Environment
Mill: what WILL happen
Dion
I expect in the next few weeks John Howard or Kevin Rudd will announce about $200 million to subsidise the relocation of Gunns Ltd’s Tamar Valley pulp mill to Hampshire, behind Burnie.
This relocation will draw the support of media commentators such as Wayne Crawford, Sue Neales, Matthew Denholm and Warwick Raverty. It will also get the committed support of The Mercury and The Advocate.
But do not lose focus that the most sensitive electorate issue in this whole pulp mill fiasco is the total disregard of due process displayed by Gunns chief John Gay and his Tasmanian Government.
This is critical.
The assessment of a Hampshire mill proposal must be thorough, rigorous, transparent and open to public comment.
This process is best served by returning any Hampshire mill proposal to the Resource Planning and Development Commission for assessment.
This process should be expected to take as long as required to assess the social, economic and environmental impacts.