Lindsay Tuffin
No overt support for the Gunns pulp mill as asserted by commentators? A further nail in the coffin? It’s a bit premature for that. For hidden away in the Budget papers is one of the single biggest subsidies for the mill: infrastructure for the transport of logs.
But $27 million will be used this year to fund rail infrastructure upgrades, track maintenance and administration costs. Mr Aird said the big parcel of rail funding would go-ahead despite today’s shock news that Tasmania’s sole rail operator, Pacific National is about to pull out of Tasmania. ( Here )
Commentators and observers seem entirely to have overlooked the federal and state promises to gift Gunns millions to upgrade road and rail transport to get its logs to the mill.
Remember: Labor’s $110 million gift to Gunns pulp mill. Well there’s millions in the Bartlett government to facilitate that.
