Helen Kroger (Victoria, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I will return to the submission of Senators Brown and Milne. It cites the Gunns stock exchange announcement that their sale of the woodchip mill to Wood's Triabunna Investments was to complete on 15 July 2011, before much of the Greens' manoeuvring on Wood's behalf. Much turns on this. Yet the glib arguments on this point by lawyers for Senators Brown and Milne studiously ignore the fact that Gunns had a hold over the sale, that there were two successive 60-day priority notices lodged over the woodchip mill's transfer to Wood's Triabunna Investments, and that the transfer of this property had still not been registered as at 11 October 2011.

The committee has accepted Senator Brown's word that his actions were not influenced by the donation. By his own account, Senator Brown first learnt of Mr Wood's proposal to develop the woodchip mill on ABC TV. He has said, 'Knowing the man I contacted him and said I thought it was a good idea,' following which they spoke a couple of times. The ABC TV report about Mr Wood trying to buy the Triabunna mill went to air on 10 June. In the Weekend Australian a month earlier, Matt Denholm wrote:

The Weekend Australian can confirm that players in the environment movement floated the idea of a consortium to buy the Triabunna mill in order to shut it and develop the site for tourism.

The idea to form a consortium to buy the Triabunna mill and develop the site for tourism was around in the Tasmanian environment movement at least a month before Senator Brown claims he heard about it.