Media release – Bob Brown Foundation, 1 March 2021
Eight forest defenders charged during Tasmanian sawmill shutdown.
“Twenty-seven forests defenders arrived at one of the largest sawmills in Tasmania this morning, halting the operation of a mill which is trashing native forests from across the state. Eight of these brave people were charged, taking a stand for the majority of Australians who want to see this archaic logging industry end, just as whaling was ended. It’s an outdated practice in a time of climate emergency. It’s time to end native forest logging,” said Jenny Weber, Bob Brown Foundation Campaign Manager.
“What we saw today at McKay’s sawmill were the remnants of endangered species habitat, ripped out of living, thriving forests. McKay’s is one of the biggest sawmills in Tasmania, driving the destruction of native forests across Tasmania for profit, at the expense of the climate, native animals and the community that wants logging stopped,” said Jenny Weber.
“The early hours of this morning twenty-seven forest defenders entered the McKay’s timber mill, in southern Tasmania. We completely shut down this forest destroying mill. Several people locked onto a conveyor belt and the front gate, preventing access to the site. The action was done to show where our native forests are going. They are being fed through this mill to be turned into products that could be made from plantations,” said Dr Lisa Searle, Bob Brown Foundation’s Native Forest Campaign Organiser.
“With this protest, and the others over the last few months, we are seeing an escalation in the campaign against native forests logging. More and more people are standing up and putting themselves on the line to defend Tasmania’s forests. These people are heroes,” Dr Lisa Searle.
Media release – Shane Broad MP, Shadow Minister for Primary Industries, 1 March 2021
Labor condemns Bob Brown Foundation actions
Tasmanian Labor condemns the action taken by the Bob Brown Foundation against a family sawmill this morning.
Shadow Minister for Primary Industries Shane Broad said the actions are despicable.
“The actions taken by the Bob Brown Foundation this morning are completely unacceptable,” Dr Broad said.
“They have targeted members of the community who are working to provide for their families and this action cannot be tolerated.
“All the timber coming into this mill has been approved by the Greens and the environmental movement, however now it appears the Greens are walking away from an agreement they signed up to, only doing so because they’re desperate for relevance.
“While the Liberals and Greens continue to stir up trouble they forget about the workers who are stuck in the middle.
“Labor stands with the workers and backs the industry; this action must not continue.”
Media release – Guy Barnett, Minister for Resources, 1 March 2021
Labor need to support workplace protection laws
It is time for Labor to get off the fence and back our workplace protection laws which are clearly needed here in Tasmania.
It beggars belief that Labor would come out and condemn the Bob Brown Foundation’s most recent protests, yet refuse to support laws that are designed to allow hard working Tasmanians to earn a living for their families without fear of dangerous protests occurring in their workplace.
Hopefully Shane Broad’s statement today is an indication that Labor has backflipped again this week – like last week’s reversal on 11/12 extension schools – and will now support our priority Workplace Protection legislation, which they previously tried to block.
To the Bob Brown Foundation, I say enough is enough and I call on these protesters to cease their dangerous and threatening actions.
These latest protests are attacking a facility where hard working Tasmanians are lawfully producing high quality products that are used for building homes here in Tasmania and across the nation.
The protesters have followed harvesting operations from Wentworth hills, which is Permanent Timber Production Zone (PTPZ) land and was specifically set aside for sustainable forest harvesting by both Houses of State Parliament and agreed to by the Greens.
We support the right to protest peacefully but dangerous actions are unacceptable and at a time when we desperately need to protect jobs and regional economies, it is extremely disappointing that BBF protesters would invade a legitimate workplace to try to stop hard-working Tasmanians earning a living.
I call on Shane Broad to speak with the Labor member for Derwent and his Upper House colleagues, to explain why our Workplace Protection legislation is needed and ask that they support it for the sake of Tasmanian workers.
Media release – Cassy O’Connor MP | Greens Leader and Forests spokesperson, 1 March 2021
Greens Back BBF, Forests and Future Generations
The Greens applaud the work of the brave forest defenders at the Bob Brown Foundation. BBF volunteers are at the frontline of stopping the drivers of the climate and biodiversity crisis which is being alarmingly accelerated by deforestation.
On behalf of the Tasmanian Greens and future generations, I thank them for their commitment to protecting lutruwita/Tasmania’s globally significant, carbon-rich old forests.
The trees being shipped to McKays are carbon-storing giants. Anyone driving past McKays can see enormous logs that have come from old growth forests like the Wentworth Hills, the Styx and the Florentine. These forests are also home to endangered and threatened Tasmanian species being driven to the brink by deforestation.
In a climate and biodiversity crisis, there’s no justification for native forest logging. It is a crime against Nature, and future generations.
Under the Liberals and Resources Minister, Guy Barnett, native forest logging for woodchips is intensifying and it’s being cheered on by Labor.
Young Tasmanians will look at the actions and words of Guy Barnett and Shane Broad with disbelief. They will think the age of the dinosaurs is still upon us, and they will judge them harshly.
Shane Broad is lying about the Greens supporting this devastation as a result of the Tasmanian Forest Agreement. He knows we did not support every aspect of the TFA, and that there was a Signatories Council process for contentious forests.
Labor’s reference to the TFA is petty, irrelevant and desperate. There is no TFA. The Liberals tore it up.
While the Liberals and Labor have decided to lock in behind the native forest logging industry, the Greens are standing with future generations and a safe climate.
Media release – Bob Brown Foundation, 1 March 2021
Tasmanian ALP Backs Dangerous Logging in a Climate and Biodiversity Crisis
– McKay Timber linked to controversial imported timber
In Tasmanian Parliament today, Labor’s Shane Broad backed in the ongoing destruction of native forests and endangered species habitat this morning on behalf of all of the ALP with a number of misleading comments. In a repeated failure by Tasmania’s Labor and Liberal government to lead on a plantation industry and transition out of native forest logging, a move that would give job security to the 1100 people employed to destroy native forests.
“To counter some of the misleading comments today parliament, the native forests of Tasmania currently being logged in Wentworth Hills and supplied to McKay Timber, the site of a large protest yesterday, is ‘old growth’ according to the Regional Forest Agreement. The threat of imported timbers or contentious Asian logging practices to Tasmania is already here with McKay Timber importing highly controversial Merbau timber and two Borneo logging giants escorted into Tasmania and propped up by taxpayer funds by the Labor and Liberal parties. Shane Broad’s fudging of the ‘Tasmania has net zero emissions’ is also misleading while we import coal-fired power and log and then burn native forests at a cost to the climate,” Bob Brown Foundation’s Campaign Manager Jenny Weber said.
“Shane Broad represents all of the ALP when he backs ongoing native forest logging in a climate emergency and global extinction crisis. Shane Broad is a poor mirror image of Tasmania’s logging minister Guy Barnett. On forests, Labor is turning out to be a Liberal Lite and clawing back their place as the native forest destroying party. This is the ALP backing the destruction of Tasmania’s native forests exempt from national environment laws, an exemption system, the RFA that has been found ineffective at protecting threatened species,” Jenny Weber said.
“The McKay Timber family that Labor backs is one of the wealthiest logging empires in Tasmania, buying out the small sawmillers across the state. But there wasn’t a whimper from the ALP when the McKays closed their Tasmanian mills and stood aside its workforce for its own financial reasons in 2012,” Environmentalist Bob Brown said.
“Tasmania’s political leaders in Government and the ALP continue to lock in an environmentally and climate damaging logging industry at the cost to taxpayers when there is a viable alternative. Australia has more than enough plantations to meet its wood needs,” Jenny Weber said.
“Bob Brown Foundation advocates for a plantation-based forestry industry, using Australia’s vast plantation estate that already exists and no new plantations are established,” Jenny Weber said.
“Comments by the ALP’s Shane Broad that our Foundation wants to replace the Tasmanian native forest logging industry with timber from contentious logging practices in other countries is false. McKay Timber are already doing that for Dr Broad. It is McKay Timber that lists on their website they already import timber from SE Asia and Asia, namely the highly controversial Merbau timber that is “near threatened” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). It is up to McKay Timber to rule out sourcing their Merbau timber from Orangutan habitat and Indonesian forest destruction,” Jenny Weber said.
“It is also Shane Broad’s ALP and the Tasmanian Government who have backed in highly contentious Borneo logging giant’s Ta Ann and Shin Yang into the destruction of this island’s native forests. We have opposed this Tasmanian shameful political backing environmentally damaging and indigenous people’s human rights violations all along,” Jenny Weber said.
