SO MUCH FOR BARTLETT’S PULP MILL ‘LINE IN THE SAND’

As Treasurer Acts as de Facto Agent for Gunns Ltd

www.tas.greens.org.au

The Tasmanian Greens today described Treasurer Michael Aird’s overseas trip to assist Gunns Ltd to obtain funding for its Tamar Valley pulp mill project as an outrageous misuse of Tasmanian taxpayers’ money.

Greens Leader and Treasury spokesperson Nick McKim MP said that Michael Aird’s spruiking of the proposed pulp mill just goes to show how meaningless the Premier David Bartlett’s ‘line in the sand’ has turned out to be.

“This is a return to the bad old days of Paul Lennon, when Gunns would say ‘jump’ and the government would ask ‘how high?’ Tasmanians thought those times were over, but it clearly they are not,” Mr McKim said.

“So much for David Bartlett’s line in the sand. We already knew that his promise to end government support for the mill meant nothing to him, and now we know it means nothing to Mr Aird either.”

“Michael Aird is using Tasmanian taxpayers’ money gallivanting around the world acting as a de facto agent for Gunns when he should be concentrating on getting Tasmania through some of the biggest financial challenges we have seen for some time.”

“Tasmanians will be outraged to learn that their hard earned tax dollars are being spent spruiking a project that most of them do not want.”
Nick McKim MP Greens Leader