Sabotage in NSW forests

October 1, 1997
Issue 

By Glenn Phillips

In mid-July, the timber industry alleged that "anti-logging terrorists" had sabotaged logging machinery belonging to contractor Norm Wilton. Environment groups denied any responsibility for the sabotage and declared their commitment to the principles of non-violent action. Was the sabotage part of a campaign to force loggers out of the forest, as the timber industry alleges, or a campaign to portray environmentalists as political extremists?

"It seems to boiling up again of late", says Heike Phillips, national coordinator of the Forest Protection Society (FPS), a timber industry lobby group. Phillips believes that the July sabotage was part of a campaign against logging by environmentalists. "It certainly is organised", Phillips says, "by people that only have one agenda and that agenda is to shut down the native forest industry completely".

The sabotage of Wiltons machinery occurred the night after a Regional Forest Forum meeting in Bombala, attended by industry, environment and community representatives. The forum is part of NSWs regional forests assessment process, which will set aside forest areas for harvesting and/or conservation.

Following the sabotage, the spokesperson for the South-East Timber Association, Graeme Hammond, was quoted in the Sydney Morning Herald as saying,"We are finding it increasingly difficult to sit peacefully with other stakeholders at the negotiating table". Another logger rang the local ABC radio station and threatened to kill the saboteurs.

"Its generally been forest industry representatives who have attributed these actions to environment groups", Australian Conservation Foundation campaigner Peter Wright said. "Im not aware of any evidence of any environment group ever being involved, so you would say its an attempt by the forest industry to categorise the environment movement as extremists ... Ive never heard any talk, anywhere, of anyone doing any sabotage and Ive been involved in forest campaigns for seven years."

Bob Burton, a consultant to a number of environmental groups, has investigated more than 40 claims of environmental terrorism in Australia and New Zealand and is suspicious of an industry-driven dirty tricks campaign. "They usually occur in an attempt to overshadow something else thats going to be unfavourable to the industry ... That last incident occurred on the day that Liberal Senator Margaret Reid was going to be accepting a petition about forests in Parliament House. And shock horror, on the very same morning, guess what happens?

"Contractors are targeted by other people in the know in the industry, knowing full well its going to be interpreted as nasty environmentalists. I think its only a matter of time before the involvement of people in the PR industry in setting up some of these stunts is exposed.

"The pattern is pretty much the same: wild allegations that are very difficult to disprove by a media deadline. Theyre very plausible, but mysteriously, nobody has ever caught any of these radical environmentalists damaging machinery."

It wouldnt be the first time loggers had damaged each others machinery for personal or political gain. Rival contractors and unionists have, in the past, admitted to sabotaging machinery.

Burton argues the sabotage should be seen in the context of comments made by Gavin Hillier, from the forestry branch of the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union, on ABC Radio Nationals Background Briefing in 1995. Hillier stated that unionists had sabotaged logging machinery during recruitment campaigns: "We know how to sugar trucks. We had to hit them and hit them hard and you [environmentalists] probably got the blame for it too. Im telling you now they knew who it was."

Dusty Miller, local organiser for the CFMEU, disagrees. Miller, who was in Bombala with Wilton the night before the attack, says the union may have once used nails to puncture tyres when enforcing a picket line in Wagga Wagga, but has never damaged logging equipment. He believes environmentalists have taken Hilliers words out of context.

Wilton, who is also a member of the FPS, has been able to return to work, but one of his machines is still in Canberra being repaired. Wiltons machines have been sabotaged four times since 1987, but this is the worst yet. The bill has reached $150,000.

The Australian environment movement has always been committed to non-violent action. While the radical environmental group Earth First!, based in the United States, advocates monkey-wrenching sabotage aimed at protecting wilderness areas, there are no similar groups in Australia. Despite the timber industrys claims that the sabotage is organised, frequent and widespread, no environmentalists have ever been charged with sabotage in Australia.

This fact is supported by an internal police memo, obtained by Burton under freedom of information. The memo written by superintendent Bob Haldane of Bairnsdale, Victoria, tells Criminal Investigation Bureau officers not to assume sabotage is done by environmentalists. Burton quotes the memo: "CIB officers should investigate the possibility that it [sabotage] was being done by people in the timber industry to discredit environmentalists, given the politics of the woodchipping debate."

Following the sabotage of Wiltons machinery, NSW police have promised to prevent further sabotage from occurring in the south-east forests. The timber industry and environmental groups will be holding them to this promise. Will police investigate the possibility that the sabotage is part of a timber industry campaign to discredit environmentalists, or will they ignore history and blame the greenies?

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