abbott wants gunns mill to go ahead?

AAP

Federal Opposition Leader Tony Abbott wants a multibillion-dollar pulp mill built in Tasmania, regardless of what its owner is called or where its corporate headquarters are located.

Woodchip processor Gunns Ltd has revealed it is considering a name change and moving its base from Launceston to Melbourne in the hope of boosting its chances of developing a controversial $2.5 billion pulp mill.

Enpax Australia is one of the names being considered, but regardless the mill would still be built at Bell Bay, near Launceston in northern Tasmania.



"I think the important thing is to get the pulp mill built and operational," Mr Abbott told reporters in Launceston on Thursday.

Discussions had gone on for far too long and it was "high time" the project was delivered, he said.

"I want it there employing people. I want it there, exporting for Australia."

Mr Abbott said what companies called themselves or where they were located was not nearly as important.

Gunns is seeking to raise about $400 million to cut debt and support the development of the pulp mill project.

Shares in the company were placed in a trading halt on March 9, after the Singapore-based Richard Chandler Corporation (RCC) decided against investing $150 million in it.

The investment was to have been part of a proposed $280 million capital raising for Gunns that would have given RCC a cornerstone stake in the woodchipper.