Markets For Change says Tasmania is precipitating a national fight and has vowed not to be intimidated or silenced in the face of proposed Tasmanian government legislation designed to stifle free speech and undermine uniform national defamation laws.
“This is part of a government and forest industry vendetta against those who are prepared to stand up against rapacious treatment of nature and inform buyers of the circumstances in which the product originated,” said Markets For Change CEO Peg Putt.
“Tasmania seems determined to breach a national COAG agreement on uniform defamation laws and make Tasmania the home of attacks on rights to free speech in Australia. It will have far-reaching ramifications not confined to logging issues, but the full gamut of environmental and social concerns such as dredging the Great Barrier Reef, controversial fracking impacts and the use of child labour in overseas production facilities.”
“Probably this effort to gag critics would also hamstring campaigns to use consumer concern to drive clothing retailers to show care over the conditions in which their products are manufactured– a predicament highlighted in exploitative and unsafe Bangladeshi production facilities, for example. It could tie community groups up in unaffordable expensive litigation brought by well-resourced corporations who can write it all off on tax.”
“Having failed with the Gunns 20 and other SLAPP suits, some elements of industry now want government to tip the playing field in their direction.”
“We won’t be intimidated. That is the obvious intent of such a law.”
“The irony is that the government is making misleading and dishonest claims about our information campaigns, which have been factual and exposed lies told to customers of Tasmanian wood products. They were led to believe they were getting a plantation grown product when in reality it was from controversial native forests, a vital inaccuracy that we had a responsibility to correct.”
“We were only successful because we took a genuine concern with comprehensive supporting evidence to a market which wanted the highest environmental credentials. These markets are not dummies, they know what their consumers want and must be treated with respect.”
“Where’s the proposed law to say that Tasmanian producers should be truthful to overseas customers?”
Markets For Change CEO Peg Putt
