Federal Liberals’ repressive anti-environment vendetta

Federal Liberals’ repressive anti-environment vendetta to strip rights to free speech & attack fundraising potential of environment groups

The announced intention of the Abbott government to debilitate the fundraising ability of environment groups by removing tax deductibility for their donations is the latest in an extreme anti-environment agenda that also includes plans to gag groups from informing consumers and retail companies of the environmental impacts of products via secondary boycott legislation, according to Markets For Change.

“It’s already a David and Goliath struggle for environment groups to compete with the tremendous resources of governments and corporations to get our message across, but these elements of the Liberal party want to further tilt the playing field against the environment by changing laws so as to quash free speech and consumer rights to information on environmental impacts whilst making fundraising extremely difficult,” said CEO of Markets For Change, Peg Putt.

“It’s actually the Abbott government that went international with wrong, ludicrous claims about Tasmania’s World Heritage forests and was slapped down in their efforts to delist those forests for logging, but now they plan to exact retribution on those very groups who stood up to them and won the scientific argument,” Ms Putt continued.

“The Liberal Party’s federal council has apparently decided to attack free speech and the right to information at the same time as they undermine environmental groups’ fundraising capacity, all part of an extreme anti-environment vendetta.”

“We gain traction because our information is reliable and reasonable, and because consumers and retail companies want to know the environmental attributes of the products they buy and sell so that they can make responsible purchasing decisions.”

“Apparently the government wants them to be kept in the dark and told the sort of nonsense they trotted out on the World Heritage values of Tasmania’s forests.”

“Public donations are the only source of funds for many environment groups and the government is moving to make it less attractive to donate.”

“This type of repression is unacceptable anywhere, anytime, and flies in the face of international trends, where the big consumer blocs of the world are very conscious of their environmental footprint and companies expect and appreciate an information rich relationship with groups like Markets For Change,” Ms Putt concluded.

• Yesterday on Tasmanian Times: Dark day for democracy but Tasmanians will not be silenced

• Vica Bayley, Ruth Langford: Government commitment required on World Heritage cultural assessment