Attempts by Venture Minerals to sell its proposed rainforest destroying mine in takayna / Tarkine have been met with protest by Perth based takayna defenders this morning. The company is presenting at the Paydirt Battery Minerals Conference in Perth today, and a large gathering of takayna defenders have protested outside the conference to highlight Venture Minerals’ real environment credentials.

“Venture Minerals wants investors to believe that the company is part of the solution to climate change, but the reality is they plan to destroy ancient carbon rich temperate rainforest to produce a bulk commodity”, said Bob Brown Foundation takayna campaigner Scott Jordan.

“The carbon rich ancient rainforests of takayna / Tarkine are the largest remaining temperate rainforests in Australia, and among the largest remaining in the world. They are home to numerous threatened species like the Wedge-tailed Eagle, Tasmanian Masked Owl and Tasmanian Devil.

“Venture has twice been found in breach of their EPBC permits at their failed Riley Creek mine, and have misled investors on numerous occasions. We are here to make sure the real environmental credentials of this company are known”.

Bob Brown Foundation has conducted numerous stop work protests at Venture Minerals’ exploration drilling sites and has disrupted investor forums around Australia.

“Investors in this company need to know the risks they take and understand that this company faces significant community opposition. We will fight them in the rainforests, in the planning system and in the board rooms”.

Tasmania’s notorious clearfelling, burning and woodchipping of its globally rare native forests has been exposed as illegal. While the government has conceded this has been the case for decades, they are allowing the logging to continue.

Bob Brown Foundation has today escalated their forest protests, simultaneously shutting down the logging in three locations.

“Forty citizens have halted logging today in the critically endangered Swift Parrot Eastern Tiers forest habitat, the old-growth forests 3km south of Cradle Mountain – Lake St Clair World Heritage Area and the renowned Great Lakes area of the central highlands. We are highlighting the mass-scale destruction of native forests across Tasmania which must be ended,” Bob Brown Foundation’s Jenny Weber said.

“We are halting the logging today as the government has failed to do so. An immediate halt to the logging across Tasmania is more urgent with the new admission by the logging minister of its illegality. Out here in these forests, we are witnessing the demolition of hollow-bearing old-growth trees and the flattening of vast tracts of native forests that are home to rare and endangered wildlife like the Wedge-tailed Eagle, Masked Owl, Tasmanian Devil, Eastern Quoll and Swift Parrot.”

“Instead of covering up a giant bungle that exposes the rot in the state’s native forest logging industry, Tasmania can lead the world by protecting and restoring all native forests, which is vital to restraining global warming,” Jenny Weber said.

"This situation is a complete mess of the minister’s own making. It should never have happened. What it does show is that in the last 37 years, people who have protested in Tasmania's forests have been defending them from illegal logging. They've been upholding the law, just like the people in the forests today are," said Bob Brown.

"I call on the Labor party and the Upper House members to reject any retrospective legislation around this illegal logging if the government brings it in. I know where the Greens stand – they are on the right and honourable side of this – but it's now going to be up to the Labor party and every member of the Legislative Council to look at the legislation which the minister for logging says he's bringing in and to reject it," said Bob Brown.

This week the federal government released its own summary of the 1,352 submissions received for the salmon trials proposed off Burnie, but the actual submissions themselves are nowhere to be seen.

"A huge number of submissions were received over the proposed Burnie salmon trial but the original submissions are nowhere to be seen. This is another example of an absolute lack of transparency and disregard for the community's concerns for the marine environment. We call upon the federal government to make these submissions publicly available," said Bob Brown Foundation Fish Farms and Marine Campaigner Bec Howarth.

"The federal government has instead released a summary of community concerns about the Burnie salmon trials. A dizzying array of concerns were raised including impacts on the local wildlife and environment, waste and marine debris, build-up of pollutants through lack of flushing in Bass Strait, warming waters, fish mortalities, impacts on recreational waters users, impacts on fishers and lack of confidence in the current regulators of salmon."

"By releasing only a summary-form of community concerns, the federal government has demonstrated that this was nothing more than a box-ticking exercise on their pathway to an attempted giant salmon sea grab of offshore waters. An agreement this week has also quietly been made between the state and federal governments allowing big salmon and their Blue Economy CRC cronies to seize federal public waters for salmon research. This spells disaster for our ocean ecosystems and globally significant marine life," concluded Bec Howarth.

Foundation’s claims corroborated by red-faced minister.

Corroborating last week’s call from Bob Brown Foundation that all logging in Tasmania for decades has been illegal, the Minister for Resources Guy Barnett has now flagged retrospective validating legislation to ‘legalise’ the criminal behaviour.

“This outrageous minister and government has crowed week-in and week-out about the need for harsher laws to stop forest protests when, all along, it has been his logging which has been illegal. The protesters were upholding the Tasmanian laws which governments, including minister Barnett, were breaking,” Bob Brown said today.

All logging should cease until this bungling minister has been replaced and the mess sorted out. The government should prepare to compensate hundreds of good people who have been wrongfully charged, convicted and even sent to jail for obstructing this illegal logging.”

“Barnett’s limp attempt to justify breaking Tasmanian law by calling it a ‘technical detail’ would be thrown out of court. The law is the law. No ordinary citizen can retrospectively change the law’s technicalities, or claim ignorance, to rescue themselves from prosecution or imprisonment. Logging of Tasmania’s wildlife-filled forests without proper authorisation is a crime. The minister is proposing to backdate laws to cover up criminal behaviour by Forestry Tasmania. This is truly shocking,” Brown said.

In 1972, the Reece government’s attorney-general resigned and huge public uproar was sparked when the premier and parliament retrospectively validated flooding Lake Pedder without having first rescinded its national park status – a ‘minor technical detail’ at the time.

“In 2022, parliament must not repeat that shameful ‘doubts removal’ process to validate the wholesale destruction of more of Tasmania’s natural heritage,” Brown said.

Bob Brown Foundation is holding protests across Tasmania this week to call for a halt to logging which it believes to be illegal. Now that Premier Gutwein has resigned, the Minister responsible for destroying Tasmania’s forests needs to halt the logging and tell the public the truth.

“Today, we have stopped logging in the Styx valley. We are in a logging zone where 4,000 tree ferns are going to be ripped out of this ecosystem. It beggars belief that these hundred-year-old Tasmanian tree ferns (Dicksonia antarctica), Gondwanic remnants from a time when dinosaurs walked the Earth, are still being removed for people's gardens,” Bob Brown Foundation Campaign Manager Jenny Weber said.

“The Eucalyptus regnans in these forests are also hundreds of years old. These Styx forests that are being demolished are losing ancient trees which hold massive amounts of carbon in their trunks, branches, leaves, roots and the soil around them.”

“These trees, when left standing, support biodiversity, endangered species and wildlife habitats from their roots to their crown.”

“Letting existing native forests with these massive, ancient trees grow is essential to meeting any climate goals we have.”

“Logging these native forests is a climate and wildlife crime. Illegal logging in Tasmania needs to stop and we are putting all native forest logging under scrutiny with our frontline actions,” Ms Weber said.

Today, Tasmania Police revealed they will not proceed with charges for two forest defenders arrested in Wentworth Hills forests a month ago. A total of nine forest defenders, including Bob Brown, have now had their charges dropped in the past fortnight without explanation. On 22 March, the police prosecutor indicated that validating legislation was being considered by the government in relation to charges dropped last week.

“In light of these charges being dropped, we have headed into the forests with concerns that Tasmania’s logging legality is under the cloud of a cover-up. Protesters have halted logging this morning in Wentworth Hills and remain on location with police arriving at the protest. Premier Gutwein is choosing to spend police resources on charging protesters when the charges are not standing up to court scrutiny, compounded by the question of whether the logging is illegal,” Bob Brown Foundation’s Campaign Manager Jenny Weber said.

“Over the past twelve months, Tasmania’s Premier Gutwein has been responsible for allowing illegal activities in logging across the vast tracts of native forests while overseeing illegal mining activities in takayna / Tarkine,” Jenny Weber said.

Our Foundation is taking action this week to highlight the many native forests, wildlife habitats and carbon storehouses across lutruwita / Tasmania that are being lost to logging right now. All native forest logging operations across the state, including imminent logging burns, must be stopped,” Bob Brown Foundation Campaigner Erik Hayward said.

Bob Brown Foundation has today launched forest protests for the week ahead as the legality of logging on public land in Tasmania is questioned.

This morning protesters have halted logging in lutruwita / Tasmania’s wild central highlands, at Wentworth Hills. This comes after seven forest defenders, including Bob Brown, have had their charges dropped in the past fortnight, we have reason to believe that Forestry Tasmania's logging is illegal.

“Something is awry and we are here to make sure the logging across Tasmania is halted and the public learns the truth,” Bob Brown Foundation’s Campaign Manager Jenny Weber said.

“It is dangerous enough to be continuing logging of carbon sinks in an age of a climate emergency and flattening habitat for endangered species in an age of extinction. Now Premier Gutwein is mulling over the need to get parliament to make legal Forestry Tasmania’s illegal practices. How widespread the invalid logging has been and over what period of time remains to be seen. For the time being the Premier is covering up,” Jenny Weber said.

“In Wentworth Hills this morning we are protesting in the same ancient forest we were in just weeks ago, we now believe these forests are being logged illegally. Until logging is halted statewide and Premier Gutwein shows logging across Tasmania to be legal we are concerned that illegal logging of wildlife rich carbon sinks is underway,” Bob Brown Foundation Campaigner Erik Hayward said.

“Wentworth Hills is where some of planet Earth’s oldest forests are being lost to logging for woodchips. New logging roads have been smashed into forests rich with Tasmanian native wildlife. Wentworth Hills is home to nine threatened fauna species. Numerous nesting sites for the Tasmanian Wedge-tailed Eagle have been recorded in and around the Wentworth Hills. It is high-quality habitat for the rare and vulnerable Spotted-tail Quoll and significant habitat for the Endangered Grey Goshawk, Masked Owl and Tasmanian Devil,” Erik Hayward said.

We will debate the logging and incineration of wildlife-rich native forests but before we can engage in meaningful debate with Nick Steele, he will need to stop his continued misinformation campaign. and stop writing fiction. He ignores the urgent need to conserve forests to make our planet liveable.

Tasmania’s logging habitat of critically endangered species is not the envy of the world. The vast majority of Tasmania’s logged native forests end up as woodchips rather than Steele’s “critical construction materials”. Deforestation overseas is on our doorstep, as the two largest companies taking timber from Tasmania right now are Sarawak logging companies responsible for deforestation for palm oil in Borneo’s tropical forests. The Tasmanian and Federal  governments spent taxpayers’ money assisting these companies to move into Tasmanian forests. We are the only ones who ever talk about this.

It beggars belief that Mr Steele justifies the woodchipping of critically endangered Swift Parrot habitat for paper and cardboard. Imagine still being in that mindset that logging forests for toilet paper and cardboard boxes is more critical than protecting native forests for all species survival and securing the fastest, most effective way to stabilise climate.  

The experts tell us that the Swift Parrot is at extreme risk of extinction due to the loss of breeding habitat driven by logging practices in Tasmania. This represents the greatest threat to the survival of this Critically Endangered species, not the glider predation.  Gliders are an introduced animal and pose a significant threat to Swift Parrots, but the gliders’ predators are also suffering pressure from loss of habitat to logging.

We are consistent at the Bob Brown Foundation. Before the Foundation was established, many of us were involved in calling for native forest protection and have been for the last two or more decades. 

We provide solutions. Nature-based solutions – defending forests for climate, wildlife and environmental benefits, including protecting all native forests and restoration of destroyed forested areas across Tasmania – are increasingly recognised by the IPCC and IUCN as critical weapons in the fight against global heating. They may not resonate with the people who want to keep logging forests in an age of biodiversity and climate crises. Mr Steele is not listening to the warnings of scientists that are so loud, they are deafening.  

Mr Steele knows plantation forestry is where the jobs and wealth creation are. He also knows there are enough plantations established in Australia to meet all our wood needs and to end native forest logging tomorrow. He should be honest enough to admit that plantation forestry is now the dominant employer in Tasmania’s forest industry.

It is a lie to say that carbon stored in timber products is greater than in old forests. Old forests store a huge amount of carbon naturally and when cut down, two-thirds or more of their carbon is released into the atmosphere as a global warming pollutant.  Only about five percent of forest carbon ends up in ‘long lived’ (>30 years) wood products.

Most important to our Foundation, and to more than sixty percent of Australians, is that Tasmania’s giant eucalypt forests, and other forests around Australia, are some of the biggest carbon storehouses in the world. The study by logging industry promoter, Forest Wood and Products Australia, found sixty-one percent of Tasmanians believe logging of native forests for wood products is unacceptable.

Unlike the violence that Forestry Tasmania brings upon Tasmania’s forests and wildlife every day, our non-violent protest is a traditional form of civil disobedience. Our protests are always non-violent and operate with strong liaisons with police and the nearby disability outpatient support service. 

. A sit-in is an age-old protest where the defenders enter a business and remain seated until evicted. We used sounds of chainsaws and recordings of animals dying, like those killed in logging coupes every day, because no one, apart from the loggers hear these animals suffering.

That these sounds and non-violent protest interrupted the people in the headquarters of native forest destruction in Tasmania may have been uncomfortable, but it is the experience of thousands of hectares of wildlife-filled forests crushed and incinerated every year.

We have just spent the last Swift Parrot breeding season in forests that are on the permanent logging schedule, with the parrots in the trees.  We were in forests that were in an active logging area and the Swift Parrots were nesting and breeding, but the chainsaws and logging machines were poised to cut through the forests.  It was up to us the citizens to find this logging, find the parrots and lobby for the logging to halt. The forests we were arrested in last year in the Eastern Tiers are now logged, but we temporarily halted logging while the parrots were breeding in the very same forests. Once they were gone, the machines rolled back in and flattened their nursery. Many Australian birds that depend on forests face extinction this century, including the Swift Parrot. Another important reason that native forest logging must end.

Meanwhile Forestry Tasmania announces they are going to incinerate 8,000 hectares of Tasmania’s public land, areas that have been destroyed by logging. Forests are irreplaceable carbon stocks, but, when logged and burnt, emit megatonnes of greenhouse gases.  Australia needs nature-based solutions to the climate and biodiversity crises that includes protection of all native forests and proactive restoration of logged and degraded native forests.

Last month’s IPCC report pleaded with us that we face “unavoidable multiple climate hazards” over the next two decades and are entering an era that will expose millions of people to food and water insecurity and that any further delay in global action “will miss a brief and rapidly closing window of opportunity to secure a liveable future for all.” 

I am not sure there is time to wait for Mr Steele to catch up and debate these issues. I would much rather see our Australian native forests, our climate heroes, protected. Mr Steele is arguing for continued logging, incinerating and woodchipping of native forests. Is this the type of behaviour we can accept in this day and age?

 - Jenny Weber, Bob Brown Foundation Campaign Manager. 

Tasmania police dropped charges against four forest defenders, including former Senator Bob Brown, in the Hobart Magistrate’s Court this morning, but the prosecutor declined defence solicitor Roland Browne’s challenge to tell the court why.

Consequently, Dr Brown has written to Premier Gutwein calling for a halt to all native forest logging operations, including imminent regeneration burns, unless and until it is shown such operations are legal.

“The government cannot proceed with logging of rare wildlife habitat knowing such logging is not valid. This is Premier Gutwein’s call. He must not knowingly let illegal logging practices proceed,” Brown said outside the court today.

The defendants have sought costs against the government.

A copy of the letter to Premier Gutwein is appended.

Hon. Peter Gutwein.

Premier.

Dear Premier Gutwein,

As you are aware, charges against Tasmanians, myself included, who have validly tried to defend Tasmania’s native forests have been dropped. I ask you to let the public, whose forests are thus in contention, know why. In particular, you should confirm that the logging of our forests has no legal validation.

I call upon you to halt logging operations in our native forests, including so-called regeneration burns, which are so detrimental to both wildlife habitat and global warming mitigation, unless and until you explain the dropping of charges.

Yours sincerely,

Bob Brown.