Hobart anti-woodchipping meeting

By Rebecca Meckelburg

HOBART -- A “Stand up for the Forests” public meeting called by the Wilderness Society on February 7 attracted more than 900 people. While only 400 could squeeze into the hall, another 500 stood on the stairs and outside listening to the speeches on loudspeakers.

The meeting, chaired by Christine Milne, parliamentary leader of the Tasmanian Greens, was held to rally public support for the protection of Tasmania's wilderness areas and old growth forests and to protest against the handling of the woodchip and forests issue by the state and federal governments.

Bob Brown, Senate candidate and spokesperson for the national Greens, called on Paul Keating “to be a statesman” and not leave saving our forests up to the small parties.

A representative of the Australian Association of Travel and Tourism, Rob Harris, explained that the tourism industry cannot survive if all our old growth forests are logged.

Denison MHA Peg Putt, who has come under fire from the Liberal state government for asking Japanese investors and timber buyers not to buy Tasmanian old growth timber, pointed out why this debate was not about jobs versus the environment. She said that the solution was to make the transition to plantation forests. “It's cheaper to tear down old growth forests than to log [timber companies'] own plantations. Taxpayers are subsidising the destruction of our forests.”

Geoff Laws, spokesperson for the Wilderness Society, pointed to the disgusting role the Tasmanian Forestry Commission had played in misinforming the public about what kind of forests were being logged. He said that the federal government had the power to protect the forests but had not used it.

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