Pulp, and the Premier’s house (7)

Extracts:

With public polling consistently showing the Greens party headed for a balance of power in the 25-seat House of Assembly after the March 18 poll, their leader said if they tried to alter the mill, it would be to improve it, not to stop it.

“Certainly the Greens make no secret that we think it undesirable on a number of fronts, this mill, and that we can do a lot better,” Ms Putt said. The pulping process should have a closed loop, rather than emit effluent, be chlorine-free, entirely plantation-based and acceptable to the local community, she said.

Environmental approval for the mill is being managed by the state’s independent Resource Planning and Development Commission. More than two years after the project was announced, the commission is awaiting submission of the key Integrated Impact Statement on the impact of the mill by Gunns.

The company is finalising the statement, which requires input from a large number of consultants, Gunns’ spokeswoman Sarah Dent said. “We are not holding off because there is an election on,” she said.

And,

Meanwhile, as Premier Paul Lennon rejected allegations of impropriety that have dogged his campaign, he confirmed that a Gunns subsidiary, Hinman Wright and Manser, had done most of the renovation work so far on a colonial sandstone home he is restoring outside Hobart.

The firm promotes itself on its website as a civil construction company specialising in million-dollar state and local government contracts. Ms Dent said the contract was carried out at commercial rates.

Mr Lennon said: “Hinmans have done some of the work on my house, yes. So far my renovations have cost me in excess of $150,000.” Hinmans’ proportion of that was “well over $100,000”, he said.

Mr Lennon was speaking after he was cleared of impropriety over government work by a brother’s company.

The Auditor-General, Mike Blake, said the allegation was unfounded that Mr Lennon had recommended to councils and government departments that his brother’s consulting company be appointed to conduct management studies.

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Earlier: The Premier’s house (6) and 5, 4, 3, 2, 1