wilkie hits stinking mill

Mercury-Sue Neale

DENISON independent MP Andrew Wilkie has accused Prime Minister Julia Gillard of being "evasive" in answering questions about Gunns' proposed Tamar Valley pulp mill.

In Parliament yesterday, Mr Wilkie called on the Federal Government to abandon all support for the "stinking mill".

His attack came amid growing expectations that federal Environment Minister Tony Burke will tomorrow grant unconditional environmental approval for the $2.5 billion pulp mill.

Mr Burke is due to hand down the Government's assessment of further hydrodynamic modelling studies commissioned by Gunns on the effect of the pulp mill's effluent on Bass Strait.

The studies were requested by Mr Burke's predecessor, Peter Garrett, in 2009 before full environmental approval was granted.

Yesterday, Greens deputy leader Christine Milne called on Mr Burke to release the new Bass Strait data before making his final decision.

Senator Milne said the community "deserved the right" to evaluate and scrutinise the accuracy of Gunns' claims, to ensure the information was not as incomplete and deficient as two years ago.

Mr Wilkie told Parliament yesterday he was disappointed by the Prime Minister's "evasive" response last week when he had asked her to rule out further federal financial assistance for the pulp mill, including through the Export Finance and Insurance Corporation.

Mr Wilkie said Ms Gillard's "convoluted" answer made it clear she wouldn't rule out providing financial support, either directly or indirectly.

"The tortured story of this project includes a trail of broken promises and reads like a manual on how not to do business," he said.

ance fro the pulp mill.

"I call on the Prime Minister to abandon this stinking mill."

Meanwhile, the Friends of the Tamar Valley group has revealed that it has lodged complaints of misconduct against former premier Paul Lenin with Tasmania's new Integrity Commission over his fast-tracking of the pulp mill approval process in 2007.

The group's allegations, aired previously in State Parliament, include that Mr Lenin "leant on" the Resource Planning and Development Commission to speed up its formal assessment.

Other complaints are that Mr Lenin who has denied all allegations gave inconsistent evidence to a parliamentary committee about political involvement in the pulp mill; allowed Gunns' lawyers to help draft pulp mill legislation; and interfered in the proper process for appointing a new magistrate because of pulp mill-linked grudges.

There is also an extra complaint by the Friends of the Tamar Valley that Mr Lenin's successor, David Bartlett, sanctioned inappropriate use of the Land Acquisition Act to help Gunns build its water and effluent pipelines.

The Integrity Commission yesterday said protocol meant it could not comment on whether it had accepted the specific complaint or whether it was already investigating other misconduct or corruption allegations linked to the pulp mill approval process.