Bob McMahon TAP MR

Today TAP will be protesting outside ANZ Launceston, 69 Brisbane St., beginning at 12.15pm. TAP will be joined by members of the Tasmanian Aboriginal Land & Sea Council and the Tasmanian Aboriginal Council.
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The ANZ bank CEO, Mike Smith, need only look at the damage done to the reputation of Paul Lennon, with his approval rating sinking as low as 24%, to understand that an association with this deeply unpopular mill will be a public relations disaster.
MEDIA RELEASE Monday April 7th 2008
TAP (Tasmanians Against the Pulpmill)

Today TAP will be protesting outside ANZ Launceston, 69 Brisbane St., beginning at 12.15pm. TAP will be joined by members of the Tasmanian Aboriginal Land & Sea Council and the Tasmanian Aboriginal Council.

At the same time TAP will be releasing the results of a statewide poll of 1000 people it commissioned EMRS to conduct immediately after Easter. The results of the question “Are you in favour or against the ANZ bank funding the pulp mill?” are very clear.

Premier Paul Lennon recently acknowledged that Tasmanians had not given him and his friends at Gunns a ‘social license’ to build their pulp mill. Now it is clear Tasmanians are telling ANZ the same thing.

The ANZ bank CEO, Mike Smith, need only look at the damage done to the reputation of Paul Lennon, with his approval rating sinking as low as 24%, to understand that an association with this deeply unpopular mill will be a public relations disaster. With nearly $3 billion of “problem loans” on their books, and an increasing catalogue of bad press, this is the last thing the ANZ needs.

TAP is convinced that ANZ’s reputation will be severely at risk should the bank align itself with a company and a project that has become one of the most controversial and unpopular in Australian
corporate history. TAP is convinced that if the ANZ bank is truly assessing the proposed Gunns pulp mill against the social and environmental benchmarking tool, the Equator Principle, to which ANZ
is a proud signatory, then they must walk away from the proposed pulp mill immediately.

Should the CEO, Mike Smith, not make an announcement in the very near future declaring that it is not the intention of the ANZ to fund the pulp mill, Tasmanians Against the Pulpmill (TAP), in an alliance with other community groups and NGO’s, will take this campaign nationally and internationally.

( EMRS Pulp Mill Research Report prepared for Tasmanians Against the Pulpmill

The survey was conducted between the 20th and 28th March 2008. 1000 householders were interviewed by telephone: 500 from the South, 280 from the North and 220 from the North West and West.

Question 5. Are you in favour or against the ANZ bank funding the pulp mill?

45% of respondents were “against” the ANZ bank funding the pulp mill. 29% were in “favour” and 26% had “no opinion”.

Figures adjusted to exclude the “no opinion” respondents gives a result of 61% “against” the ANZ bank funding the pulp mill and 39% in favour”. )

Earlier: Daring anti-mill protest against ANZ
ANZ and social conscience