The Tasmanian Greens wants the ANZ bank to forego its claim against debt owed by failed timber giant Gunns. Source: ABC News
Gunns creditors, including the bank, are waiting to be repaid after the company went into administration in September.
The company’s receiver Korda Mentha has reopened a Gunns woodchip mill in Tasmania’s north and will begin exporting plantation woodchips to Japan.
Greens forestry spokesman Kim Booth said the bank should give small businesses access first to any funds that come from the mill.
“If local unsecured creditors are going to get anything at all of the wreckage, then this is an opportunity,” he said.
“You know it’d be great if the banks would actually give up on their secured creditor status and let the unsecured creditors of Tasmania which after all are al the small businesses get some money.
“The reality is this is really the last throw of the dice for Gunns’ assets, there will be no pulp mill because this is the feed stock that they allegedly were keeping to run the mill with.”
