the good oil from a nth american

Its mostly the Greens fault, says Robin Gray

Stateline, ABC. PM
30.05.10 10:55 am

The GFC, a high Aussie dollar, the collapse of Great Southern and Timbercorp, and The Greens are to blame for Gunns massive profit drop and the resignation of the honourable and outstanding John Gay, says former Premier and Gunns board member Robin Gray. Gunns board would regret his departure, but the board would fight very hard to see the pulp mill built.

Watch, listen HERE

Meanwhile,
Radio National PM:

MARK COLVIN: The Tasmanian timber company Gunns isnt commenting on claims that opposition from environmentalists is stopping investors from financing its controversial pulp mill. Gunns has spent the past two years asking overseas investors to finance its $2 billion mill after the ANZ bank knocked the company back.
But Gunns is yet to do a deal and a US pulp market consultant, Dave Hillman, has blamed environmental groups. He spoke to Felicity Ogilvie.
DAVE HILLMAN: I know that if I were a joint venture partner I would be kind of afraid to get in bed with someone where the environmentalists had just raised havoc with the mill moving forward. Its not a case of well if we spend this money will we be able to sell the product?
I think that product will be pre-sold before the mill ever starts up. There will be people in China and India who will have bought out the mill. So thats not the problem. Making an acceptable product? Thats not a problem.
FELICITY OGILVIE: What is Gunns problem then?
DAVE HILLMAN: Environmentalists. Im speaking as a North American.
Everything Ive read in the paper and hear at conferences, Gunns says were going to build a mill that is in compliance with all the mills in Chile, with all the mills in Brazil, with all the mills in Uruguay, with the mills in Indonesia.
Were going to be equal to or better than all of them and the Tasmanian environmentalists say its not good enough. Now thats a North American speaking. Ive never been to Tasmania and someone there can say, oh, Hillmans all wet.
But when I, look Im an engineer, went to Georgia Tech, when Gunns people tell me that its going to be comparable to or better than all the other mills that have been built in Latin America and Indonesia, I would have to say that mill is, is as good as it can get.
FELICITY OGILVIE: Are investors worried though that the environmentalists might have a point? That the Gunns pulp mill may damage the environment in Tasmania?
DAVE HILLMAN: No, I sit here in North America and I say how can that be? If its good enough for the rest of the world, why isnt it good enough for the environmentalists of Tasmania? How can it be that their standards are so much higher than everyone elses in the world?
FELICITY OGILVIE: If thats the opinion then of the pulp and paper industry, why doesnt the industry invest in Gunns pulp mill anyway if they think that the environmentalists are wrong in the opposition to the mill?
DAVE HILLMAN: Well, its one thing to say that the environmentalists are wrong but that doesnt keep them from laying down in front of the trucks.
You have to have a free hand to go ahead and move a lot of equipment in, a lot of steel, big equipment has to be shipped in.
You cant have people laying down in the roadway and thats always a concern. That, to me, has been the concern over the last seven years, is how can you keep some very aggressive environmentalists, it only takes five or six of em to become a major nuisance. And Id, if I had a billion and a half dollar investment, I would be scared to death of that. Ive got too much to lose.
MARK COLVIN: Dave Hillman, pulp consultant talking to Felicity Ogilvie.