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Dear Mr. McFarlane,
I am writing to respectfully request that ANZ commit to neither fund nor support the Bell Bay Pulp Mill project proposed by your client Gunns Limited.
Just how can Gunns Ltd actually build a pulp mill for $1.4 billion, creating thousands of direct and indirect jobs and give the community that warm and cosy good feeling they say they will?
Just how can a company whose share price has fallen 34 per cent in the last financial year, making it the ninth worst performing stock on the Australian Stock Exchange, afford to spend $1.4 billion dollars on a pulp mill when its capital value, based on a share price of $2.75 is $880 million?
Just how is it that ANZ cannot see these numbers and then fund such an ill considered project? Does ANZ actually have its shareholders, and investors, interests at heart? What will happen if ANZ investors leave the fold because of the threat of a bad ANZ corporate investment!?
Gunns' logging practices rank among the worst in the developed world. The old-growth forests it is rapidly destroying include some of the Earth's oldest and tallest trees, and the wildlife that it routinely kills in the process includes biologically unique and threatened species.
You are likely aware that the proposed Bell Bay pulp mill would heavily rely upon and accelerate this destruction of Tasmania’s native forest. The chlorine-bleaching mill would also greatly pollute the atmosphere and surrounding marine environment, including the production of deadly chemicals such as dioxin and furan.
ANZ still has the opportunity to do the right thing by its share holders by backing away from any funding or support for this environmentally egregious project.
As many leaders of the financial industry rapidly move towards greater corporate responsibility and ethical practices, ANZ needs to decide whether it will progress its values or risk being left behind by customers that demand higher standards.
We sincerely hope and believe ANZ is capable of making the right choice.
Yours sincerely,
Frank Lee
Launceston Tasmania
BLOGspot: http://tamarpulpmilltalk.blogspot.com
Cc: The Three Rivers Trust & Tasmanian Media