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Posted August 15th, 2007 by admin

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For earlier media stories by month and year on Gunns' planned pulp mill and related issues, go to the links at the bottom of the page.

For media releases from TAP Into A Better Tasmania see media releases.  

 

Media reports for  May / June 2011

Peace deal struck in Tasmanian forests                                                                                                                                                   Warring parties in Tasmania have signed a historic agreement designed to end 30 years of conflict over logging in public native forests. The deal, announced late on Thursday, is now dependent on state and federal government agreement, as well as assent from timber company Gunns.  ABC

THE ANZ Bank reaffirmed yesterday that it would not provide finance for the $2.5 billion Gunns pulp mill at Bell Bay. "There has been no change in our position since May 2008," a bank spokesman said. Gunns told the ASX on Wednesday the company was working on a facility that better reflected the need for pulp-mill construction finance. The Mercury

 

Forestry Tasmania and timber company Gunns are accusing each other of lying in a row about woodchip sales to China. Gunns' chief executive, Greg L'Estrange, has refused a request from FT to withdraw comments he made to a parliamentary committee, that Forestry Tasmania is undercutting woodchip prices to Gunns' Chinese customers. ABC

 

We'll go it alone, says Gunns TIMBER firm Gunns Limited is to roll the dice in a bid to get enough funds to build the Bell Bay pulp mill.
In an announcement to the ASX this morning the company says it will sell all of its softwood sawmilling assets.
Assets include a sawmill at Tarpeena in the Green Triangle region of South Australia and Victoria and softwood plantations.
It is understood buyers including Boral have been on site at the Bell Bay facility in the past two days.
Managing director Greg L'Estrange said all hardwood sawmilling would also be sold. He said a 20 per cent equity share of Gunns Tasmanian plantations would be retained.  The Mercury

 

TIMBER company and pulp mill proponent Gunns Limited has denied it owes $35 million to Forestry Tasmania for trees from public state forests it has bought, logged but not yet paid for. 

Gunns chief executive Greg L'Estrange said yesterday the company's debt to state-owned Forestry Tasmania was nowhere near $35 million. Resources Minister Bryan Green revealed yesterday the actual amount of debt owed by Gunns to Forestry Tasmania was in legal dispute. He also hinted some of the $40 million in unpaid receipts owed to Forestry Tasmania by customers, including Gunns, might never be repaid. Mr Green backed Gunns' denial of its debt amount owed to Forestry Tasmania. The Mercury

 

The Tasmanian Greens' last-ditch bid to revoke a law allowing Gunns to build a $2.3 billion pulp mill in the Tamar Valley has failed.

Labor and the Liberals have joined to vote down a Greens bill to repeal the Pulp Mill Assessment Act, which was fast-tracked through Parliament in 2007.But it was not before a one-and-a-half-hour debate and a plea from Greens leader Nick McKim for new MPs to right a wrong."It is an epic saga of wrongdoing," he said. Deputy Premier Bryan Green concedes it is a very different Parliament to 2007. "The mill itself, as proposed by Gunns, is a different mill as well," he said. ABC

 

 

TIMBER industry figures claim peak conservation groups made a "clear commitment" to "play dead" on Gunns's Tasmanian pulp mill -- only to renege on the pledge.

The claim, made to The Weekend Australian by several industry figures involved in the historic forest peace talks in Tasmania, was denied yesterday by the three green groups.

However, several figures within the conservation movement conceded key groups had hardened their stance to the $2.3 billion mill during the course of negotiations after beginning with a more open mind. The Australian

 

TASMANIA'S forest peace talks are on the brink of failure with The Wilderness Society yesterday walking away from the negotiating table.

Spokesman Vica Bayley said the society was suspending involvement in the year-long talks between industry groups, unions and environmental organisations.

The pullout was slammed as treachery and blackmail by industry groups, and the Forest Industries Association of Tasmania warned it would quit the talks too if the society tried to achieve its agenda outside the tent. Mercury

 

 

Monthly summaries of the unfolding story of Gunns' attempts to build a pulp mill.

2011

 

2010

2009

2008

2007 and before

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