Environment
Mill: Franklin revisited
Matthew Denholm Australian
TASMANIA faces the most divisive environmental battle since the Franklin Dam dispute after Gunns said it would build its $2 billion Tamar Valley pulp mill following approval yesterday from the federal Government. Company executive chairman John Gay advised Premier Paul Lennon the controversial project could proceed, despite 48 conditions imposed by federal Environment Minister Malcolm Turnbull. Labor environment spokesman Peter Garrett also promised to support the mill based on the new conditions. But opponents of the mill vowed that the real fight had just begun, with plans for mass protests, legal challenges and a campaign targeting the project’s financial backers, including ANZ Bank. ANZ last night said it was yet to commit to the project and that it would first have to clear its own technical, social and environmental reviews.
The Australian Editorial:
CONTROVERSY over the construction of a $2 billion pulp mill in Tasmania’s Tamar Valley indicates the difficulty the Apple Isle is having appreciating that future prosperity lies in preserving its natural advantage rather than consuming it.The pulp mill has also highlighted the depths to which Labor Premier Paul Lennon was prepared to stoop to push the Gunns proposal through. And it has exposed federal Labor’s environmental hypocrisy.
Reaction:
GEOFFREY COUSINS: No, Malcolm Turnbull has squibbed the issue. He should’ve rejected this proposal, and he knows he should’ve rejected the proposal. Twenty four new conditions on the one narrow issue, that the Chief Scientist was allowed to look at because Malcolm Turnbull narrowed it down to that one issue. So if we got 24 new conditions on that one issue, how many would we have got on all of the other issues that the Tasmanian Government buried when they closed down the public hearing process?
How the story is covered:
Breaking News
Thursday
Environment Minister Malcolm Turnbull has imposed an additional 24 conditions for operation of a Gunns pulp mill, already conditionally approved by him.
This totals 48 additional operating conditions; making the guidelines the toughest in the world, said Turnbull.
Chief Scientist Jim Peacock has recommended the trigger levels for dioxin emission be four times more stringent; dramatically lower than anywhere else in the world, said Turnbull.
What Turnbull says:
Turnbull’s statement: World’s toughest conditions (and the Peacock Report)
Comment:
What the Greens Senators say
What the Wilderness Society says
Tasmanians Against the Pulpmill
Lennon Labor
Geoffrey Cousins:: “He’s squibbed the issue; he’s a lost cause”: World Today:
Read more here
Meanwhile:
Gunns trading halt
Latest Stock Market detail:
Here
Mercury coverage, and comments: Here
And, on the street: Do you support the pulp mill?