[Greens-Media] MARK PARNELL MLC: No excuses now for Penola Pulp Mill EIS

[Greens]

Media Release
18 April 2007

No excuses now for Penola Pulp Mill EIS


Greens MLC Mark Parnell has renewed his calls for the Penola Pulp Mill
to be declared a Major Development on the back of increased speculation
that the Heywood Pulp Mill will now not go ahead.

The Heywood Pulp Mill Community Reference Group says it has been told
the Penola Mill will go ahead at the expense of Heywood. 

"It is curious that no formal announcement by Protavia, the pulp mill
developer, has been made.

"Two things are possible - either the Heywood Mill has been definitely
dropped, therefore the pressure to out-compete Victoria by rushing to
grant the Penola Mill approval in the quickest time frame possible is
now over.

"Alternatively, games are still being played, and this announcement is a
play for Victorian state government intervention - with South Australia
merely a bunny used to extract greater concessions from Victoria.

"Either way, there is now absolutely no excuse for the South Australian
government not to declare this $1.2 billion project a 'major
development' and undertake a proper investigation of the project's
environmental and social impacts. 

"This 'race to the bottom' has simply got to stop.  Our understanding is
that the Victorian government has rightly indicated that any expansion
of the Mill would require a further Environmental Effects Statement* to
be prepared.  Yet South Australia was willing to go ahead with the
Penola Pulp Mill without an EIS the first time round.

"If the SA government has secured Penola as the preferred site simply by
offering to ignore appropriate environmental scrutiny that every other
major development in this state is required to undertake, then this
whole process is nothing less than a travesty," he said.

*EES- equivalent to a South Australian Environmental Impact Statement
(EIS)


For further comment contact Craig Wilkins on 0434 007 893
 
 


---------------------------------------------------------------------
"The information in this e-mail may be confidential and/or legally privileged. If you are not the intended recipient, access to it is unauthorised and any disclosure, copying, distribution or action taken or omitted to be taken in reliance on it is prohibited and may be unlawful."