Turnbull catapults Gunns' polluting pulp mill into the heart of the Federal Election

Greeens Media Release 20/08/07 Federal Environment Minister Malcolm Turnbull has made a monumental blunder in giving draft approval to Gunns' polluting pulp mill in the absence of the information he needs to determine whether it was ever even possible to protect the environment from its poisons, Greens' Senator Christine Milne said today. "The marine life of Bass Strait and its rich fishery deserve better than political brinkmanship, and they will get it at the ballot box. "Malcolm Turnbull is the country's Minister for the Environment, not the Minister for facilitating Gunns. The campaign to protect Tasmania's environment and clean, green future now lies in the hands of the community and will be fought all the way to the Federal poll, here in Tasmania and in marginal seats across the country. "Minister Turnbull has put the cart before the horse. What justification can he possibly have for throwing the Precautionary Principle overboard and giving draft approval to a project when he admits he doesn't know what impact the toxic effluent will have on Bass Strait? "If the Minister was serious about his environmental responsibility he would have stopped the clock on the EPBC Act assessment until he had the information he needed from the Chief Scientist, and from the hydrodynamic modelling. Instead, he gave approval anyway to reassure the development-at-any-cost forest industry that he is on side. "The Minister should have conducted a full environmental impact assessment with public hearings because he has known all along that Gunns' preliminary documentation was shonky and inadequate, and did not satisfy the original assessment process under the Resource Planning and Development Commission (RPDC). "It's an insult to the community to be offered the opportunity to comment after he has already given the green light to the project, albeit with conditions "Crocodile tears about the limited nature of the Commonwealth's powers are disingenuous. The Minister was happy to push through changes to the EPBC Act last year which prohibited him from assessing the impact on Tasmania's native forests of thirty years of Gunns' logging to feed its pulp mill. "Far from being over, the pulp mill debate is set to rage from now to Election day as the community makes all State and Federal members aware of how strongly it feels about selling out the environment for the benefit of narrow, sectional interests," Senator Milne said. For More Information: Cassy O'Connor Email: cassey.o'conner|AT|aph.com.au Phone: 0400 628 939