Gunns chairman John Gay yesterday advised the ASX that its controversial Tasmanian pulp mill "will meet approval requirements" set by Mr Garrett to protect marine life.
Mr Garrett responded in The Australian today by contradicting this statement and has gone further today, describing Gunns’ ASX statement as "potentially misleading".
"I think it is very surprising that Gunns should be making a statement of this kind because it is certainly not in accordance with my view of what the conditions I have imposed on them are," Mr Garrett told ABC radio.
"I am concerned that Mr Gay's release is potentially misleading."
Mr Gay told the ASX that the relevant part of the federal assessment, Module L "confirms ... effluent from the project will not have any impact on matters of national environmental significance".
However, Mr Garrett said this would not be known until Gunns completed a 12-month detailed study of how the 64,000 tonnes of effluent to be pumped into Bass Strait daily would disperse.
"Until such as time as we have had real time, hydrodynamic modelling ... then no approval for this mill can be given," Mr Garrett said.
The Greens and the Wilderness Society called on the ASX to investigate whether or not Gunns had misled markets in an attempt to bolster its efforts to attract investors in the stalled $2.2 billion mill.
Read the full story in The Australian.
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