Bob McMahon MR
‘Tasmanians Against the Pulp Mill’ (TAP) chairman, Bob McMahon said “We are looking at least a possible $2 billion Class Action against Gunns Limited which will include thousands of claims for loss of property and housing values in the Tamar Valley, loss to businesses, loss of public amenities and potential threats to public health & safety”.
PRESS RELEASE LAUNCESTON: Tuesday, November 13th 2007.
Potentially the largest class action in Australia’s history is being planned against Gunns Limited and their proposed pulp mill in Tasmania’s Tamar Valley.
A meeting of over 200 people voted to begin a Register of Potential Litigants to establish the potential for a Class Action if the pulp mill proceeds.
‘Tasmanians Against the Pulp Mill’ (TAP) chairman, Bob McMahon said “We are looking at least a possible $2 billion Class Action against Gunns Limited which will include thousands of claims for loss of property and housing values in the Tamar Valley, loss to businesses, loss of public amenities and potential threats to public health & safety”.
With over 100,000 people living in the Tamar Valley and Launceston, any class action would far exceed the liabilities facing James Hardie and their responsibilities to safeguard the health of their workers and the public.
Mr McMahon said that “Unlike James Hardie, Gunns and their shareholders and potential financiers of the pulp mill know full well the health hazards, issues of public safety and the potential for loss of property values. They are also fully aware of the risks that the mill poses to businesses such as tourism, vineyards, horticulture, farming and the service industries to these businesses. They are fully aware of the health dangers of the dioxins they are planning to dump into Bass Strait and the threat to our fisheries”.
We need to make both shareholders in Gunns and foreign and local financiers of the pulp mill fully aware of the risks that they are taking, and that we are aware of those risks, and we intend to make full use of all legal avenues available to us.
The TAP meeting also was told of investigations into activities of the Finnish company Jaakko Poyry, designers and advisors to Gunns proposed pulp mill. A string of Poyry designed pulp mills around the world seemed to have experienced environmental, financial and operational difficulties.
Scandinavian companies have a stranglehold in the design and construction of pulp mills in the Southern Hemisphere and, in many cases, mills are recommended to be built before adequate plantation timber is available. Demands for feed-stock from native forests are then made to feed these mills. Much of the forest devastation in S.E. Asia and Indonesia, appears to stem from this practice.
Mr McMahon said “Gunns Tasmanian pulp mill proposal was a first rate example of this ploy with millions of tonnes of native forest, sold by Forestry Tasmania at give-away prices to Gunns, solely to feed the monster-mill proposed for the Tamar Valley.
