“Jim Godfrey’s campaign to publicise and stop the spread of the invasive weed foxglove shows the power of one in helping protect Tasmania’s natural places and species. He is to be congratulated,” Bob Brown said today.

“Foxgloves have a beautiful flower but are a good-for-nothing horror weed. Each year they are costing thousands if not millions of dollars as farmers and volunteer groups tackle their rapid spread. Jim’s work needs the back-up by the state government with a targeted campaign and assistance to the foxglove fighters.”

“For one, I am alarmed by the foxgloves spreading up the Lake Highway south of Deloraine and now entering the Central Plateau section of the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area. They are coming from forestry operations above the Liffey Falls. Government action would stop them now but if they get a grip on the plateau they will smother it to the detriment of fragile alpine vegetation as well as the wildlife. It needs action before Christmas,” concluded Brown. 

Three days after bursting into selected media with a $100,000 demand from the Bob Brown Foundation, Western Australian company Venture Minerals Limited has finally managed to deliver the letter to the foundation’s office today.

“This is an exercise in public intimidation of a community group by a corporate bully,” Bob Brown Foundation CEO Steven Chaffer said.

“We have no intention of paying a single cent to Venture Minerals for the destruction they have done, and plan to do, to takayna / Tarkine.”

“Our foundation will respond in kind and send a letter to VML demanding it restore to the people of Tasmania the natural forest and wildlife habitat so far destroyed by its destructive activities in the publicly-owned takayna / Tarkine,” Steven Chaffer said.

"This includes its violent removal of natural vegetation for the strip mining at Riley Creek and now its drilling activities in the beautiful Mt Lindsay rainforest which is part of this World Heritage region. Their letter coincides with the global condemnation of such activity by the UN Secretary-General Guterres at the Glasgow COO26 Conference: “Enough of treating nature as a toilet. Enough of burning and drilling and mining our way deeper. We are digging our own graves!”.

“Venture Minerals has invaded these Tasmanian nature strongholds. We didn’t. They are the villains in this age of global climate emergency and extinction crisis. We are not. They owe Tasmanians and the world reparations for their recklessness, not us,” Campaign Manager Jenny Weber said.

“If this is an exercise meant to turn us to jelly, they are picking on the wrong people. They can threaten our pockets but cannot remove our hearts. We are for defending what is left of the natural planet which sustains everyone,” said Bob Brown.

Media reports that a Western Australian mining company, Venture minerals, is demanding $100,359 and will ‘cripple’ or potentially cause the ‘extinction’ of the Bob Brown Foundation are premature, Bob Brown said tonight.

“Our foundation has received nothing from this environmentally-destructive company. Clearly, it has better communications with media outlets. Its alleged Friday-afternoon letter of demand has not been delivered. They may have struck media oil but they have not reached our letterbox.”

“They are taking action for money but our motto is ‘action for Earth’. If this is another exercise in coercing the defenders of Tasmania’s wild and scenic beauty into jelly they are writing to the wrong people.” Brown said.

“We have a list of demands which will be more popular than in Tasmania - including that Venture Minerals take its drills and bulldozers out of the World Heritage valued Tarkine region,” BBF Campaign Manager Jenny Weber said.

Bob Brown Foundation has today renewed a frontline campaign in Tasmania’s takayna / Tarkine, holding a demonstration at the proposed Mt Linsday mine site, disrupting the drilling operation by Venture Minerals.

“This jewel of Australia’s largest temperate rainforest is a new battleground as we push controversial mining company Venture Minerals to abandon their planned monster tin mine at Mt Lindsay,” Bob Brown Foundation’s takayna / Tarkine Campaigner Scott Jordan said.

“We are disrupting the drilling operation deep in the ancient rainforests while lobbying potential investors to refrain from funding the proposed tin/tungsten mine,” BBF Campaign Organiser Erik Hayward said.

“In this remote, wild and rugged region, Venture Minerals plans a very large mine in Australia’s largest rainforest. If allowed to proceed the mine would demolish high quality remote forests,” Erik Hayward said.

“The forests above these Venture minerals drill holes are globally unique. They form part of an ancient landscape. An immense CO2 store lies right here, growing in harmony with its multigenerational raft of wildlife roaming freely in these wild gullies, windswept ridge tops and deep tannin-stained waterfalls along the Huon pine clad Wilson River. This is a World Heritage value landscape in need of urgent secure protection, not a ‘province of tin’,” Erik Hayward said.

“Rose is attached to the drill rig, halting the fragmentation of this landscape and annihilation of these rainforests,” Erik Hayward said.

“We will not back down. This next decade we have too much to lose – everything,” Erik Hayward said.

“There is still time to prevent destruction of takayna by mining. Tasmania’s takayna is a World Heritage Area in waiting and when protected will make a direct, positive impact in the climate emergency,” Scott Jordan said.

“Closure of a couple of roads built for the mine would return the region to a large tract of wilderness-quality rainforest,” Scott Jordan said.

“Venture Minerals recently suspended their nearby Riley Creek mine in takayna / Tarkine after crashing global prices and now they want to destroy the Meredith Range Regional Reserve,” Scott Jordan said.

At his COP26 opening speech, UN secretary general Antonio Guterres said “Enough of burning and drilling and mining our way deeper. We are digging our own graves.”

Representatives from JBS Australia met with Bob Brown Foundation this morning. They were presented with the Dennes Point Declaration and assured that we would work with JBS for its implementation.

JBS Australia Director John Berry said a pillar of the company’s operation in Tasmania would be 'not damaging the environment.'

Bob Brown said that the Foundation would work with JBS to implement the Dennes Point Declaration to take Atlantic salmon fish farm pens out of Tasmania’s waterways. He pointed to damage the industry was causing to marine ecosystems and asked for Huon Aquaculture’s baseline studies of its fish farms in the Huon River and D’Entrecasteaux Channel.

Rebecca Howarth, Bob Brown Foundation Fish Farm and Marine Campaigner said, “I informed JBS that our Foundation puts big salmon on notice. I told them that we want no more salmon pens in the water, and we want to see the restoration of shallow inshore waters. The community and the environment have reached a tipping point here in Tasmania where after years of big salmon saying they are listening to the community, there has been not only no change but increased expansion and environmental destruction.”

Christine Milne said "JBS global reputation for deforestation in the Amazon and failure to deliver on commitments had preceded them. The Bob Brown Foundation takes a global view of marine degradation and forest destruction, and I am confident that JBS now recognises that the failure to comply with even Tasmania’s minimal standards of environmental and species protection will be a focus.”

The flag of the People’s Republic of China is flying outside giant mining company MMG’s premises in Rosebery, but the flag of Tasmania is nowhere to be seen.

“It would be interesting to know who gave the order to fly the flag of China next to the Chinese state-owned company flag next to the Australian flag which, as protocol demands, is on the left pole outside MMG,” Scott Jordan, Bob Brown Foundation's takayna Campaigner said today.

“And we wonder where the Tasmanian flag has gone. Perhaps it symbolises the fact that the state government is missing in action when it comes to this company’s proposal to pipe its toxic waste dump over the Pieman River and into the Tarkine rainforest,” said Mr Jordan.

Bob Brown has called out the PM Morrison’s signature on the COP26 declaration on deforestation calling it a ‘forest fraud.’

In Glasgow yesterday, Scott Morrison signed up to ‘halt and reverse forest loss and land degradation by 2030’. Today, forestry mouthpiece Minister Duniam said this did not amount to a ban on native forestry but was the opposite,” Bob Brown said.

“The PM is trying to deceive the public by signing up to a declaration he knows will do nothing to protect Australia’s native forests from industrial logging,” Bob Brown said.

“In fact, the Prime Minister and the logging industry are already spinning the declaration as permitting an increase in logging in Australia because our logging is ‘sustainable' compared with elsewhere in the world. There is no mention of biodiversity or species extinction. This declaration has tricky and deceptive language that is designed to mislead people,” Bob Brown Foundation’s Campaign Manager Jenny Weber said.

“Morrison’s government and the logging barons are gloating that they can use this declaration as cover to continue demolishing native forests as the planet is heating and many rare and endangered species including, the Koala and the critically endangered Swift Parrot and Leadbeater’s Possum are being pushed to extinction by this destruction,” Jenny Weber said.

“Limiting global warming to 1.5°C requires fast climate action and deep emissions cuts that can only be achieved by tough actions in all sectors. Action is needed to lock in an immediate end to forest loss across Australia. The world’s forests serve as irreplaceable carbon sinks and biodiversity refuges, but, when logged and burnt, emit megatonnes of greenhouse gases.,” Jenny Weber said.

“COP 26 is headed for a massive disappointment for the people of the world. We are in an existential crisis, where humans are using almost two planets worth of living resources on a finite Earth. Here in Australia, we will keep taking action for the immediate end to native forest logging and deforestation alongside our fellow citizens who are standing up to halt fossil fuel expansion,” Bob Brown said.

"Today marks a sad day for Tasmania, being the official day for JBS's takeover of Huon Aquaculture. JBS, the world's largest meat processor, has closed Tasmanian facilities after receiving subsidies, been charged overseas for environmental degradation and bribery, linked to quality and workers’ rights issues and illegal logging in the Amazon rainforest. This is a company that the Foreign Investment Review Board of Australia should never have approved," said Bec Howarth Bob Brown Foundation Marine & Fish Farms Campaigner.

"Huon Aquaculture has its own long list of misdemeanours: environmental non-compliance, non-existent community consultation, giant marine debris washing up on beaches and large-scale fish-escapes. Huon Aquaculture has been bad for the Tasmanian marine environment and coastal communities but now, with this new owner, things will be worse. When big business is given free rein with public assets such as waterways, as the Tasmanian government seems wont to do, it is always the marine life and communities who pay the price," Bec Howarth said.

“We will take on JBS to protect Tasmania’s environment. Overnight, JBS has asked to meet with BBF and we will present them with plans on how to implement that protection,” Bec Howard sai

Former Greens leader Bob Brown says that today’s Glasgow Leaders’ Declaration on Forests and Land Use, signed by world leaders including Australian PM Scott Morrison, promises an end to native forest logging globally and in Australia by 2030. ‘That will be very popular in Australia,’ Brown said, ‘and is a top goal for the environment movement - though we want it immediately’.

The PM and 109 other leaders signed up to this: ‘We therefore commit to working collectively to halt and reverse forest loss and land degradation by 2030 while delivering sustainable development and promoting an inclusive rural transformation. We will strengthen our shared efforts to conserve forests and other terrestrial ecosystems and accelerate their restoration’.

“This cannot be slippery or a lie. He will have a plan. It is an environmental gift from the Prime Minister to Australians though, given the events of recent days, it will be the new test of his agreement stickability. The world is now much more serious about tackling the climate emergency and extinction crisis by saving forests and wildlife.”

“Australia now has more than two million hectares of tree plantations, enough to meet the nation’s wood needs. Morrison will win the good wishes of the great majority of Australians who want native forest and woodland destruction stopped,” Brown said.

Bob Brown and fellow environmentalists face court in December for blocking logging of swift parrot habitat in northeast Tasmania and are campaigning to save the takayna/Tarkine rainforest in the island’s northwest. “It’s heartening to have the PM on the world stage signing up to our goal of ending native forest destruction,” he said.

This morning 50 people protested outside Huon Aquaculture’s Hobart office.

The Bob Brown Foundation labelled today’s takeover of Huon Aquaculture by giant meat producer, JBS, as a disaster for Tasmania’s oceans and marine wildlife.

“What was already toxic just got worse. Huon Aquaculture’s Benders have benefited from poorly regulated access to the public commons. This takeover is by a horrific corporate empire that has been linked to illegal logging in the Amazon rainforest, violation of the US Clean Water Act, and the closure of Tasmanian facilities after receiving huge subsidies. The two major shareholders spent time in jail for paying bribes to politicians in Brazil,” said Bec Howarth, Bob Brown Foundation's Marine & Fish Farms Campaigner.

"Bob Brown Foundation volunteers stood alongside other community groups this morning to send a clear message to Huon’s shareholders that this takeover should be blocked," said Bec Howarth.

"Huon Aquaculture has been bad for Tasmanian waterways, but JBS will be worse. We will continue to protest against the sea grab by the big salmon industry for private profit but massive environmental loss," said Bec Howarth.