Bob Brown calls for Eco-Resort and Facilities Commission
Photo: Frankland Range, Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area, by Dan Broun.
"The Hodgman government's draft management plan for the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area would inevitably erode wilderness and therefore jobs and economic well-being for Tasmanians. The plan is an economic, employment and ecological backward step. It should be rejected outright", Bob Brown stated.
"Wilderness is perhaps the world's fastest-disappearing natural resource. It is the single most potent attractant for potential visitors to Tasmania and is the major factor behind the current improvement in Tasmania's job rate compared to other states", Bob Brown said.
Bob Brown and the Bob Brown Foundation have made their submission to the Tasmanian government on the 2014 Draft Management Plan for Tasmania's Wilderness World Heritage Area, see attached document.
Poll Majority Backs Wilderness
Lake Judd. Photo: Dan Broun
Media release - 3 Mar 2015
A Lonergan Research poll released in the run up to today’s Hobart Town Hall meeting shows a big majority (72%) of Tasmanians want the Tasmanian World Heritage Wilderness protected.
An even bigger majority (76%) say the word ‘wilderness’ should not be removed or replaced in the name of the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area.
The Lonergan research poll questioned 2200 Tasmanians by phone at home last weekend for The Bob Brown Foundation.
“Tasmanians are very proud of the island’s wilderness and don’t want it damaged,” Dr Bob Brown said today.
“Today’s Town Hall meeting is to back the strong feeling amongst ordinary Tasmanians that wilderness should remain protected in the area’s management plan. There are great places left for private tourism resorts, outside the World Heritage Area,” Dr Bob Brown said.
Contact
Jenny Weber 0427 366 929
Public Meeting - Tasmania's Wilderness World Heritage Area Under Threat
Public Meeting Tomorrow 3 March 2015
Hobart Town Hall – 12 noon
In Hobart Town Hall tomorrow at 12noon a Public Meeting will be held to outline concerns about the Tasmanian Government’s plans to weaken wilderness protection in the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area, and encourage people to have their say. Speakers are World Heritage Expert Jamie Kirkpatrick, Environmentalist Bob Brown, Champion Orienteer & Runner Hanny Allston, and Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre’s Ruth Langford.
Read moreTarkine Tales - Public Event by The Bob Brown Foundation
Peacock Theatre – Saturday 28 February 2015 – 6PM
Bob Brown will speak at Salamanca Arts Centre on Saturday night on the TARKINE. With Michelle Foale, a campaigner for Tarkine protection in 1995 at the Road to Nowhere protests and Sharnie Everett from the Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre, Bob Brown will be speaking on the theme Passion and Protest for the Tarkine.
Bob Brown states “I first ventured into the Tarkine region in 1972 to search for the Tasmanian tiger, thought to be extinct since 1936. There had been alleged sightings in the Tarkine, I was very sceptical but that trip took me right into the Tarkine, and down the coastline, and I saw the rainforest and the pristine rivers and the wildlife…and that has stayed with me these last 40 years.”
Read moreWarning of Groom's Wilderness Construction Boom
Environmental Groups rally local, national & global support for Wilderness
Warning of Groom's Wilderness Construction Boom
Tasmania’s leading environment organisations are campaigning for local, national and global support for Tasmania’s Wilderness World Heritage Area as the State Government pushes ahead with their plans to weaken protection of the globally significant area.
With Tasmanian public meetings, outreach to International allies, partner groups hosting a meeting in Melbourne and online action, the community is being rallied to urge the State Government to maintain rigorous protections.
Read moreWorld Heritage invasion on the amenity Tasmania is famous for - Bob Brown
Tasmanian World Heritage Area. Photo: Dan Broun
The announcements today by the Hodgman Government on more tourism projects for the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area, would see the largest expansion of hut intrusions into the wilderness.
"The slow release of these plans for intrusions in to the World Heritage Area is a sham process without transparency and accountability. All of the remaining projects should be released now," Environmentalist Bob Brown said today.
Abbott must tackle marine criminals
www.seashepherdglobal.org
The Prime Minister must intervene on the three criminal ships illegally taking multi-million dollar fish hauls from Australia's southern oceans, environmentalist Bob brown said today.
Two of these Interpol-listed ships, the Kunlun and Yongding, are in Australian Antarctic waters hauling in the Toothfish know as 'white gold', with the full knowledge of the Australian Government. 'The illegal fishing is proceeding with the assent not to intervene of Prime Minister Abbott. He is effectively aiding this criminality in our own backyard,' Brown said.
While the Kulun is being pursued by Sea Shepherd Australia's ship Sam Simon, much further west SSA's Bob Barker is confronting the notorious pirate fishing vessel Thunder.
Tasmanian Government backs down from another blunder
The Hodgman Government's attack on environmentalists has blundered again. This time, to avoid becoming the legal laughing stock of Australia, it has admitted that the proposal to change the defamation laws is not supported anywhere else in the country.
Read moreBob Brown at Sydney Opera House for Steve Posselt Epic
Former Greens Leader and veteran environmentalist Bob Brown will be at the Sydney Opera House at noon today to farewell veteran kayaker Steve Posselt on his epic trip up the Mississippi River en route to Paris, to draw attention to the need for action on climate change threatening the planet's future.
Read moreUniversity of Adelaide should dissociate from Sarawak’s Taib Mahmud
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The University of Adelaide's Vice-Chancellor, Warren Bebbington, has recognised that there are problems with its association with Sarawak’s ruling elite.
In a letter received by the campaign group Bruno Manser Fund, Professor Bebbington acknowledged that the university is reviewing the 2008 naming of its forecourt as Taib Mahmud Court, in honour of its former student who is now a billionaire Governor and ex-Chief Minister of Sarawak, a state of Malaysia on the rainforested island of Borneo.
The Bruno Manser Fund had forwarded a copy of the book 'Money Logging' by Lukas Straumann to Vice-Chancellor Bebbington. In his response, Professor Bebbington revealed that the university had refused a request made by Taib to attend its 140th Anniversary Gala Dinner last year.