By Peter Boyle
In her first interview after the elections, environment minister Ros Kelly signalled that the Keating government would take a tough stance towards environmental groups. She told the March 31 Melbourne Age that the government's priorities were urban environmental issues and that "national single-issue groups", like the Wilderness Society (TWS), were becoming irrelevant.
In a letter written in reply to Kelly, TWS national director Karenne Jurd said that Kelly was wrong to counterpose urban environmental issues to wilderness issues.
"We advise that you consult with the community and the environment movement before making such premature announcements on the Government's priorities", Jurd wrote.
"After all, the Labor Government's poor performance on the natural environment in its last term caused it to lose the endorsement of major environmental groups so valued in the 1990 election.
"The Wilderness Society maintains that if we are to ensure that the qualities of our natural environment are maintained or enhanced for future generations then we need to do more than simply Band-Aid the self-evident problems such as air and water problems."
A spokesperson for TWS in Melbourne told Green Left Weekly that the establishment media were trying to whip up a clash between the environmental groups and the Keating government. While the TWS would "stick to its guns", it did not consider this incident to be a major confrontation.
However, Jo Brown, an activist in the Environmental Youth Alliance, said that while the peak environment bodies should put more energy into urban environmental issues, Kelly was trying to intimidate and manipulate the environmental movement with her comments.
"Kelly wants to marginalise the more powerful national environmental groups while trying to flatter and manipulate local single-issue groups. Her stated concern for the urban environment is belied by Labor government cooperation in the dismantling of Australia's public transport systems and her refusal to implement firm polices to combat the greenhouse effect and ozone depletion.
"This attack on the Wilderness Society is in preparation for government plans to force through major resource development projects, brushing aside environmental concerns and Aboriginal land rights claims in the process", she said.