HEMP INDUSTRY IN AUSTRALIA

From: westender@peg.apc.org

THE STORY SO FAR

1. ON February 15, HEMP South Australia rang to say that their government had decided to investigate the viability of a hemp fibre industry. They were acting swiftly, amending the relevent laws by regulation rather than legislation, and they expected to have over 100 farmers engaged in a hemp growing trial by April

2 On the 16 Feb, I put out the following press release for Queensland HEMP.

HEMP MEDIA RELEASE

GOSS SCORNS BILLION DOLLAR CROP! HEMP FOR FIBRE NOT WOODCHIP!

Yesterday the South Australian Government announced plans to fast-track the hemp industry in that state. In April, 100 South Australian farmers will begin growing hemp throughout the state.

"South Australia has stolen a march on Queensland in the development of a hemp industry due to Goss government inaction," Brisbane HEMP spokesperson, John Jiggens, declared.

"The people who will pay in the long run will be the farmers struggling in the forgotten rural areas of Queensland." Mr Jiggens said.

" Hemp is the glamour crop of the nineties. It has the potential to be a billion dollar crop."

• As a cloth, hemp is softer, warmer, and more water resistant than cotton, and commands much higher prices. The original Levi Jeans were made from hemp.
• The majority of the world's books were printed on hemp paper until the 20th Century. Banknotes are still printed on hemp paper.
• Hemp can produce from two to four times as much fibre per hectare as woodchipping.
• A hemp paper industry is labour intensive rather than being capital intensive like woodchip. This means MORE jobs. Woodchips sell for $60/ton. Hemp pulp sells for $400 per ton for low grade pulp, and up to $1500 for organosolv, the highest grade.
• 200,000 hectares of hemp could replace Australia's woodchip exports industry - subsidised by the taxpayers to the rate of $300 million.
• Cannabis hemp makes the strongest particle board with far greater durability than any woodchip source.

"Marijuana prohibition not only clogs our courts and prisons," Mr Jiggens said. " It denies our farmers the right to grow the crop of the decade.

"The South Australians have realised this. When will Queensland ever learn??"

John Jiggens for HEMP 17/2/95

THE STORY GROWS

The Courier Mail reponded to my press release by ringing up the Dept of Agriculture in Queensland, and wrote an article called HEMP PLAN REJECTED.

"The Queensland government has ruled out the development of a hemp industry. . . . A spokesman for Queensland Primary Industries Minister Ed Casey said yesterday the department was investigating

several plants for the development of a fibre industry. Hemp was less attractive in Queensland than several other plants because it was more suited to temperate climates."

Both the Greens and the National parties in Queensland criticised the government for rejecting hemp out of hand, and the Opposition Leader Rob Borbidge said he had commissioned a study into legalising the crop. This was duly reported in an article called DEBATE ON LEGALISING HEMP GROWS.

INFORMATION NEEDED FOR FURTHER PRESS RELEASES

What I was wondering is this; the Dept of Agriculture have dismissed hemp out of hand on the assumption it will not grow well in Queensland's tropical and sup-tropical climate; Queensland stretches from 29 degrees S to 11 S. I know Italy had a superb fibre hemp industry. Where else in the world was fibre hemp grown in tropical and sub-tropical areas???

John Jiggens

Queensland HEMP