Christine Milne (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

My question is to the minister representing the Minister for the Environment and Water Resources, Senator Abetz, and concerns the proposed Gunns pulp mill for northern Tasmania. I ask: given Minister Turnbull’s decision to opt for a preliminary documentation assessment process, on the basis that Gunns did not need to do any more actual work in order to have proper assessment documentation to enable him to make an informed decision about the project, is the government now concerned that eminent scientists such as former CSIRO chief research scientist and oceanographer Dr Stuart Godfrey have since demonstrated the misleading nature of the Gunns hydrodynamic modelling and say that effluent with dioxins and furans would drift onto Bass Strait beaches, up the Tamar and into Commonwealth waters? If the government is concerned about this research, how will it be taken into account and will the government now stop the clock on the assessment process in order to properly scrutinise the new evidence?