BY ALEX BAINBRIDGE
HOBART — Forest activist Neil Smith, known as "Hector the Protector" for his role in the 1998 campaign to save forest around Mother Cummings Peak in northern Tasmania, faces jail for refusing to pay a $5000 fine.
Smith told Green Left Weekly that he was hoping that state attorney-general Judy Jackson would intervene to prevent his jailing, since the Labor Party opposes the particular law he was charged under.
"[The law] was brought in by the Groom Liberal government [1992-1996]" Smith told GLW. "Labor was in opposition and several of the Labor members spoke against this law, especially Judy Jackson."
According to Smith, Jackson labelled the law "draconian and intimidatory" and said it was intended to "put people off from protesting". Since the Labor government came to power in 1998, the law has been repealed.
Nevertheless, Smith was sentenced to 51 days in jail on July 29, if he did not pay the fine within two weeks. The governor has the power to overturn it, but is unlikely to do so without a recommendation from Jackson or the cabinet. One day before the deadline, after refusing to meet him, Jackson told Smith that the government would not intervene.
"So it seems that in government, the Labor Party has easily abandoned the ideas of fairness and justice [it] espoused while in opposition", Smith said in a media statement. "When it comes to using unfair laws to suppress forest defenders, Labor and Liberal are tarred with the same brush."
Smith strongly defends the justice of the 1998 campaign to Save Mother Cummings Peak. "It was a big test of the outcome of the RFA [Regional Forest Agreement] which had been negotiated in late 1997", he told GLW. "The RFA negotiations — which I did participate in — were a complete sham. All conservation interests were sold out.
"I think that the governments and the logging interests at the time were intent on coming down very hard on Mother Cummings protesters to squash the movement.
"The battle is still going on. The RFA didn't solve anything as far as conservationists are concerned. Now it seems the present government's forest policies are just as business friendly as the previous Liberal government.
"Therefore I will be continuing to wage my battles and I'll be encouraging everyone else to have a good look at the situation and wage their battles too."
From Green Left Weekly, August 20, 2003.
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