Media Release: Shearwater crisis: call to federal, state ministers for action
Bob Brown Foundation has made a call for action from the Tasmanian and Federal ministers for the environment following news of catastrophic collapse of this years shearwater migration from Alaska to Tasmania.
Thousands of the shearwaters are dead and washing up on Sydney beaches
Source MSN News
"This appears to be another human-induced environmental disaster. Our environment ministers need to inform the Tasmanian electorate about the cause and remedy. If the climate emergency and ocean warming is not the problem, people should know what the experts think is the problem," said Bob Brown.
Shearwater images by Bob Brown here
Media Release: Tarkine defenders hold their ground as protest continues in face of government’s draconian anti-protest laws
Bob Brown Foundation has been protecting threatened takayna / Tarkine forests for the past month with a peaceful occupation in forests on the logging schedule. Despite Tasmania’s government threatening harsher penalties for protesters, the Tarkine protest continues, and the Foundation will host a rally on Parliament Lawns in Hobart next Monday to oppose the new ‘Workplaces (Protection from Protesters) Amendment Bill 2019’.
Read moreMedia Release: Rally against draconian protest laws.
There will be a public rally outside Parliament house at 12 noon next Monday 25th November to protest the Hodgman government's draconian anti-protest laws.
"A range of community groups will be represented at the rally," said Bob Brown Foundation's Campaign Manager Jenny Weber.
Media Release: Call for immediate World Heritage action on ancient carvings
Whilst welcoming the support of the meeting of Australia's environment ministers for the inclusion on the World Heritage Tentative List of the world’s largest array of ancient petroglyphs (rock carvings) on the Burrup Peninsula, Bob Brown Foundation urges the Federal Government to stop procrastinating and nominate the site immediately.
“The Federal Government has the sole responsibility for the content of its World Heritage Tentative List and can add a property at any time. But since 2017, this government has delayed and deferred to the WA Government and to heavy industry on the Burrup,” BBF spokesperson and former Australian Greens leader Christine Milne said today.
An advisor to the WA government warned Premier McGown in 2017 that World Heritage Listing might adversely affect opportunities for heavy industrial expansion. Since then, both Federal and State Governments have made supportive statements about World Heritage whilst at the same time expanding potentially damaging industry. A major concern is acid pollution from these industries eroding the rock carvings which are tens of thousands of years old.
The Aboriginal elders of Murujuga support World Heritage listing.
Read moreMedia Release: Stop Adani Convoy’s success and Labor’s failure.
Federal Labor’s election analysis undersores the success of the Stop Adani Convoy, Bob Brown said in Toowoomba today.
‘It is clear Labor understands it lost votes everywhere by sitting on the fence with Adani. It is equally clear Labor would have contrived to give Adani the go-ahead had it won and, should the mine ever produce coal, will be backing it at the next election despite the environment being a Labor ‘core value‘. For Labor this is a case of ‘wrong way, go back!’ Brown said.
‘Had Bill Shorten taken a cue from Bob Hawke, who campaigned unequivocally against the Franklin dam in 1983, he could be Prime Minster today. Hawke lost all 5 Tasmanian seats but his decisive ‘no dams’ policy was a winner across the rest of the country. In 2019, with a decisive ‘no Adani mine’ stand, Shorten would have lost similarly in central Queensland but won more seats elsewhere in Australia,’ Brown sai
Media Release: Tarkine defenders return to the trees as senators tour threatened forests
Peaceful occupation of the threatened takayna / Tarkine forests has resumed this morning, as community members continue to defend ancient forests on the Sumac Ridge.
Bob Brown Foundation is pleased to host Senators Nick McKim and Peter Whish-Wilson on a tour of the Sumac rainforest coupe SU055C in the takayna / Tarkine today.
The Senators will be shown the area threatened with logging, including giant rainforest trees destined for the woodchip mill.
"Imminently threatened by logging, these old growth forests contain some of the world's most ancient ecosystems. Venerable myrtles, giant eucalypts and the endangered Tasmanian Devil are all part of this unique forest. It is a global treasure that the even Federal Minister, Greg Hunt, has said should be kept safe 'not just for decades but for generations and generations'. The Federal Government should step in and protect these forests as part of a wider Tarkine National Park," Bob Brown Foundation Campaign Manager, Jenny Weber said.
Media Release: Liberals’ jails will overflow - Brown
‘Scott Morrison’s bullying tactics against the majority of Australians who want action to end fossil fuel mining and forest destruction will fire greater peaceful public reaction,’ Bob Brown said in Melbourne today.
‘Marie Antoinette is said to have sniffed, ‘let them eat cake’. Morrison has, with equal triviality and inability to see the public’s distress, sniffed ‘don’t be scared, it won’t hurt you: it’s coal!’
Media Release: Forestry spin can't hide continuing losses.
Despite the spin doctors at Sustainable Timbers Tasmania claiming $34.9 million on-book profit, the detail of the 2018/19 Annual Report shows that the government business enterprise has run at a loss of over $33.4 million.
Actual native of logging operations again made a loss ($15.5 million), with revenues from logging of $150.3 million against a cost of logging of $165.8 million.
The reported on-book profit is underwritten by:
Direct State Government grants have increased to 21.9 million (up 35%).
Rollover unspent funds from the torn-up Tasmanian Forest Agreement account for another $3 million.
A $43.3 million paper income from revaluation of the 'biological assets' (the trees).
Media Release: Brown hails Federal Minister’s comments on keeping Tarkine ‘safe’
I think it's (Tarkine) a very important part of Australia's environmental heritage ..... it's a beautiful area. I've had the privilege of travelling through it and indeed staying in the area, and we want to keep it safe, not just for decades but for generations and generations. Greg Hunt. Launceston, yesterday.
Former Senator Bob Brown has welcomed support for the takayna / Tarkine rainforest from former Minister for the Environment, Greg Hunt MHA.
‘It’s a breakthrough’, said Brown who has just spent three days at the Tarkine’s Sumac Ridge, where he joined twenty other defenders of the forest in what he described as a ‘wildlife-filled, stunningly beautiful forest, bursting with the new life of spring.’
‘There is a change in the air in favour of saving the Tarkine and Minister Hunt’s strong comments reflect the thinking of most Liberal voters in Tasmania. Greg, as federal Minister for the Environment visited the Tarkine and it has left its indelible spell on him, as it can do for millions of other visitors in the years ahead if only the forests are saved from planned unnecessary clearfelling and burning.’
Media Release: Tarkine defenders in place
More than 20 people have camped at Sumac Ridge in the takayna / Tarkine rainforest overnight. Bob Brown Foundation is organising the defence of the Tarkine forest which the Hodgman government has listed for clearfell logging and burning.
Bob Brown has returned to the Tarkine and Dr Lisa Searle is in a tree-sit, high in the forest canopy.
“The latest Australia Institute commissioned poll shows an increasing majority of Tasmanians, including Liberal voters, want the Tarkine protected as a national park. And 78% of Labor voters want a national park: Rebecca White should bring her party into line with the great majority of its voters,” BBF’s Campaign Manager Jenny Weber said today.
“We are here for the long haul,” Bob Brown said.