Tasmania’s financial results prior to their parliamentary release, to further improve our sharing of information with stakeholders.
Normally, our financial results would not be released until October. We recognise that the early release will leave us open to unprecedented scrutiny, not to mention the inevitable mischief making on the part of the critics who misrepresent our financial position.
However, we hope that today’s early release, along with a full media briefing and advertising in the daily newspapers, will help the community to understand that Forestry Tasmania is in a strong financial position.
Forestry Tasmania is well placed to take advantage of the economic upturn when it comes. Our stakeholders can be assured that forestry is a solution to the Global Financial Crisis.
Bob Gordon
Branchline August 24, 2009
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