STATE government- owned businesses may provide infrastructure support for the proposed Gunns pulp mill, Resources Minister Bryan Green confirmed yesterday.
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He said the support would be on a commercial basis, and would be in the form of water, road and power connections.
"In the same way as we will provide infrastructure to any (business) opportunity at an industrial site in the state," he said.
Bass Greens MHA Kim Booth has previously promised to bring down the government if it offered any support to the pulp mill.
However, yesterday he said Mr Green's comments were standard government practice and did not constitute a "sweetheart" deal.
"Were a minister, however, to direct any (government business enterprise) or government agency to provide special sweetheart deals for Gunns or dress up the pipeline as a public project for example, and therefore use the acquisition powers to seize private land, then that would not be acceptable to the Greens," he said.
Mr Booth said the Greens would be "watching closely" to hold Mr Green to his statement that the contract negotiations would be on a full commercial basis only.
"(Also) our recognition that standard commercial processes may commence should not be interpreted as any form of acceptance by the Greens that the actual mill should or will get built," he said.
A spokeswoman for Ben Lomond Water, one of the GBEs that Gunns would need to deal with, said the water body had had no discussions with Gunns in relation to the issue.