Coroner & Legal
Standoff as MLCs demand Gunns $34m compo advice
The Tasmanian Government is on a collision course with the Legislative Council after snubbing its ruling to release legal advice about a taxpayer-funded payout to the timber company Gunns.
The Premier is steadfastly refusing to release the Solicitor General’s advice that led to more than $34 million from the $276 million federally-funded Intergovernmental Forest Agreement being paid to settle Gunns’ debt with Forestry Tasmania and its residual native timber rights.
Lara Giddings told Parliament she would break important legal conventions if the advice was made public but the President of the Upper House, Sue Smith, says previous governments have done so.
“This is about Parliament and Parliament’s rights on behalf of the people,” she said.
“The same message has been delivered in every electorate that the people want to know why a Government has used taxpayers money to pay out two companies.”
The Government failed to table the Solicitor General’s advice by the close of business today, as demanded by the Legislative Council in its ruling last week.
It has prompted the Liberal MLC Vanessa Goodwin to table a motion this evening urging Upper House MPs to ignore any IGA matters until they get their way.
“That until the Solicitor General’s advice is tabled the Legislative Council shall not consider any bill initiated by the government intended to implement the intergovernmental forest agreement between the Commonwealth and the state of Tasmania.”
The motion will not be debated until the House sits again next month, and the IGA legislation will not be introduced until next year.
• Mill ruling like Alice in Wonderland: Brown
14:59 AEST Thu Sep 29 2011
Bob Brown says the debate surrounding Gunns’ Tamar Valley pulp mill has entered a fantasy world like Alice in Wonderland.
But the Greens leader says he’s confident the project will fall down a rabbit hole.
Tasmanian Environmental Protection Authority (EPA )Director Alex Schaap on Wednesday ruled the mill’s permits, which required work to have substantially commenced on the project before August 30, were still valid.
Mr Schaap found that $120 million had been spent on the mill, and said he would continue regulating the project unless a court determined otherwise.
Senator Brown said he did not accept Mr Schaap’s ruling.
“That is the opinion of a bureaucrat, who is welcome to his opinion, (but) he’s wrong,” he told reporters in Hobart on Thursday.
“When you look at the wording, you can use words to mean what you like, and I think Alice in Wonderland is a good parallel for what’s going on with the pulp mill.
“The fact is, any reasonable person … would be amazed that they can claim they have really got underway with that project by the work that had been done at the start of this month.
“But the real question is where is Gunns going with that pulp mill, and I think they’re going down the tubes.”
Gunns is yet to announce a joint venture partner for the project, but managing director Greg L’Estrange said the company was in talks with two potential suitors.
The company faces legal action from anti-mill group Pulp the Mill, who claim the mill is being built contrary to the Tasmanian Land Use Planning and Approvals Act.
The case will be heard in the Hobart Magistrates Court on October 14.
http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=8353594