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Economic forecaster calls Gunns' mill `goner'
BY PETER WELS
24/10/2008 9:55:00 AM

Report block attempt

TIMBER company Gunns has sought to block the release of a controversial report on its proposed $2 billion pulp mill.


The move comes amid claims from leading economic forecaster Access Economics that the development is "a goner".

Earlier this year the Greens sought the report - prepared by CSIRO researcher Michael Herzfeld on effluent discharge from the mill - from the Federal Environment Department through Freedom of Information.


Last month, the department agreed to release the report, as long as the timber company did not appeal against the decision.


But a Gunns spokesman yesterday confirmed to The Examiner that it would be seeking a review of the decision to release the report through the Administrative Appeals Tribunal.


The spokesman said the report was a briefing note, and the company still had concerns about its release.


"We're concerned that if it's taken out of context, it will give people an erroneous view of the ongoing process," the spokesman said.


"And that ongoing process calls for much more stringent monitoring and controls than this briefing paper does."


Greens Senator Christine Milne, who lodged the original FOI request, said she would seek to become a party to the hearing. She also rejected suggestions the report could be taken out of context.


"Dr Herzfeld is a scientist, and as such he has made it clear and the Commonwealth has now acknowledged he has put the caveats on the report himself," she said.


"These outline the context, the status of his findings and so on.


"I don't believe it can be misrepresented because the scientist himself has described the context in which it should be read, and the Commonwealth has acknowledged that."


Meanwhile, Gunns has rejected economic forecaster Access Economics' description of the proposed Northern Tasmanian pulp mill as "a goner" in its latest Business Outlook publication.


"There is no data in the Access Economics statement to back up its claim," the company spokesman said.


"Gunns' plans for the Bell Bay mill remain on track."


The spokesman said the company had already indicated financing would not be finalised before the first quarter of 2009, but that Gunns' directors believed it was probable the mill would proceed to completion.