AUSTRALIA
Gunns drops legal action against Wilderness Society
Stefanie Gebbie, Hobart
21 March 2009
On March 16, Tasmanian timber company Gunns' Ltd withdrew its legal case against the Wilderness Society (TWS), and now has to pay $350,000 in costs.
The infamous “Gunns 20" — a group of 20 activists and environmental organisations sued by Gunns for damages in late 2004 — is now down to seven.
Proceedings against Greens senator Bob Brown and former leader of the Tasmanian Greens Peg Putt have already been withdrawn.
TWS has made no concessions to Gunns, and remains free to campaign for the protection of Tasmania’s threatened forests and against Gunns’ polluting pulp mill in the Tamar Valley.
“This is a significant win for free speech in Australia”, former defendant and TWS’s executive director Alec Marr said. “The fact that Gunns now has to pay money to TWS, after claiming for the past four years that The Wilderness Society owed it $3.5 million, demonstrates that the legal action was an empty case from the beginning.”
Although large businesses still seek to suppress freedom of speech and people’s right to protest, individuals and organisations can successfully oppose them.
There is still a long way to go to create fairness and transparency in Tasmanian forest dealings, but outcomes such as this provide hope.
