Mark Poynter, forestry consultant, Institute of Foresters of Australia
October 26, 2006
The outraged response to my article about the GHG abatement benefits of native forest wood production reinforces my central point that blind anti-logging ideology threatens to counteract alternative energy initiatives that are addressing global warming.
Despite evoking a passionate save-the-forest tirade, my article clearly stated that wood production is only permitted within a 10 per cent portion of Victoria's forests, and so concerns that logging threatens forest survival and integrity are irrelevant.
If our society is to advance, we must address environmental issues in a clear-eyed rational manner. This cannot occur if public debate continues to be dominated by ill-informed armchair environmentalists whose only answers lie in tired rhetoric, self-righteous indignation, and discrediting the informed thoughts of scientists who grapple with environmental issues on a daily basis.
Foresters know what they are doing
Norman Endacott, Warranwood
Your four correspondents (Business, 24/10) pillory Mark Poynter (Business, 18/10) for dutifully sticking to the truth in debunking the misinformation perpetrated by Gavan McFadzean, who has attributed bad global warming outcomes to the harvesting and concomitant regeneration of our native forests. Those forest management practices have been honed over the years, and cannot be accused of depleting or degrading those forests, in terms of environmental values or long-term timber sustainability or carbon retention.
Those four people have an ignorance of the life cycle of a tree, a forest, a forest landscape mosaic, or an ecosystem, and they just cannot perceive the waxing and waning associated with the interplay of the foresters' ministrations and nature.
Source
26 October, 2006
21 October, 2006
ARTICLE: Gunns must pay Greens costs
Xavier La Canna
The Heraldsun, 21 October 2006
Tasmanian timber company Gunns must pay legal costs for a group of environmentalists it tried to sue for millions of dollars, a Victorian judge has ruled.
Supreme Court Justice Bernard Bongiorno yesterday ruled that Gunns must pay the costs, which relate to an unsuccessful claim that 20 environmentalists took part in conspiracies against the company.
Greg Ogle, the legal coordinator for the Wilderness Society, one of the defendants, said the costs would probably amount to more than $1 million.
But Mr Ogle said it was unlikely the environmentalists would be given the money for at least one year, while the exact amount was decided.
Gunns had tried to sue the 20 defendants, who included Greens Senator Bob Brown and Tasmanian Greens leader Peg Putt, for almost $7 million.
Since December 2004 the company has filed three separate statements of claim, which have all been thrown out of court.
In August, Justice Bongiorno ruled three of the defendants should be given a total of nearly $87,000, which related to the first statement of claim.
Yesterday's ruling relates to the third statement of claim Gunns made against the environmentalists.
Wilderness Society spokeswoman Virginia Young welcomed the ruling but said it would not cover the organisation's total costs.
The costs will include the expense of reading and responding to the statement of claim, as well as researching and formulating the legal arguments, and the costs of the three-day hearing in August last year, the society said in a statement.
Justice Bongiorno also gave Gunns until November 2 to seek leave to file a fourth statement of claim in relation to the alleged conspiracies against the company.
AAP
Original article
The Heraldsun, 21 October 2006
Tasmanian timber company Gunns must pay legal costs for a group of environmentalists it tried to sue for millions of dollars, a Victorian judge has ruled.
Supreme Court Justice Bernard Bongiorno yesterday ruled that Gunns must pay the costs, which relate to an unsuccessful claim that 20 environmentalists took part in conspiracies against the company.
Greg Ogle, the legal coordinator for the Wilderness Society, one of the defendants, said the costs would probably amount to more than $1 million.
But Mr Ogle said it was unlikely the environmentalists would be given the money for at least one year, while the exact amount was decided.
Gunns had tried to sue the 20 defendants, who included Greens Senator Bob Brown and Tasmanian Greens leader Peg Putt, for almost $7 million.
Since December 2004 the company has filed three separate statements of claim, which have all been thrown out of court.
In August, Justice Bongiorno ruled three of the defendants should be given a total of nearly $87,000, which related to the first statement of claim.
Yesterday's ruling relates to the third statement of claim Gunns made against the environmentalists.
Wilderness Society spokeswoman Virginia Young welcomed the ruling but said it would not cover the organisation's total costs.
The costs will include the expense of reading and responding to the statement of claim, as well as researching and formulating the legal arguments, and the costs of the three-day hearing in August last year, the society said in a statement.
Justice Bongiorno also gave Gunns until November 2 to seek leave to file a fourth statement of claim in relation to the alleged conspiracies against the company.
AAP
Original article
LETTER: Give us water, not timber
Ellen Sandell, East Brunswick
The Age, Saturday 21 October 2006
The Bracks Government has finally gone mad. The decision not to end logging in Melbourne's water catchments ( The Age, 20/10) is irresponsible, shortsighted and stupid.
With countless reports highlighting the fact that logging causes a significant water loss, the Government sits on its hands and spits out rhetoric about jobs and money from timber. Isn't it aware that the amount of water that would be saved is worth more money than the timber coming out of the catchments?
Labor's forest policy was hijacked in the 1990s by forest industry staff who planted spies in environment groups and blocked discussion on forest protection. Now, with the ridiculous decision about our water catchments, one cannot help but wonder if this is happening again.
The Age, Saturday 21 October 2006
The Bracks Government has finally gone mad. The decision not to end logging in Melbourne's water catchments ( The Age, 20/10) is irresponsible, shortsighted and stupid.
With countless reports highlighting the fact that logging causes a significant water loss, the Government sits on its hands and spits out rhetoric about jobs and money from timber. Isn't it aware that the amount of water that would be saved is worth more money than the timber coming out of the catchments?
Labor's forest policy was hijacked in the 1990s by forest industry staff who planted spies in environment groups and blocked discussion on forest protection. Now, with the ridiculous decision about our water catchments, one cannot help but wonder if this is happening again.
20 October, 2006
ARTICLE: No end to logging in catchments
Liz Minchin, Environment Report
The Age, October 20, 2006
Loging in Melbourne's water catchments will continue for at least another two years, despite government-appointed experts conceding it reduces the amount of water running into the city's biggest dam.
This week the State Government released its strategy to supply Melbourne, Geelong, Ballarat and the Latrobe Valley with water for the next 50 years.
But the strategy did not include any decisions about continuing to log water catchment areas, including higher rainfall areas above Melbourne's main reservoir, Lake Thomson.
Four years ago, an expert committee appointed by the Bracks Government said phasing out logging in the Thomson catchment by 2020 could increase Melbourne's long-term water supply by an estimated 20,000 megalitres a year by 2050 — enough to supply 80,000 Melbourne homes.
Their report, 21st Century Melbourne: a WaterSmart City, called for an investigation to be completed within two years into whether logging in the Thomson Reservoir catchment should be phased out.
Similar recommendations were made in a 2003 Department of Sustainability and Environment paper.
The Government has now commissioned studies into how much water is being lost from logging and whether it could be replaced with timber from plantations outside catchment areas.
But its new water strategy says those studies will not be completed until December 2008, with a Department of Sustainability and Environment spokeswoman confirming that "the project is still at an early stage".
A spokesman for Water Minister John Thwaites defended the time the Government was taking to act, saying "any decision on logging in catchments has to balance any potential increase in water yields with the impact on regional jobs and the economy".
In response, the State Opposition and environment groups accused the Government of trying to delay controversial decisions until after next month's election.
"This is another example of the Bracks Government hiding critical data ahead of the state election," Liberal environment spokesman David Davis said.
Central Highlands Alliance president Sarah Rees said studies going back to 1968 showed that logging reduced water flows into water catchments.
"How many more reports do they need before they'll finally do something?" Ms Rees said.
Meanwhile, Latrobe Valley power workers have called for reassurances about the Government's $2.4 billion plan to use recycled water to cool Victoria's biggest electricity plants, after a Government report suggested it may increase their chances of catching legionnaire's disease.
The feasibility study for the Eastern Water Recycling proposal notes that more chemicals will be needed to treat recycled water used in cooling towers "due to expected higher nutrient levels in cooling water … to control biological growth including legionella".
"I'm concerned that introducing new impurities, new toxins or nutrients into our system … presents a potential risk of increased outbreaks and perhaps the introduction of new bugs," Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union spokesman Greg Hardy said."
Original article
The Age, October 20, 2006
Loging in Melbourne's water catchments will continue for at least another two years, despite government-appointed experts conceding it reduces the amount of water running into the city's biggest dam.
This week the State Government released its strategy to supply Melbourne, Geelong, Ballarat and the Latrobe Valley with water for the next 50 years.
But the strategy did not include any decisions about continuing to log water catchment areas, including higher rainfall areas above Melbourne's main reservoir, Lake Thomson.
Four years ago, an expert committee appointed by the Bracks Government said phasing out logging in the Thomson catchment by 2020 could increase Melbourne's long-term water supply by an estimated 20,000 megalitres a year by 2050 — enough to supply 80,000 Melbourne homes.
Their report, 21st Century Melbourne: a WaterSmart City, called for an investigation to be completed within two years into whether logging in the Thomson Reservoir catchment should be phased out.
Similar recommendations were made in a 2003 Department of Sustainability and Environment paper.
The Government has now commissioned studies into how much water is being lost from logging and whether it could be replaced with timber from plantations outside catchment areas.
But its new water strategy says those studies will not be completed until December 2008, with a Department of Sustainability and Environment spokeswoman confirming that "the project is still at an early stage".
A spokesman for Water Minister John Thwaites defended the time the Government was taking to act, saying "any decision on logging in catchments has to balance any potential increase in water yields with the impact on regional jobs and the economy".
In response, the State Opposition and environment groups accused the Government of trying to delay controversial decisions until after next month's election.
"This is another example of the Bracks Government hiding critical data ahead of the state election," Liberal environment spokesman David Davis said.
Central Highlands Alliance president Sarah Rees said studies going back to 1968 showed that logging reduced water flows into water catchments.
"How many more reports do they need before they'll finally do something?" Ms Rees said.
Meanwhile, Latrobe Valley power workers have called for reassurances about the Government's $2.4 billion plan to use recycled water to cool Victoria's biggest electricity plants, after a Government report suggested it may increase their chances of catching legionnaire's disease.
The feasibility study for the Eastern Water Recycling proposal notes that more chemicals will be needed to treat recycled water used in cooling towers "due to expected higher nutrient levels in cooling water … to control biological growth including legionella".
"I'm concerned that introducing new impurities, new toxins or nutrients into our system … presents a potential risk of increased outbreaks and perhaps the introduction of new bugs," Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union spokesman Greg Hardy said."
Original article
18 October, 2006
ARTICLE: Campaigners can't see forest for trees
Mark Poynter
Forestry consultant, and member of the Institute of Foresters of Australia.
The Age, October 18, 2006
THE start of Victoria's renewable energy trading scheme in January signifies a welcome Government willingness to step up the fight against global warming.
Yet environmental groups continue to pressure the Government to act against native forest logging and close Victoria's hardwood timber industry - a debate that was reignited recently by an ABC Four Corners program.
Although not obvious to most Victorians, there is a counter-productive link here that needs to be acknowledged if we are to make headway against global warming.
Sustainable logging is now restricted to just 10 per cent of Victoria's native forests. Yet anti-logging campaigns continue to attribute it with damaging environmental impacts out of proportion to its nature and extent. This includes the erroneous claim that timber
production promotes global warming by diminishing the capacity of native forests as carbon sinks when the opposite is true.
It is widely appreciated that growing forests sequester atmospheric carbon that effectively counteracts greenhouse gas emissions. But rates diminish as growth slows with age. Over time, undisturbed forests store carbon but sequester little new carbon once they reach maturity and
become "old growth".
But sustainable harvesting maintains a continuous cycle of vigorous growth that actively sequesters carbon at high rates while annually transferring carbon storage from trees to various wood-based products.
Losses of carbon occur along the way, most notably through greenhouse gas emissions from mechanised timber harvesting, log cartage, primary processing, and from slash burning to promote forest regeneration. But the losses are relatively small compared with the rate of enhanced carbon sequestration and storage by logging regrowth.
Sustainable logging in Victoria's designated wood production zones produces about 1.5 million cubic metres of hardwood sawlogs and residual logs a year from an estimated total harvested biomass of about 2.1 million cubic metres, including roots, bark, branches and foliage. The
concept of sustainability dictates that annually harvested amount is replaced by an equivalent volume of growth.
Carbon sequestered each year in new biomass growth in Victoria's production zones is estimated to be equivalent to saving 2.6 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions. This is net of emissions from fuel and power use inherent to timber production and emissions from the regeneration process. It is also additional to the carbon that could have been sequestered if the forest had alternatively been left unlogged.
Putting this into perspective is that clean energy produced from Victorian wind farms has been estimated to save 250,000 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions a year. Put another way, if anti-logging campaigns were to close Victoria's native forest timber industry, 10 times as many wind turbines as now exist would be required just to make up for the carbon sequestration lost by "locking up" wood production forests.
Enhanced carbon sequestration is only part of the "greenhouse" benefit of sustainable logging. Australian domestic hardwood production also offsets imports of tropical hardwoods and the use of steel, aluminium and concrete that offer poor environmental outcomes.
Tropical timber imports - often illegally produced from unsustainable sources - have increased by 50 per cent since 2001 as state governments have reduced the native forest harvest. This has been accompanied by additional greenhouse gas emissions inherent to international freight.
Unfortunately, this is likely to continue as we have few hardwood plantations being grown for solid wood production.
The use of substitute products is also believed to have increased as governments have reacted to anti-logging campaigns. These are problematic because they rely on finite resources and because their manufacture involves substantially greater carbon emissions compared with producing a similar unit of renewable solid timber. In particular, greenhouse gas emissions from steel and aluminium making are several hundred times greater than that associated with timber.
No one disputes the benefits of focusing on conserving biodiversity as is now the case in most of our native forests. But it must be recognised there are also substantial environmental benefits associated with sustainably harvesting wood from a portion of our forests.
At a time when environmental awareness is starting to drive urgent political action to tackle global warming, unwarranted campaigns to "save" a minor portion of our forests from sustainable timber production threaten to counteract much of the good work being done by governments and Australians to embrace cleaner "green" energy alternatives.
Forestry consultant, and member of the Institute of Foresters of Australia.
The Age, October 18, 2006
THE start of Victoria's renewable energy trading scheme in January signifies a welcome Government willingness to step up the fight against global warming.
Yet environmental groups continue to pressure the Government to act against native forest logging and close Victoria's hardwood timber industry - a debate that was reignited recently by an ABC Four Corners program.
Although not obvious to most Victorians, there is a counter-productive link here that needs to be acknowledged if we are to make headway against global warming.
Sustainable logging is now restricted to just 10 per cent of Victoria's native forests. Yet anti-logging campaigns continue to attribute it with damaging environmental impacts out of proportion to its nature and extent. This includes the erroneous claim that timber
production promotes global warming by diminishing the capacity of native forests as carbon sinks when the opposite is true.
It is widely appreciated that growing forests sequester atmospheric carbon that effectively counteracts greenhouse gas emissions. But rates diminish as growth slows with age. Over time, undisturbed forests store carbon but sequester little new carbon once they reach maturity and
become "old growth".
But sustainable harvesting maintains a continuous cycle of vigorous growth that actively sequesters carbon at high rates while annually transferring carbon storage from trees to various wood-based products.
Losses of carbon occur along the way, most notably through greenhouse gas emissions from mechanised timber harvesting, log cartage, primary processing, and from slash burning to promote forest regeneration. But the losses are relatively small compared with the rate of enhanced carbon sequestration and storage by logging regrowth.
Sustainable logging in Victoria's designated wood production zones produces about 1.5 million cubic metres of hardwood sawlogs and residual logs a year from an estimated total harvested biomass of about 2.1 million cubic metres, including roots, bark, branches and foliage. The
concept of sustainability dictates that annually harvested amount is replaced by an equivalent volume of growth.
Carbon sequestered each year in new biomass growth in Victoria's production zones is estimated to be equivalent to saving 2.6 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions. This is net of emissions from fuel and power use inherent to timber production and emissions from the regeneration process. It is also additional to the carbon that could have been sequestered if the forest had alternatively been left unlogged.
Putting this into perspective is that clean energy produced from Victorian wind farms has been estimated to save 250,000 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions a year. Put another way, if anti-logging campaigns were to close Victoria's native forest timber industry, 10 times as many wind turbines as now exist would be required just to make up for the carbon sequestration lost by "locking up" wood production forests.
Enhanced carbon sequestration is only part of the "greenhouse" benefit of sustainable logging. Australian domestic hardwood production also offsets imports of tropical hardwoods and the use of steel, aluminium and concrete that offer poor environmental outcomes.
Tropical timber imports - often illegally produced from unsustainable sources - have increased by 50 per cent since 2001 as state governments have reduced the native forest harvest. This has been accompanied by additional greenhouse gas emissions inherent to international freight.
Unfortunately, this is likely to continue as we have few hardwood plantations being grown for solid wood production.
The use of substitute products is also believed to have increased as governments have reacted to anti-logging campaigns. These are problematic because they rely on finite resources and because their manufacture involves substantially greater carbon emissions compared with producing a similar unit of renewable solid timber. In particular, greenhouse gas emissions from steel and aluminium making are several hundred times greater than that associated with timber.
No one disputes the benefits of focusing on conserving biodiversity as is now the case in most of our native forests. But it must be recognised there are also substantial environmental benefits associated with sustainably harvesting wood from a portion of our forests.
At a time when environmental awareness is starting to drive urgent political action to tackle global warming, unwarranted campaigns to "save" a minor portion of our forests from sustainable timber production threaten to counteract much of the good work being done by governments and Australians to embrace cleaner "green" energy alternatives.
13 October, 2006
NEWS: Govt to protect Strzelecki forest
www.abc.net.au
Friday, October 13, 2006
The Victorian Government has struck a deal to permanently protect 8,000 hectares of the Strzelecki forest in Gippsland.
After six years of negotiations, the Government has paid Hancock Plantations $7 million for the Cores and Links.
The new reserve features cool-temperate rainforest and mountain ash and will link Tarra Bulga National Park to the Gunyah Rainforest Reserve.
But Deputy Premier John Thwaites says a pocket of plantation timber within the reserve will be logged under the deal.
"They'll be able to log once and then it will never be logged again," he said.
Greens candidate Louis Delacretaz says the compromise is inappropriate.
"It's incredibly difficult to put back the biodiversity after you log an area," he said.
This morning's announcement in Gippsland by the Deputy Premier was kept secret to prevent protests by green groups.
Original articles
Friday, October 13, 2006
The Victorian Government has struck a deal to permanently protect 8,000 hectares of the Strzelecki forest in Gippsland.
After six years of negotiations, the Government has paid Hancock Plantations $7 million for the Cores and Links.
The new reserve features cool-temperate rainforest and mountain ash and will link Tarra Bulga National Park to the Gunyah Rainforest Reserve.
But Deputy Premier John Thwaites says a pocket of plantation timber within the reserve will be logged under the deal.
"They'll be able to log once and then it will never be logged again," he said.
Greens candidate Louis Delacretaz says the compromise is inappropriate.
"It's incredibly difficult to put back the biodiversity after you log an area," he said.
This morning's announcement in Gippsland by the Deputy Premier was kept secret to prevent protests by green groups.
Original articles
02 October, 2006
THE AGE:Revealed: spying on Greens
Michael Bachelard
The Age, October 2, 2006
Multinational packaging company Amcor stacked the Labor Party, infiltrated environment groups, sent people pretending to be greenies to forest protests and paid bribes overseas to secure its supply of native hardwood in the 1990s.
Company documents obtained by the ABC's Four Corners show that, for more than a decade from 1989 to 2001, the company funded its staff, through the so-called "A-team", to spy on and sabotage its opponents.
The union, the pulp and paper workers, which later joined the forestry division of the CFMEU, co-funded the A-team.
It was led by Derek Amos, a former state Labor MP and shadow minister for energy, and Victoria was the epicentre of the group's activities.
At its height in the late 1990s, A-team representatives were in the majority on the state ALP's environment policy committee, hindering any discussion of forest policy in the party.
They had got their places on the committee by working through the union, but also by taking over the Traralgon branch of the ALP.
"Oh, it was stacked, there was no doubt about that," the Labor MP for Morwell, Keith Hamilton, told the program.
A-team spokesman and mill worker Chris Moody became the branch's president and Mr Amos' daughter, Leanne Martin, the secretary.
"We would sit around a table and the A-team would sit in a group together; they were extremely well organised," former environment policy committee member Kerry Baker said.
Another member, Cheryl Wragg, said "any time that people other than the Amcor A-team mentioned forestry policy, they would be yelled out of the room". Calls by non-A-team committee members to ALP head office for an investigation fell on deaf ears.
But in the lead-up to the 1999 state conference, an election year, something was finally done. The environment committee drafted a forest policy, which would have opened up 40 per cent of Victorian old growth forest for logging, but, as non-A-team members threatened open revolt, ALP head office, under state secretary John Lenders, took the policy in and rewrote it.
Mr Amos has also confirmed that the A-team infiltrated the Australian Conservation Foundation, the Wilderness Society and Environment Victoria, where a spy, "Tracy", would get paid time off from her shifts at Amcor's Maryvale pulp and paper mill to attend meetings, photocopying any documents she could get hold of.
She took "copious notes" and filed written reports on Environment Victoria's discussions.
Some of those reports found their way to the then member for McMillan, Barry Cunningham, a Labor MP whom the A-team had helped to get elected to Federal Parliament. When he started quoting Environment Victoria minutes in Federal Parliament, the environment group realised they had been infiltrated.
Mr Amos said this was part of "a program to discredit environmental groups" through "covert operations which included the planting of volunteers as bogus greenies in targeted environmental organisations".
A-team players were active on the front line of the 1990s environment movement: the forest protests.
In 1993, the team's members joined in as the green protesters set up camp in Goongerah, East Gippsland, to protest against woodchipping in national estate forests.
According to veteran green campaigner Jill Redwood, the two spies, "David and John", turned up at the camp in "a big, clean, white four-wheel-drive ute" and "nice neat clothes".
The spies' report to Amcor says the protesters were "unkempt" with "matted hair and dishevelled clothing, similar to early '70s styling".
Mr Amos claimed success, through the help of federal Labor MPs, in convincing the Keating government in 1995 to institute a more pro-logging policy. He also admitted to international bribery, saying in a document he had paid the customers of Amcor's competitors to find out commercially sensitive information.
The A-team was disbanded in 2001 after Amcor's paper-making operations were spun-out into a new company, PaperlinX. Amcor went on to further notoriety when its executives were sacked two years ago for their part in a cartel to fix prices for cardboard boxes
Original article
The Age, October 2, 2006
Multinational packaging company Amcor stacked the Labor Party, infiltrated environment groups, sent people pretending to be greenies to forest protests and paid bribes overseas to secure its supply of native hardwood in the 1990s.
Company documents obtained by the ABC's Four Corners show that, for more than a decade from 1989 to 2001, the company funded its staff, through the so-called "A-team", to spy on and sabotage its opponents.
The union, the pulp and paper workers, which later joined the forestry division of the CFMEU, co-funded the A-team.
It was led by Derek Amos, a former state Labor MP and shadow minister for energy, and Victoria was the epicentre of the group's activities.
At its height in the late 1990s, A-team representatives were in the majority on the state ALP's environment policy committee, hindering any discussion of forest policy in the party.
They had got their places on the committee by working through the union, but also by taking over the Traralgon branch of the ALP.
"Oh, it was stacked, there was no doubt about that," the Labor MP for Morwell, Keith Hamilton, told the program.
A-team spokesman and mill worker Chris Moody became the branch's president and Mr Amos' daughter, Leanne Martin, the secretary.
"We would sit around a table and the A-team would sit in a group together; they were extremely well organised," former environment policy committee member Kerry Baker said.
Another member, Cheryl Wragg, said "any time that people other than the Amcor A-team mentioned forestry policy, they would be yelled out of the room". Calls by non-A-team committee members to ALP head office for an investigation fell on deaf ears.
But in the lead-up to the 1999 state conference, an election year, something was finally done. The environment committee drafted a forest policy, which would have opened up 40 per cent of Victorian old growth forest for logging, but, as non-A-team members threatened open revolt, ALP head office, under state secretary John Lenders, took the policy in and rewrote it.
Mr Amos has also confirmed that the A-team infiltrated the Australian Conservation Foundation, the Wilderness Society and Environment Victoria, where a spy, "Tracy", would get paid time off from her shifts at Amcor's Maryvale pulp and paper mill to attend meetings, photocopying any documents she could get hold of.
She took "copious notes" and filed written reports on Environment Victoria's discussions.
Some of those reports found their way to the then member for McMillan, Barry Cunningham, a Labor MP whom the A-team had helped to get elected to Federal Parliament. When he started quoting Environment Victoria minutes in Federal Parliament, the environment group realised they had been infiltrated.
Mr Amos said this was part of "a program to discredit environmental groups" through "covert operations which included the planting of volunteers as bogus greenies in targeted environmental organisations".
A-team players were active on the front line of the 1990s environment movement: the forest protests.
In 1993, the team's members joined in as the green protesters set up camp in Goongerah, East Gippsland, to protest against woodchipping in national estate forests.
According to veteran green campaigner Jill Redwood, the two spies, "David and John", turned up at the camp in "a big, clean, white four-wheel-drive ute" and "nice neat clothes".
The spies' report to Amcor says the protesters were "unkempt" with "matted hair and dishevelled clothing, similar to early '70s styling".
Mr Amos claimed success, through the help of federal Labor MPs, in convincing the Keating government in 1995 to institute a more pro-logging policy. He also admitted to international bribery, saying in a document he had paid the customers of Amcor's competitors to find out commercially sensitive information.
The A-team was disbanded in 2001 after Amcor's paper-making operations were spun-out into a new company, PaperlinX. Amcor went on to further notoriety when its executives were sacked two years ago for their part in a cartel to fix prices for cardboard boxes
Original article
08 September, 2006
LETTER: Simplistic take on logging and water
Mark Poynter, Victorian media spokesman, The Institute of Foresters of Australia
The Age, 8/9/06
Recent correspondents (Letters, 1/9 and 7/9) who simplistically advocate excluding regrowth as a solution to our water problems have seemingly forgotten the recent massive bushfires in north-eastern Victoria and the Grampians.
That these have sparked regrowth events that will reduce stream flows for several generations clearly demonstrates that nature, not a tiny amount of logging, is the ultimate determinant of how much flows into our storages.
If anti-logging activists were serious about water beyond it being just a convenient argument for their agenda, they would rethink their opposition to active catchment management.
Source
The Age, 8/9/06
Recent correspondents (Letters, 1/9 and 7/9) who simplistically advocate excluding regrowth as a solution to our water problems have seemingly forgotten the recent massive bushfires in north-eastern Victoria and the Grampians.
That these have sparked regrowth events that will reduce stream flows for several generations clearly demonstrates that nature, not a tiny amount of logging, is the ultimate determinant of how much flows into our storages.
If anti-logging activists were serious about water beyond it being just a convenient argument for their agenda, they would rethink their opposition to active catchment management.
Source
07 September, 2006
LETTER: Logging our way to a long, hot summer
Ellen Sandell, East Brunswick
The Age, 7 September 2006
With an increased risk of bushfires this summer due to lower than average rainfall ( The Age, 5/9), the CFA has questioned whether there will be enough water to deal with the fire season.
As logging in our water catchments loses 1000 litres of water every second, perhaps if we stopped logging we would have enough water to fight bushfires! Logging also increases the risk of bushfires as old, damp forests are replaced with young, dry regrowth. Perhaps if we just left our old-growth trees alone we wouldn't be complaining about water restrictions, bushfires and climate change.
The Age, 7 September 2006
With an increased risk of bushfires this summer due to lower than average rainfall ( The Age, 5/9), the CFA has questioned whether there will be enough water to deal with the fire season.
As logging in our water catchments loses 1000 litres of water every second, perhaps if we stopped logging we would have enough water to fight bushfires! Logging also increases the risk of bushfires as old, damp forests are replaced with young, dry regrowth. Perhaps if we just left our old-growth trees alone we wouldn't be complaining about water restrictions, bushfires and climate change.
01 September, 2006
LETTER: Why lug buckets if we continue to log our forests?
Lee O'Mahoney, Diamond Creek
Letter to the Editor, The Age
September 1, 2006
Once again, we're being asked to shower with a friend, lug buckets of water around and rinse our brushed teeth with a smidgen of water. Fair enough. I support us developing more respect and care for our water resources.
But there's a glaring anomaly, one that the Government is loathe to acknowledge: changes we make to our showering, gardening and tooth-brushing habits are mere drops in the dam of our dwindling water supplies when trees in our water catchments continue to be logged.
Logged forests suck up 50 per cent more water compared with areas that aren't logged. Young trees are off-the-wagon waterholics compared with oldies. What's more, there's simply no need for it: supplies from plantations that aren't in our water catchments are sufficient to meet our needs for wood and woodchips.
Come on, Mr Bracks, put our water where your mouth is. Stop stealing water from our water catchments and reducing our already scarce supplies.
Original letter
Letter to the Editor, The Age
September 1, 2006
Once again, we're being asked to shower with a friend, lug buckets of water around and rinse our brushed teeth with a smidgen of water. Fair enough. I support us developing more respect and care for our water resources.
But there's a glaring anomaly, one that the Government is loathe to acknowledge: changes we make to our showering, gardening and tooth-brushing habits are mere drops in the dam of our dwindling water supplies when trees in our water catchments continue to be logged.
Logged forests suck up 50 per cent more water compared with areas that aren't logged. Young trees are off-the-wagon waterholics compared with oldies. What's more, there's simply no need for it: supplies from plantations that aren't in our water catchments are sufficient to meet our needs for wood and woodchips.
Come on, Mr Bracks, put our water where your mouth is. Stop stealing water from our water catchments and reducing our already scarce supplies.
Original letter
ARTICLE: Forestry row taken to the marginals
Ellen Whinnett
Sunday Herald Sun, September 1, 2006
Environment groups are planning a high-profile pre-election battle to have logging banned in vast tracts of Victorian forest.
A coalition of environment groups will launch its campaign shortly. They will focus on important marginal seats held by both the Liberal and Labor parties in an effort to have their message heard.
Areas in Gippsland are shaping up as the next forest battleground. Environmental groups are concerned about wood-chipping in old-growth forests, logging in water catchments, and the impact of the loss of habitat on 12 endangered species of birds, animals and frogs. The group wants clear-felling banned in all Victorian forests and all logging ended in areas worthy of conservation.
The move could set the scene for a repetition of the conflict in the Otways forests in the lead-up to the 2002 election. This eventually led Premier Steve Bracks to agree to phase out logging in the Otways by 2008.
Campaign spokesman Luke Chamberlain, from Environment East Gippsland, said two years had been spent mapping significant areas of forest that he said should be protected from logging. He said Victoria's state-owned forests were being turned over to woodchips, which were mainly sent for export and were no longer providing a great number of jobs. "It's a land grab to turn the old-growth forests into woodchip farms," Mr Chamberlain said.
Environment groups involved in the coalition, including the Australian Conservation Foundation, the Wilderness Society and the Central Highlands Alliance, will focus on several marginal seats in regional Victoria and suburban Melbourne. They include Labor's Ferntree Gully, Mt Waverley, Prahran, Mordialloc, Bentleigh and South Barwon, and Liberal marginals Nepean, South-West Coast and Bass.
They hope to reinforce the message that logging in catchment areas is continuing while water restrictions are being introduced in Melbourne.
Mr Chamberlain denied that the group would automatically support the Greens, saying they would endorse whichever party had the strongest environmental policy. But he said the Greens' policies were the best they had seen so far.
Independent MLA for the seat of Gippsland East, Craig Ingram, said the group was seeking to end all old-growth logging in his electorate, which would jeopardise up to 500 jobs. "Basically 85 per cent of old-growth is already reserved," Mr Ingram said.
He said banning logging in old-growth forests would affect the industry "everywhere east of Bairnsdale", and would hit saw-millers hard. The issue was important to voters in the timber towns of Cann River and Orbost and on into Bairnsdale. "It would be absolutely devastating to my community -- basically, death by a thousand cuts," Mr Ingram said. "It really has the potential to be a winner or a loser at the election, and I'd call on the major political parties to hold the line and protect the industry."
Mr Ingram said the environmental group was highly organised and had been putting serious pressure on all MPs. "They are spending as much time in Parliament House as some of the members of Parliament," Mr Ingram said."
Original article
Sunday Herald Sun, September 1, 2006
Environment groups are planning a high-profile pre-election battle to have logging banned in vast tracts of Victorian forest.
A coalition of environment groups will launch its campaign shortly. They will focus on important marginal seats held by both the Liberal and Labor parties in an effort to have their message heard.
Areas in Gippsland are shaping up as the next forest battleground. Environmental groups are concerned about wood-chipping in old-growth forests, logging in water catchments, and the impact of the loss of habitat on 12 endangered species of birds, animals and frogs. The group wants clear-felling banned in all Victorian forests and all logging ended in areas worthy of conservation.
The move could set the scene for a repetition of the conflict in the Otways forests in the lead-up to the 2002 election. This eventually led Premier Steve Bracks to agree to phase out logging in the Otways by 2008.
Campaign spokesman Luke Chamberlain, from Environment East Gippsland, said two years had been spent mapping significant areas of forest that he said should be protected from logging. He said Victoria's state-owned forests were being turned over to woodchips, which were mainly sent for export and were no longer providing a great number of jobs. "It's a land grab to turn the old-growth forests into woodchip farms," Mr Chamberlain said.
Environment groups involved in the coalition, including the Australian Conservation Foundation, the Wilderness Society and the Central Highlands Alliance, will focus on several marginal seats in regional Victoria and suburban Melbourne. They include Labor's Ferntree Gully, Mt Waverley, Prahran, Mordialloc, Bentleigh and South Barwon, and Liberal marginals Nepean, South-West Coast and Bass.
They hope to reinforce the message that logging in catchment areas is continuing while water restrictions are being introduced in Melbourne.
Mr Chamberlain denied that the group would automatically support the Greens, saying they would endorse whichever party had the strongest environmental policy. But he said the Greens' policies were the best they had seen so far.
Independent MLA for the seat of Gippsland East, Craig Ingram, said the group was seeking to end all old-growth logging in his electorate, which would jeopardise up to 500 jobs. "Basically 85 per cent of old-growth is already reserved," Mr Ingram said.
He said banning logging in old-growth forests would affect the industry "everywhere east of Bairnsdale", and would hit saw-millers hard. The issue was important to voters in the timber towns of Cann River and Orbost and on into Bairnsdale. "It would be absolutely devastating to my community -- basically, death by a thousand cuts," Mr Ingram said. "It really has the potential to be a winner or a loser at the election, and I'd call on the major political parties to hold the line and protect the industry."
Mr Ingram said the environmental group was highly organised and had been putting serious pressure on all MPs. "They are spending as much time in Parliament House as some of the members of Parliament," Mr Ingram said."
Original article
29 August, 2006
THE AGE:Gunns, greenies and the law
Andrew Darby
The Age, August 29, 2006
The Tasmanian timber giant is adamant it will sue environmental protesters, despite a legal setback yesterday. Is free speech in the firing line? By Andrew Darby.
As pirate ships go, the Weld Ark is more feral Australian than Jack Sparrow's Black Pearl. The Jolly Roger up the mast is where the similarities end. The Ark is built of poles and corrugated iron, and has no hull to speak of. Then there's the location at the end of a forest road - a long way from the Caribbean. But against the odds this "ship" is still causing trouble, nearly eight months after it was rigged to block access in one of Tasmania's more tenacious forest protests.
Through a sub-zero winter, a small crew of activists have stuck to the ark despite worries that opponents who wrecked a car, fired shots nearby, and offered verbal abuse, were returning more often to intimidate them.
Behind the camp, a flowing blanket of tall eucalypt rises up mountain foothills to the boundary of the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area. About 5000 hectares of this forest outside the heritage area is earmarked for logging. The environmentalists, mainly from the nearby Huon Valley, have blocked access for more than 20 months.
For a similar time, 20 people and organisations have been prosecuted by the timber industry giant, Gunns Ltd, and a logging contractor, in a landmark case at the Victorian Supreme Court. In its latest claim, thrown out yesterday, Gunns sought $6.9 million in damages from the environmentalists over protests they made against it.
Earlier this year, 40 British lawyers wrote to The Guardian newspaper to express their concern at Gunns' decision to sue the 20, an act that they said could financially cripple individual defendants, and have a chilling impact on freedom to protest.
Australian lawyers also warned that increased litigation against community participation in public issues silenced voices that should be heard. Led by eminent figures such as the Australian National University's Professor Hilary Charlesworth, dozens signed a statement in support of law reform.
Out in the Weld Valley, the pirate ship stands as evidence that Tasmania's forest debate is entrenched. As Gunns confirmed yesterday that it would pursue the action, what effect has the case had?
When it was lodged in December 2004, the Gunns writ was a surprise, even though the company had sued before, over a protest at one of its woodchip mills. Another forest contractor had also started a damages case over an action near the Weld, but the scale of the Gunns' writ was unprecedented.
The massive suit covered 10 different protest actions, in the state and overseas, over four years. Greens leaders Bob Brown had a $1.7 million claim against him. Four people from the Wilderness Society each faced claims in excess of $1.3 million, and the organisation itself a further $3.9 million. Those sued range from a country grandmother to a town dentist, and a filmmaker to a law student. Some had assets, others not.
Since the case began, the world has changed for both plaintiff and defendant. Prime Minister John Howard's Tasmanian forests protection package took the fire out of the hottest protests. Gunns moved further down the track towards a goahead for its contentious $1.4 billion Tasmanian pulp mill at Bell Bay on the Tamar River, spending $11 million to reach the public assessment stage, but its share price has plunged.
Some of those sued said the case was causing anguish, others claim to be disregarding it and one opponent of Gunns' pulp mill plan had prepared for prosecution, though it hasn't happened. Others were said to have been deterred from joining protest.
The Burnie dentist, Peter Pullinger, his wife Leonie and their four grown children, have much at stake. Locals for 30 years, they campaigned to protect one of the southern hemisphere's largest remaining tracts of temperate rainforest, the Tarkine, and largely won.
But there is now a $784,000 claim against Dr Pullinger for action he is alleged to have taken against Gunns, linked to a protest at a woodchip mill, and over a stockpile on the wharf at Burnie.
"I ignore this case, and literally don't think about it day to day," said Pullinger. "It's almost as if I made a conscious decision to say: 'well stuff this for a game of darts'."
The legal action seems to have made little difference to his general standing. He recently went to Canberra to meet John Howard and the Environment Minister, Ian Campbell, to talk about federal plans for protecting the Tarkine.
But in the Pullinger marriage, Leonie has always been the administrator, and the burden of dealing with the case has fallen to her. She went to the last Gunns shareholders' meeting, where she took the floor, held up a large photograph, and explained to the directors what sort of people her family were.
"We are not ratbags. That's the message I was trying to get across. We are ordinary, everyday Tasmanians who became involved in the environment because of what was happening on our doorstep."
She said the board did not respond. Outside the meeting, Gunns executive chairman, John Gay, told a reporter for the Hobart Mercury he regretted Mrs Pullinger had been affected - a sorrow that extended to his employees and their families who had been damaged by the green movement, and indeed, even to his own family.
"I'm very sorry that she is in there, but they should have thought about what they did before they did it," he said.
Jenny Weber and her partner Adam Burling are in a different phase of life. Burling is one of the 20, prosecuted over his alleged role in a road blockade at Lucaston in the Huon Valley.
Plans they had to marry have been postponed, as have those of buying a house. Burling now works in Senator Brown's offi ce. Weber remains an activist - the spokeswoman for the Weld protest. "Some people say I have courage, and they're the nice ones," Weber said.
In recent months, 10 people have been arrested in this protest as they chained themselves to logging machines and the gates of a nearby timber plant. She said threats had been made of further law suits.
"I don't want to be intimidated by a company who might want to silence me or what I work for," she said. "This is about free speech rights."
Brown believes the democratic implications of Gunns' action are as great as those of forest protection. "We're in the main getting on with life and trying to save Tasmania's forests with no less vim and vigour," he said.
"People are worried about the huge expenses involved, but it's made world news and certainly attracted support . . . It's helped make the protest more durable."
He felt no constraint in speaking out. Recently he issued a media release pointing out that Gunns' share price had fallen from $4.35 to $2.54, refl ecting the investment advisory service CommSec's prediction of $2.56 a share and an even lower $2.38 if the company proceeded with the pulp mill. Yesterday the shares closed at $2.56.
Near the mill site, the main community opponent of Australia's largest single timber industry investment has hung up his spurs. Les Rochester cited a feud with the Greens for the demise of the Tamar Residents Action Committee. It had absolutely nothing to do with Gunns, he said. "When I started this . . . I divested myself of anything I owned," he said. "I'm not worth a zac."
But he believes others in the community were still frightened of speaking out against the mill.
John Gay broke a lengthy silence on the case as he confi rmed yesterday it would be pursued, at least against some of the individuals. "Gunns isn't about silencing the Greens," he said. "What we're sick of is the malicious damage some people are doing to us. We will continue to chase that down to the nth degree."
Terry Edwards, the chief executive of the Forest Industries Association of Tasmania, believes the case hasn't prevented people from "expressing their opinions, however ill-founded those opinions might be".
"A contractor was picketed out of a coupe in the Denison forest, there are those people with the pirate ship in the Weld, and it hasn't resulted in any attempt to shut them up," he said. "They have done that with complete impunity.
"I don't think Gunns has tried to trammel free speech. In fact, quite the contrary. Gunns has been quite genuine about opening the company up to debate, particularly with the pulp mill."
The loggers - the small businessmen who contract their men and machines to supply Gunns - are currently in a pinch. Their contracts are lapsing in a depressed market for old growth chips.
"The high Australian dollar's competitiveness is contributing to that," said Rodney Bishop, chairman of the Forest Contractors Association. "And our (overseas) customers are telling us they have been told what we are doing is environmentally wrong."
Bishop defended his members' decision to commence legal action. "Not being specific to any case, we have a legal right to do what we do."
Louise Morris is one of the Gunns 20. She also discovered, a year after the event, that she had been separately sued by a logging contractor for a protest in the Denison Valley in January 2004, when she acted as media spokeswoman.
"If life ground to a halt around this I would be a rather useless campaigner," said the 29-year-old who now lives in Melbourne, where she is continuing with a university course, and becoming involved in anti-nuclear work. "In 10 years' time this will all be a lovely chapter in the story of how we managed to get free speech legislation enshrined in the constitution."
HOW THE CASE UNFOLDED
DECEMBER 14, 2004 Process servers working on behalf of Gunns hand writs to 20 environmentalists and organisations involved in Tasmanian forests campaigns, over alleged conspiracy, interference with contracts, and interference with trade and business.
APRIL 9, 2005 Counsel for six defendants, Mark Dreyfus, QC, foreshadows applications to strike out parts of Gunns’ statement of claim in the Victorian Supreme Court, describing it as embarrassing and confused.
JULY 18, 2005 Justice Bernard Bongiorno dismisses the first and second statements of claim saying: "It would be a singularly unprofi table exercise to attempt to describe every defect in it which needs correction." The court allows the claim to be refi led.
MARCH 9, 2006 The defence argues for the third statement of claim to be struck out, saying it is substantially the same as the earlier statements. Justice Bongiorno asks Gunns to provide a single document for his consideration, which runs to 641 pages. He reserves his decision.
AUGUST 28, 2006 The third statement of claim is thrown out, being ruled "too general" by Justice Bongiorno. "Too much is sought to be alleged against too many," he says. Gunns has until October 19 to tell the court if it will attempt to introduce another statement of claim.
THE GUNNS 20
1. ALEC MARR, national director of The Wilderness Society (TWS)
$1.56 million
2. GEOFF LAW, Tasmanian forest campaigner, TWS
$1.45 million
3. RUSSELL HANSON, chief executive, TWS
$1.35 million
4. LEANNE MINSHULL, business analyst, former TWS
$1.55 million
5. HEIDI DOUGLAS, filmmaker, TWS
$464,313
6. THE WILDERNESS SOCIETY INC
$3.97 million
7. ADAM BURLING, Huon Valley environmentalist
$399,018
8. LOUISE MORRIS, environmentalist, student
$419,018
9. SIMON BROWN, new media artist
$309,108
10. SENATOR BOB BROWN, Greens leader
$1.76 million
11. PEG PUTT, Tasmanian Greens leader
$1.47 million
12. HELEN GEE, environmentalist
$45,473
13. BEN MORROW, environmentalist
$121,014
14. LOU GERAGHTY, cafe owner
$249,018
15. NEAL FUNNELL, law student
$70,000
16. BRIAN DIMMICK, filmmaker
$204,704
17. HUON VALLEY ENVIRONMENT CENTRE
$569,490
18. DR PETER PULLINGER, dentist
$784,313
19. DR FRANK NICKLASON, physician
$750,000
20. DOCTORS FOR NATIVE FORESTS INC.
$550,000
Article source
The Age, August 29, 2006
The Tasmanian timber giant is adamant it will sue environmental protesters, despite a legal setback yesterday. Is free speech in the firing line? By Andrew Darby.
As pirate ships go, the Weld Ark is more feral Australian than Jack Sparrow's Black Pearl. The Jolly Roger up the mast is where the similarities end. The Ark is built of poles and corrugated iron, and has no hull to speak of. Then there's the location at the end of a forest road - a long way from the Caribbean. But against the odds this "ship" is still causing trouble, nearly eight months after it was rigged to block access in one of Tasmania's more tenacious forest protests.
Through a sub-zero winter, a small crew of activists have stuck to the ark despite worries that opponents who wrecked a car, fired shots nearby, and offered verbal abuse, were returning more often to intimidate them.
Behind the camp, a flowing blanket of tall eucalypt rises up mountain foothills to the boundary of the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area. About 5000 hectares of this forest outside the heritage area is earmarked for logging. The environmentalists, mainly from the nearby Huon Valley, have blocked access for more than 20 months.
For a similar time, 20 people and organisations have been prosecuted by the timber industry giant, Gunns Ltd, and a logging contractor, in a landmark case at the Victorian Supreme Court. In its latest claim, thrown out yesterday, Gunns sought $6.9 million in damages from the environmentalists over protests they made against it.
Earlier this year, 40 British lawyers wrote to The Guardian newspaper to express their concern at Gunns' decision to sue the 20, an act that they said could financially cripple individual defendants, and have a chilling impact on freedom to protest.
Australian lawyers also warned that increased litigation against community participation in public issues silenced voices that should be heard. Led by eminent figures such as the Australian National University's Professor Hilary Charlesworth, dozens signed a statement in support of law reform.
Out in the Weld Valley, the pirate ship stands as evidence that Tasmania's forest debate is entrenched. As Gunns confirmed yesterday that it would pursue the action, what effect has the case had?
When it was lodged in December 2004, the Gunns writ was a surprise, even though the company had sued before, over a protest at one of its woodchip mills. Another forest contractor had also started a damages case over an action near the Weld, but the scale of the Gunns' writ was unprecedented.
The massive suit covered 10 different protest actions, in the state and overseas, over four years. Greens leaders Bob Brown had a $1.7 million claim against him. Four people from the Wilderness Society each faced claims in excess of $1.3 million, and the organisation itself a further $3.9 million. Those sued range from a country grandmother to a town dentist, and a filmmaker to a law student. Some had assets, others not.
Since the case began, the world has changed for both plaintiff and defendant. Prime Minister John Howard's Tasmanian forests protection package took the fire out of the hottest protests. Gunns moved further down the track towards a goahead for its contentious $1.4 billion Tasmanian pulp mill at Bell Bay on the Tamar River, spending $11 million to reach the public assessment stage, but its share price has plunged.
Some of those sued said the case was causing anguish, others claim to be disregarding it and one opponent of Gunns' pulp mill plan had prepared for prosecution, though it hasn't happened. Others were said to have been deterred from joining protest.
The Burnie dentist, Peter Pullinger, his wife Leonie and their four grown children, have much at stake. Locals for 30 years, they campaigned to protect one of the southern hemisphere's largest remaining tracts of temperate rainforest, the Tarkine, and largely won.
But there is now a $784,000 claim against Dr Pullinger for action he is alleged to have taken against Gunns, linked to a protest at a woodchip mill, and over a stockpile on the wharf at Burnie.
"I ignore this case, and literally don't think about it day to day," said Pullinger. "It's almost as if I made a conscious decision to say: 'well stuff this for a game of darts'."
The legal action seems to have made little difference to his general standing. He recently went to Canberra to meet John Howard and the Environment Minister, Ian Campbell, to talk about federal plans for protecting the Tarkine.
But in the Pullinger marriage, Leonie has always been the administrator, and the burden of dealing with the case has fallen to her. She went to the last Gunns shareholders' meeting, where she took the floor, held up a large photograph, and explained to the directors what sort of people her family were.
"We are not ratbags. That's the message I was trying to get across. We are ordinary, everyday Tasmanians who became involved in the environment because of what was happening on our doorstep."
She said the board did not respond. Outside the meeting, Gunns executive chairman, John Gay, told a reporter for the Hobart Mercury he regretted Mrs Pullinger had been affected - a sorrow that extended to his employees and their families who had been damaged by the green movement, and indeed, even to his own family.
"I'm very sorry that she is in there, but they should have thought about what they did before they did it," he said.
Jenny Weber and her partner Adam Burling are in a different phase of life. Burling is one of the 20, prosecuted over his alleged role in a road blockade at Lucaston in the Huon Valley.
Plans they had to marry have been postponed, as have those of buying a house. Burling now works in Senator Brown's offi ce. Weber remains an activist - the spokeswoman for the Weld protest. "Some people say I have courage, and they're the nice ones," Weber said.
In recent months, 10 people have been arrested in this protest as they chained themselves to logging machines and the gates of a nearby timber plant. She said threats had been made of further law suits.
"I don't want to be intimidated by a company who might want to silence me or what I work for," she said. "This is about free speech rights."
Brown believes the democratic implications of Gunns' action are as great as those of forest protection. "We're in the main getting on with life and trying to save Tasmania's forests with no less vim and vigour," he said.
"People are worried about the huge expenses involved, but it's made world news and certainly attracted support . . . It's helped make the protest more durable."
He felt no constraint in speaking out. Recently he issued a media release pointing out that Gunns' share price had fallen from $4.35 to $2.54, refl ecting the investment advisory service CommSec's prediction of $2.56 a share and an even lower $2.38 if the company proceeded with the pulp mill. Yesterday the shares closed at $2.56.
Near the mill site, the main community opponent of Australia's largest single timber industry investment has hung up his spurs. Les Rochester cited a feud with the Greens for the demise of the Tamar Residents Action Committee. It had absolutely nothing to do with Gunns, he said. "When I started this . . . I divested myself of anything I owned," he said. "I'm not worth a zac."
But he believes others in the community were still frightened of speaking out against the mill.
John Gay broke a lengthy silence on the case as he confi rmed yesterday it would be pursued, at least against some of the individuals. "Gunns isn't about silencing the Greens," he said. "What we're sick of is the malicious damage some people are doing to us. We will continue to chase that down to the nth degree."
Terry Edwards, the chief executive of the Forest Industries Association of Tasmania, believes the case hasn't prevented people from "expressing their opinions, however ill-founded those opinions might be".
"A contractor was picketed out of a coupe in the Denison forest, there are those people with the pirate ship in the Weld, and it hasn't resulted in any attempt to shut them up," he said. "They have done that with complete impunity.
"I don't think Gunns has tried to trammel free speech. In fact, quite the contrary. Gunns has been quite genuine about opening the company up to debate, particularly with the pulp mill."
The loggers - the small businessmen who contract their men and machines to supply Gunns - are currently in a pinch. Their contracts are lapsing in a depressed market for old growth chips.
"The high Australian dollar's competitiveness is contributing to that," said Rodney Bishop, chairman of the Forest Contractors Association. "And our (overseas) customers are telling us they have been told what we are doing is environmentally wrong."
Bishop defended his members' decision to commence legal action. "Not being specific to any case, we have a legal right to do what we do."
Louise Morris is one of the Gunns 20. She also discovered, a year after the event, that she had been separately sued by a logging contractor for a protest in the Denison Valley in January 2004, when she acted as media spokeswoman.
"If life ground to a halt around this I would be a rather useless campaigner," said the 29-year-old who now lives in Melbourne, where she is continuing with a university course, and becoming involved in anti-nuclear work. "In 10 years' time this will all be a lovely chapter in the story of how we managed to get free speech legislation enshrined in the constitution."
HOW THE CASE UNFOLDED
DECEMBER 14, 2004 Process servers working on behalf of Gunns hand writs to 20 environmentalists and organisations involved in Tasmanian forests campaigns, over alleged conspiracy, interference with contracts, and interference with trade and business.
APRIL 9, 2005 Counsel for six defendants, Mark Dreyfus, QC, foreshadows applications to strike out parts of Gunns’ statement of claim in the Victorian Supreme Court, describing it as embarrassing and confused.
JULY 18, 2005 Justice Bernard Bongiorno dismisses the first and second statements of claim saying: "It would be a singularly unprofi table exercise to attempt to describe every defect in it which needs correction." The court allows the claim to be refi led.
MARCH 9, 2006 The defence argues for the third statement of claim to be struck out, saying it is substantially the same as the earlier statements. Justice Bongiorno asks Gunns to provide a single document for his consideration, which runs to 641 pages. He reserves his decision.
AUGUST 28, 2006 The third statement of claim is thrown out, being ruled "too general" by Justice Bongiorno. "Too much is sought to be alleged against too many," he says. Gunns has until October 19 to tell the court if it will attempt to introduce another statement of claim.
THE GUNNS 20
1. ALEC MARR, national director of The Wilderness Society (TWS)
$1.56 million
2. GEOFF LAW, Tasmanian forest campaigner, TWS
$1.45 million
3. RUSSELL HANSON, chief executive, TWS
$1.35 million
4. LEANNE MINSHULL, business analyst, former TWS
$1.55 million
5. HEIDI DOUGLAS, filmmaker, TWS
$464,313
6. THE WILDERNESS SOCIETY INC
$3.97 million
7. ADAM BURLING, Huon Valley environmentalist
$399,018
8. LOUISE MORRIS, environmentalist, student
$419,018
9. SIMON BROWN, new media artist
$309,108
10. SENATOR BOB BROWN, Greens leader
$1.76 million
11. PEG PUTT, Tasmanian Greens leader
$1.47 million
12. HELEN GEE, environmentalist
$45,473
13. BEN MORROW, environmentalist
$121,014
14. LOU GERAGHTY, cafe owner
$249,018
15. NEAL FUNNELL, law student
$70,000
16. BRIAN DIMMICK, filmmaker
$204,704
17. HUON VALLEY ENVIRONMENT CENTRE
$569,490
18. DR PETER PULLINGER, dentist
$784,313
19. DR FRANK NICKLASON, physician
$750,000
20. DOCTORS FOR NATIVE FORESTS INC.
$550,000
Article source
ARTICLE: Gunns to try a fourth time on case
Peter Gregory
The Age
August 29, 2006
The timber company Gunns Ltd has been given a fourth chance to plead its case in a multimillion-dollar damages claim against environmentalists.
Justice Bernard Bongiorno yesterday struck out the current 221-page claim, saying it made too many claims against too many defendants in the one proceeding.
He also pointed to difficulties it caused for those sued in understanding the case against them, and the likely cost.
But Justice Bongiorno gave the company until October 19 to ask the court if it could bring another claim. If it did not, the 20 environmental groups and individuals the company had sued could make claims for costs.
Giving his judgement in the Victorian Supreme Court, Justice Bongiorno said Gunns had made serious allegations about conduct by some individuals, some of which could amount to criminal offences.
He said it would be unjust to deny Gunns the opportunity to bring its allegations in an intelligible form. But it was legally embarrassing for defendants to have to grapple with the 714-paragraph claim, which apparently was accompanied by another 2217 paragraphs of additional information, he said.
In an action seeking more than $6 million damages, Gunns sued environmentalists, including Greens leader Bob Brown, his Tasmanian counterpart, Peg Putt, and Wilderness Society national campaign director Alec Marr.
The action also named the Wilderness Society, the Huon Valley Environment Centre and Doctors For Native Forests.
Gunns claimed it was hurt financially and in its reputation, and that some defendants were conspiring against it.
Gunns said it would continue its efforts to sue. Chief executive John Gay said: "We've got the answer we wanted."
With AAP
Original article
The Age
August 29, 2006
The timber company Gunns Ltd has been given a fourth chance to plead its case in a multimillion-dollar damages claim against environmentalists.
Justice Bernard Bongiorno yesterday struck out the current 221-page claim, saying it made too many claims against too many defendants in the one proceeding.
He also pointed to difficulties it caused for those sued in understanding the case against them, and the likely cost.
But Justice Bongiorno gave the company until October 19 to ask the court if it could bring another claim. If it did not, the 20 environmental groups and individuals the company had sued could make claims for costs.
Giving his judgement in the Victorian Supreme Court, Justice Bongiorno said Gunns had made serious allegations about conduct by some individuals, some of which could amount to criminal offences.
He said it would be unjust to deny Gunns the opportunity to bring its allegations in an intelligible form. But it was legally embarrassing for defendants to have to grapple with the 714-paragraph claim, which apparently was accompanied by another 2217 paragraphs of additional information, he said.
In an action seeking more than $6 million damages, Gunns sued environmentalists, including Greens leader Bob Brown, his Tasmanian counterpart, Peg Putt, and Wilderness Society national campaign director Alec Marr.
The action also named the Wilderness Society, the Huon Valley Environment Centre and Doctors For Native Forests.
Gunns claimed it was hurt financially and in its reputation, and that some defendants were conspiring against it.
Gunns said it would continue its efforts to sue. Chief executive John Gay said: "We've got the answer we wanted."
With AAP
Original article
03 July, 2006
ARTICLE: Seeing the wood waste from the trees
Andrew Lang
The Age, July 3, 2006
Australia should be paying closer attention to Europe on biofuels, writes Andrew Lang.
AUSTRALIA could within 15 years be producing up to 20 per cent of its energy needs from oody waste, but this has thus far been almost totally ignored.The media is informative about nuclear and fossil fuels energy, with the occasional mention of renewable sources of electricity production only touching on wind and solar energy.The potential for woody biomass as fuel for off-the-shelf cost-effective energy plants for some reason is being overlooked. Government pronouncements and speakers rarely mention bioenergy, except in the odd comment about biodiesel, or ethanol in petrol.
Yet, in central Finland, up to 45 per cent of industrial and household energy consumption is produced by power plants burning woody waste. This is mainly sourced from thinning or harvesting of private forest, or timber processing waste. Overall in Finland, the world leader in industrial bioenergy production, it is more than 22 per cent.
The European Union has a short-term goal of 12 per cent of energy to be produced from renewable sources by 2010. Austria already produces about 18 per cent from wood, with central heating or power plants in many towns. The smaller plants are often supplied with their wood chip fuel by farmer syndicates. In Sweden, the figure is almost 20 per cent. The Swedes have recently decommissioned two nuclear plants, and are decommissioning their remaining seven nuclear plants as soon as they can replace them with renewable energy sources, mainly with wood-fuelled plants. The Germans are aiming to similarly decommission all their nuclear power plants. In Bavaria, taxes on fossil fuels are used to generate subsidies for municipalities to develop co-generation plants fired by a mix of municipal waste and woody waste.
Denmark and the other Scandinavian countries use the same general principle. There, heating oil and vehicle fuels are taxed on the basis of their energy value, and part of the revenue raised is used to lift the price paid for chipped forest thinnings and harvest waste delivered to the power plants. In Finland some incentive subsidy is paid for the thinning process and to offset transport and chipping costs.
Last September there was an international conference in Finland about the latest available technology on woodchip-fired power generators. These come in all sizes, from about two megawatts — enough for a small rural community — to over 200MW, enough for a city of 100,000 residents. An equally informative conference was held some months later in Norway.
The Finnish website www.finbio.fi shows the great potential for this energy source. The Swedes have a similar website at www.svebio.se. The Danes, leaders in using straw as a biofuel, are at www.danbio.dk. A web search using "bioenergy" plus the country name will bring up similar sites for Germany and Austria.
The British are building a power plant near Lockerbie in southern Scotland that will be fuelled by woody biomass.
This will use about 200,000 tonnes a year of thinnings and harvest waste from plantation forestry management in the area (Victoria exports five times that amount, mostly from chipped eucalypt logs).
In the US, despite a primary renewable energy focus on wind, solar and hydro-electricity, there are many websites detailing the growth in the bioenergy sector. A general site is www.bioenergy.ornl.gov.
Woody waste comes from several main sources. In practice, for a 10MW or larger plant, it would come from an extensive, sustainably managed, private forestry industry. Sawlog-producing plantations are normally thinned twice as part of good management. Five thousand hectares of managed sawlog plantings progressively established — whether as scattered farm sawlog woodlots across 500 farms, or as several large industrial plantations — will annually produce enough chipped thinnings and harvest waste to fuel a significant bioenergy plant.
Waste wood from building demolition or renovation is another significant source, largely going to waste in Australia. In some countries, including Denmark, householders must by law separate all flammable municipal waste for energy generation or recycling.
A key issue in favour of bioenergy as a by-product of a sustainably managed plantation timber industry is that it is almost carbon neutral. For each tree cut down, at least one more is planted, or the coppice regrowth is managed.
In addition, appropriately sited trees are playing a role in salinity mitigation, improving water quality, or providing habitat. The logs from harvested trees are milled, with up to 50 per cent of the volume going into durable products. These may keep the carbon component sequestered for 100 years or more.
Crucial for reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, the use of woody biomass for generating energy means that it reduces the fossil fuel used by that amount of energy. And the ash from the clean wood combustion process is a useful product as a potential component of agricultural fertiliser.
Off-the-shelf power plants fuelled by woody biomass are relatively cheap, have low visual impact, and come in all sizes. They can be fuelled by alternative solid flammable wastes, such as straw, nut husks or olive pits, and can be the source of heat and steam for adjacent industry.
Andrew Lang is a farmer, farm forester, and chairman of the innovative SMARTimbers marketing co-operative.
21 June, 2006
ARTICLE: Cockatoo threat to pulp mill
Liz Minchin
The Age, June 21, 2006
A $650 million pulp mill has been put on hold because of plans to cut down six potential nesting trees for an endangered cockatoo.
Yesterday the federal Department of Environment and Heritage wrote to the developers of the Penola Pulp Mill in South Australia, just over the Victorian border, demanding more evidence that their plans would not affect the south-eastern red-tailed black cockatoo.
The mill's project director, John Roche, said he was surprised by the intervention, and concerned that the pulp mill might go the way of a Gippsland wind farm, recently vetoed by Federal Environment Minister Ian Campbell because of a one-in-1000-year risk of it killing an endangered orange-bellied parrot.
"To build the mill we have to knock over six red gums that could be used as nesting habitat for the birds, but up until today we thought that decision would be made by the local council," Mr Roche said.
"Now that decision is with the Federal Government, obviously people are a little bit anxious after what happened with the wind farm in Victoria recently."
Better known to Victorians as Commonwealth Games mascot Karak, there are only about 1000 remaining south-eastern red-tailed black cockatoos, which are found only in western Victoria and parts of South Australia.
The greatest threat to their survival is the destruction of their nesting trees and food sources. A final decision on the mill is likely to take between three months and a year.
Original article
The Age, June 21, 2006
A $650 million pulp mill has been put on hold because of plans to cut down six potential nesting trees for an endangered cockatoo.
Yesterday the federal Department of Environment and Heritage wrote to the developers of the Penola Pulp Mill in South Australia, just over the Victorian border, demanding more evidence that their plans would not affect the south-eastern red-tailed black cockatoo.
The mill's project director, John Roche, said he was surprised by the intervention, and concerned that the pulp mill might go the way of a Gippsland wind farm, recently vetoed by Federal Environment Minister Ian Campbell because of a one-in-1000-year risk of it killing an endangered orange-bellied parrot.
"To build the mill we have to knock over six red gums that could be used as nesting habitat for the birds, but up until today we thought that decision would be made by the local council," Mr Roche said.
"Now that decision is with the Federal Government, obviously people are a little bit anxious after what happened with the wind farm in Victoria recently."
Better known to Victorians as Commonwealth Games mascot Karak, there are only about 1000 remaining south-eastern red-tailed black cockatoos, which are found only in western Victoria and parts of South Australia.
The greatest threat to their survival is the destruction of their nesting trees and food sources. A final decision on the mill is likely to take between three months and a year.
Original article
12 June, 2006
ARTICLE: Timber sale not much chop, says industry
Philip Hopkins
The Age (Business section), June 12, 2006
Victoria's forestry industry has launched action against VicForests' latest timber auction, saying it is unfair and produces outcomes that threaten parts of the industry.
The director of operations at the Victorian Association of Forest Industries, Nick Murray, said many of the prices reached in the auction were unsustainable.
Some of the state's best and most progressive value-adding sawmills refused to pay the high prices, and were feeling threatened, he said.
VAFI has lodged formal grievance procedures with the auction manager of online auctioneers BOMweb. The grievances will have to be heard before contracts arising from the auctions can be finalised.
The grievance procedure involves representatives from VicForests, BOMweb and an independent probity officer making a decision on the complaint.
The auction was held last week, the second in the new timber sales system that VicForests, the State Government's commercial forestry arm, will progressively introduce over the next decade.
The current system, where sawmills receive long-term licences and VicForests sets the prices for the various sawlog grades, will be progressively phased out. All native forest timber will be sold at auction by 2015.
The first auction in April was for 174,100 cubic metres of sawlogs, while the second was for about 700,000 cubic metres.
Mr Murray said the auction did not operate as buyers had been led to believe. He said it was far more complex than the first auction, with a combination of lots creating an incredible number of variables.
"There are a number of aggrieved buyers and bidders, both successful and unsuccessful, hit by the vagaries of the system," he said. "Many felt compelled to pay more than they would have thought, and others missed out on buying wood as a consequence."
Successful buyers were believed to include Neville Smith Timber Industries, Gould Sawmills, Auswest and Fenning Bairnsdale. Those missing out are believed to be leading players such as McCormack Timbers, Drouin West Timber and Black Forest Timbers.
Mr Murray said several prices, including for mountain ash, were excessive at 20-50 per cent above the administered price delivered at the mill gate.
Original article
The Age (Business section), June 12, 2006
Victoria's forestry industry has launched action against VicForests' latest timber auction, saying it is unfair and produces outcomes that threaten parts of the industry.
The director of operations at the Victorian Association of Forest Industries, Nick Murray, said many of the prices reached in the auction were unsustainable.
Some of the state's best and most progressive value-adding sawmills refused to pay the high prices, and were feeling threatened, he said.
VAFI has lodged formal grievance procedures with the auction manager of online auctioneers BOMweb. The grievances will have to be heard before contracts arising from the auctions can be finalised.
The grievance procedure involves representatives from VicForests, BOMweb and an independent probity officer making a decision on the complaint.
The auction was held last week, the second in the new timber sales system that VicForests, the State Government's commercial forestry arm, will progressively introduce over the next decade.
The current system, where sawmills receive long-term licences and VicForests sets the prices for the various sawlog grades, will be progressively phased out. All native forest timber will be sold at auction by 2015.
The first auction in April was for 174,100 cubic metres of sawlogs, while the second was for about 700,000 cubic metres.
Mr Murray said the auction did not operate as buyers had been led to believe. He said it was far more complex than the first auction, with a combination of lots creating an incredible number of variables.
"There are a number of aggrieved buyers and bidders, both successful and unsuccessful, hit by the vagaries of the system," he said. "Many felt compelled to pay more than they would have thought, and others missed out on buying wood as a consequence."
Successful buyers were believed to include Neville Smith Timber Industries, Gould Sawmills, Auswest and Fenning Bairnsdale. Those missing out are believed to be leading players such as McCormack Timbers, Drouin West Timber and Black Forest Timbers.
Mr Murray said several prices, including for mountain ash, were excessive at 20-50 per cent above the administered price delivered at the mill gate.
Original article
10 June, 2006
ARTICLE: Pulp mill gets green light
Philip Hopkins
The Age (Business Section), June 10, 2006
Construction of a $700 million pulp mill at Heywood in Victoria's south-west will get under way by the end of this year after the project received the go-ahead from the Victorian Government.
The mill, 20 kilometres from Portland, will take two years to build and is expected to produce its first pulp by 2009.
It is a sister mill to a proposed pulp mill in Penola, north of Mount Gambier, which is awaiting approval from the South Australian Government.
Together, the two pulp mills represent $1.3 billion in investment, and each will employ 120 people when in full production. About 600 jobs will be created in building each mill.
Woodchips for the mills — 1.4 million green tonnes a year — will be sourced from Timbercorp's blue gum hardwood plantations in the Green Triangle, the fertile region that stretches from Warrnambool in Victoria to Kingston in SA.
The Heywood pulp mill is valued at about $400 million, but the total project will cost about $700 million when other works are included. These include a 120 megawatt, gas-fired power station connected to the SeaGas gas pipeline between Victoria and SA, and upgrades to road, rail and terminals at the Port of Portland.
Both plants will be chemi-thermomechanical pulp (CTMP) mills. CTMP is used to manufacture soft and absorbent tissue, box-board and coated fine paper among other things.
The developer is Protavia, which is backed by an alliance of companies that includes Timbercorp, chemical giant Orica, CellMark, Andritz and Silcar. CellMark is the world's largest pulp and paper trader, Andritz is the world's largest provider of the CTMP technology, and Silcar is a joint venture between German companies Thiess and Siemens.
Project director John Roche said there was huge demand for the CTMP pulp and prices were very high. "It requires much energy to produce, and Australia's energy prices are very competitive," he said.
"We are not competing against Australian electricity prices, but prices in the rest of the world. Only Russia and South Africa are comparable with Australia, but they do not have the same stable political environment." Mr Roche said adding value to the woodchips would be of great benefit to Australia. Woodchips sell for about $150-$160 a tonne, whereas pulp fetches about $800 a tonne. Mr Roche said the pulp would be exported to Taiwan, Korea and China. The two mills are expected to generate export earnings of $700 million a year, which will put a big dent in Australia's annual $2 billion trade deficit in wood products.
Timbercorp's plantation timber is certified by the Forest Stewardship Council.
Original article
The Age (Business Section), June 10, 2006
Construction of a $700 million pulp mill at Heywood in Victoria's south-west will get under way by the end of this year after the project received the go-ahead from the Victorian Government.
The mill, 20 kilometres from Portland, will take two years to build and is expected to produce its first pulp by 2009.
It is a sister mill to a proposed pulp mill in Penola, north of Mount Gambier, which is awaiting approval from the South Australian Government.
Together, the two pulp mills represent $1.3 billion in investment, and each will employ 120 people when in full production. About 600 jobs will be created in building each mill.
Woodchips for the mills — 1.4 million green tonnes a year — will be sourced from Timbercorp's blue gum hardwood plantations in the Green Triangle, the fertile region that stretches from Warrnambool in Victoria to Kingston in SA.
The Heywood pulp mill is valued at about $400 million, but the total project will cost about $700 million when other works are included. These include a 120 megawatt, gas-fired power station connected to the SeaGas gas pipeline between Victoria and SA, and upgrades to road, rail and terminals at the Port of Portland.
Both plants will be chemi-thermomechanical pulp (CTMP) mills. CTMP is used to manufacture soft and absorbent tissue, box-board and coated fine paper among other things.
The developer is Protavia, which is backed by an alliance of companies that includes Timbercorp, chemical giant Orica, CellMark, Andritz and Silcar. CellMark is the world's largest pulp and paper trader, Andritz is the world's largest provider of the CTMP technology, and Silcar is a joint venture between German companies Thiess and Siemens.
Project director John Roche said there was huge demand for the CTMP pulp and prices were very high. "It requires much energy to produce, and Australia's energy prices are very competitive," he said.
"We are not competing against Australian electricity prices, but prices in the rest of the world. Only Russia and South Africa are comparable with Australia, but they do not have the same stable political environment." Mr Roche said adding value to the woodchips would be of great benefit to Australia. Woodchips sell for about $150-$160 a tonne, whereas pulp fetches about $800 a tonne. Mr Roche said the pulp would be exported to Taiwan, Korea and China. The two mills are expected to generate export earnings of $700 million a year, which will put a big dent in Australia's annual $2 billion trade deficit in wood products.
Timbercorp's plantation timber is certified by the Forest Stewardship Council.
Original article
06 June, 2006
LETTER: Missing the logging message
Fiona Nelson, Otway Conservation Council, Apollo Bay
The Age ( letter) 6/6/06
Some 15,000 people rallied in Melbourne on Sunday to protect Victoria's old-growth, high-conservation forests and water catchments from woodchipping.
The message at the rally was loud and clear. Unfortunately, The Age (5/6), appears to have largely missed this message. It used the rally to advertise Steve Bracks' campaign to reduce power use — as important as the water use reduction campaign — thus diverting attention away from the fact that forested catchments continue to be logged primarily for woodchips.
Logging reduces water supply by as much as 50 per cent, yet the Bracks Government continues to allow our forested water catchments across Victoria to be cleared, while producing a sustainable water strategy that ensures that demand for water will exceed supply in the next 20 years for Melbourne, Ballarat and Geelong.
The Premier did say that logging has been reduced by 30 per cent over the past 6½ years. Not good enough, Mr Bracks. Protect our forests, our water, our air and our wildlife. End native forest logging now.
The Age ( letter) 6/6/06
Some 15,000 people rallied in Melbourne on Sunday to protect Victoria's old-growth, high-conservation forests and water catchments from woodchipping.
The message at the rally was loud and clear. Unfortunately, The Age (5/6), appears to have largely missed this message. It used the rally to advertise Steve Bracks' campaign to reduce power use — as important as the water use reduction campaign — thus diverting attention away from the fact that forested catchments continue to be logged primarily for woodchips.
Logging reduces water supply by as much as 50 per cent, yet the Bracks Government continues to allow our forested water catchments across Victoria to be cleared, while producing a sustainable water strategy that ensures that demand for water will exceed supply in the next 20 years for Melbourne, Ballarat and Geelong.
The Premier did say that logging has been reduced by 30 per cent over the past 6½ years. Not good enough, Mr Bracks. Protect our forests, our water, our air and our wildlife. End native forest logging now.
04 June, 2006
ARTICLE: Vic urged to protect old-growth forests
ABC News Online
Sunday, June 4, 2006
Environmentalists want the Victorian Government to do more to protect the state's old-growth forests from logging.
The Wilderness Society says while the Government has bought out about one-third of the state's logging quotas and it should now go further.
Marking World Environment Day tomorrow, the society's Alec Marr says the old-growth forests in the east, water catchments and the homes of endangered wildlife must be saved.
"We certainly expected the Government to do more this term than they have and we are running out of time," he said.
"So we want to see the Premier take a leadership role and protect all of these fantastic areas of forest that the community has been fighting for for years."
17 May, 2006
ARTICLE: Forest industry can't see wood for the (imported) trees
Philip Hopkins
The Age, May 17 2006
Plantation hardwood woodchip exports increased significantly last financial year, but Australia is set to record another $2 billion trade deficit in forest products.
Log removals from eucalypt hardwood plantations — mostly blue gums — rose by 58 per cent to 2.9 million cubic metres last financial year, according to the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics in its latest report on forest and wood products. Sales of eucalypt sawlogs from native forests fell by 4 per cent, to 10 million cubic metres.
ABARE's executive director Brian Fisher said the logs were used for woodchip exports.
Exports of hardwood and softwood woodchips totalled a record $858 million last financial year. Woodchips were 40 per cent of Australian timber exports of $2.1 billion, but this was dwarfed by forest product imports of $4.1 billion.
About half the imports ($2.1 billion) were of paper and paperboard, with printing and writing paper ($1.4 billion) the main source. Figures for this financial year's first half show imports totalling $2.05 billion, and exports $1.02 billion.
Chief executive of the National Association of Forest Industries Catherine Murphy said the rise in plantation woodchip exports showed the effectiveness of the Federal Government's policy, which gives tax benefits to individual plantation investors.
"We have been able to build a strong plantation sector on this platform," she said.
Ms Murphy said plantations would form the basis of the pulp mills planned for Australia. Gunns aims to build a pulp mill in northern Tasmania, and pulp mills are planned for south-west Victoria and south-east South Australia, based on the regions' blue gum plantations.
The high level of paper imports showed the necessity to get such projects off the ground, she said. But Ms Murphy said the figures also underlined that the native forest sector could not be underestimated.
"It's still three times the size of the plantation hardwood sector," she said.
Sawn wood exports in both the September and December quarters remained just above $31 million, about 22 per cent higher than the same period the year before. Dr Fisher said the increase was driven by the rise in pine sawlog exports to Asia, particularly Chinese Taipei.
Original article
The Age, May 17 2006
Plantation hardwood woodchip exports increased significantly last financial year, but Australia is set to record another $2 billion trade deficit in forest products.
Log removals from eucalypt hardwood plantations — mostly blue gums — rose by 58 per cent to 2.9 million cubic metres last financial year, according to the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics in its latest report on forest and wood products. Sales of eucalypt sawlogs from native forests fell by 4 per cent, to 10 million cubic metres.
ABARE's executive director Brian Fisher said the logs were used for woodchip exports.
Exports of hardwood and softwood woodchips totalled a record $858 million last financial year. Woodchips were 40 per cent of Australian timber exports of $2.1 billion, but this was dwarfed by forest product imports of $4.1 billion.
About half the imports ($2.1 billion) were of paper and paperboard, with printing and writing paper ($1.4 billion) the main source. Figures for this financial year's first half show imports totalling $2.05 billion, and exports $1.02 billion.
Chief executive of the National Association of Forest Industries Catherine Murphy said the rise in plantation woodchip exports showed the effectiveness of the Federal Government's policy, which gives tax benefits to individual plantation investors.
"We have been able to build a strong plantation sector on this platform," she said.
Ms Murphy said plantations would form the basis of the pulp mills planned for Australia. Gunns aims to build a pulp mill in northern Tasmania, and pulp mills are planned for south-west Victoria and south-east South Australia, based on the regions' blue gum plantations.
The high level of paper imports showed the necessity to get such projects off the ground, she said. But Ms Murphy said the figures also underlined that the native forest sector could not be underestimated.
"It's still three times the size of the plantation hardwood sector," she said.
Sawn wood exports in both the September and December quarters remained just above $31 million, about 22 per cent higher than the same period the year before. Dr Fisher said the increase was driven by the rise in pine sawlog exports to Asia, particularly Chinese Taipei.
Original article
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