A technical error by Sustainable Timber Tasmania (STT), led to prosecutors dropping charges against at least 24 anti-logging protesters. The charges were dropped because STT representatives gave flawed or legally compromised directions to the protesters, which invalidated the subsequent police arrests.
Media release – Rosalie Woodruff MP, Greens Leader, 23 September 2025
Arresting Forest Defenders Is The Real Crime
The state-owned and sponsored logging entity Forestry Tasmania has long proven it can’t turn a profit, now RTI documents reveal it’s also not capable of acting within the law.
Documents obtained by the ABC reveal Forestry Tasmania’s representatives have failed to communicate correctly and legally with protesters, with dozens of cases thrown out of court.
The science is clear – our beautiful forests are worth far more standing – intrinsically, socially and economically.
These documents do beg the question – how much have Forestry Tasmania’s bungled court cases cost the Tasmanian taxpayer in wasted resources?
In a climate and biodiversity crisis, this island’s forests are the most effective way to store carbon. In a budget crisis, we shouldn’t be wasting precious public funds on politically-driven prosecutions.
From the Tasmanian highlands, the rainforests of Takayna or the blue gum forests of the Eastern Tiers, Tasmania is a remarkable forested island that desperately needs defenders. So many threatened and endangered species are reliant on them for survival – logging and burning these forests is the real crime.
The dozens of forest defenders arrested, charged and who had their cases thrown out were standing up against the Liberals’ planned destruction of forests in places like the Styx Valley, Wentworth Hills and around Dover.
Tasmanians who defend these forests should be celebrated, not prosecuted.
Media Release – Bob Brown Foundation, 23 September 2025
Forestry Tasmania costing precious Tasmania Police resources in forest protest bungle
Forestry Tasmania is costing precious Tasmania Police resources and tying up the beleaguered Magistrates Court. Premier Rockliff should intervene to protect forests and abolish Forestry Tasmania, saving taxpayers a bundle of money, said Bob Brown Foundation today.
“Forestry Tasmania’s bungled handling of protest arrests shows it is incapable of managing public forests responsibly. Documents obtained under Tasmania’s Right to Information laws by the ABC reveal that dozens of protest charges have been dropped because of basic errors in the way FT issued directions to forest defenders,” said Jenny Weber, BBF’s Campaigns Director.
At least 24 protesters had charges thrown out after Forestry Tasmania issued directions that were either too broad, inaccurate, or legally flawed.
In some cases, protesters were ordered to leave all Forestry Tasmania managed land across the state—an impossible and unreasonable demand. In other cases, Forestry Tasmania cited the wrong gazette date for a logging coupe, rendering invalid the direction to leave the forests. This is the tip of the iceberg. BBF is aware of many other prosecutions that were abandoned due to FT’s inability to correctly apply the rules in its own legislation, the Forest Management Act.
“A perfect solution to this problem is to stop evicting citizens from public forests. Premier Rockliff can protect native forests and evict the logging machines. Citizens should not be facing courts for defending native forests in a climate and biodiversity crisis.”
“Forestry Tasmania is costing precious Tasmania Police resources. They cannot even correctly define the boundaries of a logging coupe for issuing move-on orders. So we are confident they are not correctly defining boundaries while destroying the forests. They cannot be trusted to manage millions of hectares of public forests and the taxpayer-subsidised agency must be abolished,” said Weber.
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