Taxpayer cash splurged on imported paper despite directive to support Australian industry

TAXPAYER money is being splurged on imported copy paper by government departments despite a ministerial directive to support the Australian industry.

The Australian Paper Mill at Maryvale.

• Workers pay to keep paper mill open
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TAXPAYER money is being splurged on imported copy paper by government departments despite a ministerial directive to support the Australian industry.

New figures reveal more than two thirds of the paper bought by Assistant Forestry Minister Anne Ruston’s department is imported from Indonesia (41 per cent) and Austria (25 per cent).

This is despite Ms Ruston writing to fellow Coalition members last year asking them to buy Australian-made paper to promote the local industry and jobs.

Assistant Minister for Agriculture Anne Ruston. Picture: Dylan Coker

Senator Kim Carr. Picture: Stuart McEvoy

It comes after the revelation in November that taxpayer money was being spent on illegally “dumped” imported copy paper, which has undermined the future of 1000 jobs in the Latrobe Valley.

“This is a classic case of Liberal hypocrisy — the Government says one thing yet does another.

If the Assistant Minster stands by the words in her letter she must first get her own department in order, which is a vast consumer of paper,” Labor’s industry spokesman Kim Carr said.

“The Liberals constantly claim that they support paper manufacturing in the Latrobe Valley but time and time again we find their harmful actions are counter to their fine rhetoric.”

The Federal Government has faced calls to drop its addiction to dirt-cheap paper — mainly from Indonesia, Brazil and Thailand — in favour of Australian paper. Analysis of the spending habits of major Commonwealth agencies has found an average of less than 10 per cent of their photocopy paper is Australian made.

There is no excuse for the Government not buying Australian when a local manufacturer provides the best value for money, and that is certainly the case with Australian Paper’s investment at Maryvale.”

The Anti-Dumping Commission has found more than 10 brands of copy paper were being sold at below cost price.

The owner of Maryvale Mill, the Latrobe Valley’s single largest employer, has said the flood of cheap imports had put the future of the Australian industry at grave risk.