NSW: Pulp mill campaign is people power, not bullying =2

AAP General News (Australia)
08-28-2007
NSW: Pulp mill campaign is people power, not bullying =2

Meanwhile Labor's environment spokesman Peter Garrett denied he has been silent on
the pulp mill issue.

"We have been out there, we have been saying things. The fact that they are not reported
I don't have much carriage over, but we have said it," Mr Garrett told ABC radio.

Labor's position on the controversial mill was that it was one way in which Australia
could address its "forest products deficit", but that it must meet world's best environmental
standards, Mr Garrett said.

He accused Mr Turnbull of setting a "low bar" for the project's assessment at the federal level.

"We thought that the minister Turnbull set one of the least comprehensive assessment
methodologies for it, and we've also criticised the state government in Tasmania for their
participation in the process earlier on," he said.

"The bar has been set too low and as a consequence, public anxiety about the approvals
and the assessment process is high."

However, Mr Garrett gave in-principle support for a pulp mill in the Tamar valley.

"We think there is absolutely a need for downstream processing and value-adding in
Tasmania as long as the environment is adequately protected - that is, the balance that
has to be met in Tasmania just as it does in any other state and we will monitor that
very closely," he said.

"We will certainly support a proposal in the Tamar, or anywhere else, so long as it
meets world's best environment standards."

AAP wjf/maur/sp

KEYWORD: PULP COUSINS 2 SYDNEY (REOPENS)

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