Bob Brown Foundation has released the scores of federal election candidates on their commitment to forest protection. See it here: https://voteearth.org.au/.
Leader Bob Brown’s call to Australian voters is, “If never before, this time vote for nature – because that’s voting for a safer world, a more secure future and more happiness for our children as well as all other life on Earth.”
The foundation has rolled out a federal election campaign for forests across the nation with ongoing protests in Tasmania’s precious forests, nationwide marches and rallies over the last 18 months and handing out candidate scorecards at pre-poll booths around the nation over the last week.
“This federal election, every voter has the choice to end the atrocity that is native forest logging in Australia,” said Erik Hayward, Bob Brown Foundation Campaigner.
“Every day, precious ecosystems in Tasmania’s central highlands, which have been supporting life for thousands of generations, are being decimated by the logging industry. This insane logging and incineration, which costs taxpayers tens of millions of dollars each year, has been sanctioned by successive Labor and Liberal governments. The losses are felt every day by taxpayers, diverting urgently needed funds from housing, hospitals and schools. Yet the logging industry continues to cut our forests for woodchips.”
“Thousands of hectares of forests, critical wildlife habitat and our crucial climate stabilisers will be destroyed under a Labor and Liberal government, unless they wake up and recognise forests as irreplaceable tools in addressing the climate and biodiversity crises we face together,” said Jenny Weber, Bob Brown Foundation’s Campaigns Manager.
“Parliamentarians must act to protect all remaining native forests. Albanese and Dutton are holding the chainsaws while they back in a mendicant industry that can be replaced by the existing plantation industry, which already supplies 90% of our wood needs.”
Meanwhile twenty-five people have occupied forests in Tasmania’s central highlands that are being destroyed by logging.
Three forest defenders have been arrested for defending these public forests from destruction. Teacher Whendiey Stewart, retiree Paul Kane and retired social worker Anne Louise Barrey are calling for an immediate end to native forest logging and protection of native forests nationwide.
Tasmanian Times is participating in the Local & Independent News Association’s (LINA) national donation drive for independent newsrooms in Australia.
The campaign will run all week, from 28 April to 4 May,
As always we’re busy doing what we do: publishing community stories by and for Tasmanians for over twenty-two years.
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