The apparent positioning towards an industry bailout, with the Gunns mill as a centrepiece, follows intense lobbying from the Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union. Mr Burke used a ministerial statement to spruik economic benefits from the Gunns mill, in the clearest sign yet that the Rudd government has decided to back the project. “As the Minister for Forestry, let me state quite clearly that I want to see the Gunns Bell Bay mill built — provided the requirements of federal environmental law are met,” he said.

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Freedom of Information documents reveal the timber company, Gunns, will be charged very low water rates for its planned pulp mill in Tasmania’s north. That has upset farmers who have forked out millions of dollars for irrigation water from the Meander Dam. About half the water in the Meander Dam is released for environmental flows and once it has travelled downstream it is available for Gunns’ pulp mill. While farmers have to pay $1100 per megalitre, Freedom of Information documents obtained by the Wilderness Society reveal that Gunns will only pay $24 for the same amount.

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Updated on Monday, May 11, 2009 at 09:34AM by stevem

Updated on Monday, May 11, 2009 at 10:26AM by stevem

Updated on Monday, May 11, 2009 at 03:32PM by stevem

Updated on Wednesday, May 13, 2009 at 08:09AM by stevem

A PARROT is about to cost 1000 workers their jobs because the Federal Government has ordered a NSW timber industry to shut to protect the bird. The unprecedented government intervention will see the NSW families out of a job within days. The Daily Telegraph has learned Federal Environment Minister Peter Garrett’s department issued a stop-work order to the State Government 10 days ago, a move the industry claims could wipe out the entire southern NSW town of Deniliquin.

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The Oscar-winning actress was among environmentalists who tried to stop lumber company Gunns Ltd from gaining Government permission for to build its controversial $2 billion wood-pulp mill in Tasmania. Now, a year after initial approval was granted, Gunns has yet to secure financing and is seeking a partner. The project is one of dozens opposed by conservation groups that have been delayed or shelved as the credit crunch and economic slowdown drove down commodity prices. The winners may be the blind snakes, jellyfish-eating turtles and spear-toothed sharks that inhabit areas targeted by new mines and being championed by activists. “It’s bad enough having low commodity prices but a lot of companies faced with severe or significant environmental issues would just say, ‘This is all too hard, we don’t need this,’ ” Peter Arden, a resources analyst at Ord Minnett, said. Environmental appeals are delaying approvals for some of Australia’s $100 billion of planned oil and gas projects by more than a year, while regulations are boosting costs, according to the Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association.

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Updated on Thursday, January 8, 2009 at 05:59PM by stevem

TIMBER company Gunns has vowed to defy a federal warning that building its Tasmanian pulp mill without full environmental approval is a $2.2 billion gamble. Gunns Ltd yesterday said it would push ahead with construction of the Tamar Valley mill without waiting for final federal approvals, likely to be two years away. This was despite a warning from federal Environment Minister Peter Garrett that such an approach was risky. “Whether or not Gunns decide to actually start constructing a mill prior to getting final approval is … a risk for them to take if they so choose,” Mr Garrett told the ABC.

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Updated on Thursday, July 10, 2008 at 11:45AM by stevem

AUSTRALIA will defy a call by the 21-nation World Heritage Committee to extend Tasmania’s Wilderness World Heritage Area to include tracts of tall eucalypt forests scheduled for logging. The WHC meeting in Quebec called on Canberra to “consider extension of the property to include appropriate areas of tall eucalypt forests”. Conservationists immediately urged federal Environment Minister Peter Garrett to heed the call, but late yesterday he rejected it. “The Australian Government has no plans to extend the current (WHA) boundary into production forests,” Mr Garrett said in a statement.

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While Gunns Ltd struggles to secure finance for its controversial Tamar Valley pulp mill which labours under a cloud of doubt over its environmental impacts and diminishing public support, a further challenge to its future is being played out in a Victorian court. This challenge has ramifications not just for the pulp mill, but for environmental regulation across Australia. The Melbourne-based group, Lawyers for Forests, is challenging the approval of Gunns’ pulp mill by former federal environment minister Malcolm Turnbull. The arguments are complex, but at their centre is the question of whether Commonwealth environment law allows the Minister to approve the mill and then require further testing to see what the impact of the effluent from the mill would be.

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Updated on Thursday, June 19, 2008 at 11:35AM by stevem

THE proposed Gunns pulp mill suffered a new blow yesterday as Tasmanian Premier David Bartlett refused to rule out ripping up a sovereign-risk agreement for the project. The deal - struck under former premier Paul Lennon - grants compensation of up to $15million to Gunns should further forest protection affect wood supply for the mill.

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PLANS for Tasmania’s controversial $2 billion pulp mill are dead, say the Greens, following reports the ANZ bank will pull out of funding the project. ANZ said today it had not yet made a decision on whether to finance the Tamar Valley project planned by timber giant Gunns Ltd. A report on the BusinessSpectator website today quoted banking sources as saying ANZ will not provide funding for the project because of tight credit conditions. An ANZ spokeswoman declined to comment directly but referred to the bank’s standing comment on the issue, which was last updated in January.

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ANZ Bank says it is examining whether the Gunns pulp mill proposed for northern Tasmania will destroy high conservation value forests before deciding whether to finance the project. Environment Minister Peter Garrett, his predecessor Malcolm Turnbull and the Tasmanian Government all refused to consider the impact on Tasmania’s forests of the mill’s appetite for up to four million tonnes of woodchips each year. However, ANZ - Gunns’ banker and a proposed financier of the $2 billion project - earlier this month adopted a policy committing it to “avoiding” support for projects that destroy high conservation value forests.

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