Bob Brown Foundation is rallying supporters for the protection of takayna / Tarkine rainforest outside the Canberra Press Club today while the Federal Environment Minister releases the State of the Environment Report. Our NSW Campaigner Doro Babeck will rally citizens at 11 am to peacefully demonstrate outside the venue calling for Minister Plibersek to protect Australia’s largest temperate rainforest.

“The State of Environment report highlights inaction by governments to protect Australian species headed for extinction and the loss of critical ecosystems. Minister Plibersek can be the Minister for the Environment that Australia’s environment desperately needs and protects the environment from rapid decline. Minister Plibersek can protect the habitats of Australia’s rare and endangered species,” said Bob Brown Foundation Campaign Manager Jenny Weber.

“In Tasmania’s takayna rainforests, where endemic and threatened species like the giant Masked Owl, Tasmanian devil, and Tasmanian Wedge-tailed Eagle are imminently threatened by new mines, logging and a mine waste dump, Minister Plibersek can save one of the last wild places on Earth. Nominating takayna for the World Heritage listing which it deserves, in terms of both Aboriginal and natural heritage is a long-awaited action to take.

On her desk right now, where environmental harm can be immediately prevented is the mining company MMG’s application to destroy 140 hectares of takayna rainforest and use it as a mine tailings waste repository. MMG needs to adopt the feasible alternative of paste-fill plant outside takayna,” concluded Jenny Weber.

While the Minister releases the State of Environment report today, Bob Brown Foundation is in the Federal Court for a two-day hearing in our case challenging the former Environment Minister Sussan Ley’s flawed approval of the building of 15km of roads and clearing of rainforests and melaleuca forests for 165 drill sites by MMG for their proposed tailings waste dump in takayna.