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The Tasmanian forestry industry is out for the count. But it is taking $1 billion in taxpayer dollars with it, writes Tasmania-based freelance writer John Lawrence.

A deal to end the Tasmanian forest wars will soon go before state Parliament. Tasmanian-based accountant and former economist John Lawrence crunches the numbers and poses some pertinent questions.

John Gay was not at the helm of Gunns as it sank into administration yesterday. But his fingerprints are all over the rise and fall of the once-mighty timber giant.

It’s a welcome to a re-run of 2008-09, judging by the huge write-downs emerging this reporting season from some major companies.

Gunns has announced it no longer believes its seven-year plan for a Tasmanian pulp mill is “probable to proceed”. John Lawrence, an accountant and former economist, asks what went wrong for the once-mighty forestry giant.

Tasmanian timber company Gunns’ proposed $2.3 billion Bell Bay Pulp Mill — still reeling from the withdrawal of a key financier — could be facing an uncertain future at the hands of throat-cutting global competitors, a major industry conference has heard.

The AGM season formally finishes next Wednesday, November 30, and the final days will feature the traditional avalanche of penny dreadful gatherings, most of which will be missed by the media.

Crikey readers have their say.

Tasmanian forestry giant Gunns is working flat stick on its $2.3 billion pulp mill project. While the mainstream media has left the impression the project will fall over, there is a sense of inevitability on site that it will ultimately be delivered.

The ultimate peace deal to end the 40-year war in Tasmania’s forests is dead in the water, writes political journalist Bruce Montgomery from Hobart.

The biggest week of the annual reporting season is drawing to a close and some companies are hacking into their balance sheets like the GFC days.

Shares in the financially struggling Tasmanian timber giant Gunns remain suspended ahead of Monday’s profit announcement and the ongoing clifftop poker around exiting old-growth logging and financing the $2.3 billion pulp mill.

Gunns Ltd’s pulp mill has paralysed and poisoned Tasmania’s public life and private life, even divided towns and families, writes Lindsay Tuffin, of Tasmanian Times.

Before Tasmania’s highly contentious pull mill is built, friendships will be tested, political alliances between Labor and the Greens at state and federal level will be stretched to the limit (though not ruptured). And the people will revolt, writes Bruce Montgomery in Hobart.

Q&A defends itself against allegations of impropriety in the wake of an appearance from Gunns spin doctor Sue Cato on Monday night’s program.

Gunns chair John Gay is fighting back days out from an election. His bid to fend off concerns over corporate governance issues is a pivotal development in Tasmanian environmental politics, writes Bob Burton.

Time for a bailout, there’s an election in Tasmania and one federally this year and the biggest flashpoint in the state is Gunns’ pulp mill. Plus, paying the toll at Toll and RBA watchers pay attention.

How a minor drunken prank escalated into a major Tasmanian political story may be as good as topic as any to kick off the journalists union’s Future of Journalism forum in Hobart on Thursday night, writes Bob Burton.