Judith Ajani Canberra Times
The silent sleeper in the Gunns pulp mill debate is its commercial viability. Perhaps Environment Minister Malcolm Turnbull, with his business blood, cannot imagine a company advancing a $1.5billion investment without having done its sums, carefully. Turnbull is not alone here, most people would think it incredible. But Gunns is no ordinary company. It has never experienced a conflict-free business day since its mid-1980s beginnings. Its business battles are as much battles against greens as they are for market share. Gunns is a company lifted by a cheer squad rooted in four decades of battles over hydro-electric dams, mining, woodchipping and pulp mills in an island state of just 500,000 people. While its cheer squad bears little commercial responsibility for Tasmania’s largest-ever investment, financial prudence requires that Gunns’ board somehow keeps its feet firmly on the ground.
