Gunns donated to Libs after mill approval

Matthew Denholm, Rick Wallace Australian
TIMBER company Gunns donated $56,000 to the Liberal Party in the weeks after the Howard government gave conditional approval for the company’s $2.2billion Tasmanian pulp mill. Annual political donation returns released by the Australian Electoral Commission yesterday reveal Gunns donated $64,750 to the national and Tasmanian divisions of the Liberal Party in the 2007-08 financial year. Of this, $56,700 was donated to the Liberals in the time between then-environment minister Malcolm Turnbull’s conditional approval for the mill on October 4, 2007, and the federal election on November 24 of that year. The donations were made in sixpayments ranging, from $900 on October 12, to $25,000 on November 13. Donations of about $8050 were also made to the Liberal Party in July and August of 2007, while the mill’s federal environmental approval was being considered. Greens leader Bob Brown said the funds raised serious concerns and questions about “the influence of political donations”. “You have to wonder why Gunns gave not just one lump-sum donation to the federal Liberal Party between the announcement of the go-ahead for the pulp mill and the election, but a series of donations,” Senator Brown said. “Couldn’t Gunns make up their minds? Or was there some flow of information between the party and the company?” Read more here