Economy
Reading into the pulpmill fictions
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.