185 TIMBER GROUP CLEARED

Claire Miller, The Age (article), 22/4/99



Australia's consumer watchdog has cleared the national timber industry association of allegations of unlawful pressure on a hardware chain to withdraw a controversial book about building with plantation timber.

But the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission indicated yesterday that it had now widened its investigation to include other allegations of threatened boycotts after additional information surfaced during its inquiries

The publisher of Forest-Friendly Building Timbers, Mr Alan Gray, last night thanked the National Association of Forest Industries for turning his book into a bestseller by attempting to quash it.

The association threatened legal action under the Trade Practices Act against BBC Hardware, the publisher, the Wilderness Society and two book distributors, alleging the book contained misleading and deceptive information about the environmental impact of logging in native forests.