No Pulp Mill Alliance refocuses: ANZ first target

Australia’s union of anti-pulp mill groups, the No Pulp Mill Alliance, has refocused on ANZ Bank, given the risk that bankrupt Tasmanian logging company Gunns Limited’s largest creditor is sitting on the pulp mill permits, and may be seeking to sell them to a buyer that wants to use the permits to build a pulp mill.

The No Pulp Mill Alliance has today written to ANZ, reminding it why the pulp mill will never have a social licence and should not be built in the Tamar Valley.

Members of the No Pulp Mill Alliance have written to the ANZ Bank on more than one occasion since Gunns went into receivership. The ANZ has not responded to any of the letters.

“The No Pulp Mill Alliance calls on ANZ to make public its intentions with the pulp mill permits,” spokesperson for the Alliance, Lucy Landon-Lane said.

“The proposed pulp mill is a matter of public concern. The ANZ Bank is a public company. It ought to come public and tell us what it plans to do with the permits,” Ms Landon-Lane continued.

“Another meeting of Gunns’ creditors is due to take place today. This is an opportunity for ANZ to come clean and tell us what it intends to do with the dirty pulp mill permits.

“If ANZ takes any steps that support the construction of a pulp mill in the Tamar Valley, the Alliance will campaign vigorously against ANZ at a higher level than has occurred in the past,” Ms Landon-Lane concluded.

The No Pulp Mill Alliance is a community network that includes The Wilderness Society, Lawyers for Forests, Environment Tasmania, Pulp the Mill, Tasmanian Conservation Trust, Friends of the Tamar Valley, Women Against the Mill and Groundswell.
Lucy Landon-Lane, No Pulp Mill Alliance