The ABC, 12.24pm:
Court strikes blow to Gunns compo claim
And,
The ABC, 4.41pm:
Gunns vows to proceed with lawsuit
And,
What the Greens reckon:
Peg Putt MHA
GREENS OPPOSITION LEADERMonday, 18 JULY 2005
GUNNS 20 VICTORY
Statement of Claim Struck Out
The Tasmanian Greens today welcomed the Judgement by Justice Bongiorno in the Supreme Court in Melbourne to strike out Gunns’ statement of claim against the Gunns 20.
Greens Opposition Leader Peg Putt MHA declared a victory for community action to protect Tasmania’s outstanding forests saying that community members will now renew their efforts, and that the Greens will continue to focus on the range of environmental and social issues facing Tasmania, including the impending decision for Betfair to go ahead.
“Our resolve to fight for our wild places and for a genuinely clean, green and clever Tasmania is strengthened, and we will never give up,” Ms Putt said.
“Times have been tough for some of the defendants who have been faced with losing everything simply for stepping out in defence of their community.”
“This isn’t the end of the road, but it is in sight after the Judge described Gunns’ claims as ‘incomprehensible,’ ‘embarrassing,’ and ‘unintelligible’ and told them they had four weeks to come up with a radically altered claim bearing no relation to the original.”
“I have never understood what it was I was alleged to have done outside of my normal duties as a Member of Parliament representing my constituents because the writ was impossible to make sense of.”
Costs were sought by the defendants and that application will be heard next week.
