Political factors:
The Commonwealth and state government environmental support for the pulp mill project had been achieved in 2007, despite bitter public opposition. This is a very strong support from the Government in order to utilize Australia’s expanded forest resource, as there is a significant increase in hardwood pulpwood availability projected and Australia’s hardwood pulpwood currently processed onshore less than 7%.
“Plantation 2020”, a partnership between the Governments of Australia, was established in 1997, although its Vision 2020 had been established as part of the National Forest Policy Statement in 1992. Vision 2020 aimed to treble the area of tree crops by 2020. The Government also expected continued economic growth, especially in Asia-Pacific region. It is also recommended that Vision 2020 might maximize potential economic and environmental benefits of plantations through market development that would attract more private investment
The Australian Government recognized that its proposed Emissions Trading Scheme could lead to a loss of competitiveness for trade-exposed firms. In response, in late 2009, the Australian Government committed $19 million to address four areas of importance to the industry (Creation of ForestWorks as the Forest Industry Skills Council, Development of a forest industry database, addressing climate change impacts on forestry, Assisting industry value-adding)
Economic factors:
Since ANZ had withdrawn funding in May 2008, under public pressure, and the Global Financial Crisis had made investment funds even more difficult to access.
In 2008 and 2009, many projects for new capacity were either cancelled or put on hold due to financing difficulties.
Since 1997 more than 0.5 million hectares of new MIS plantations had been established. Plantations had largely