One of the more curious comments on the arrest of Senator Bob Brown a few days ago at the Goolengook forest in. East Gippsland, for obstructing logging operation, was Mr Michael O'Connor's condemnation of the senator as "playing a cruel joke on working people who face losing their jobs".
If anything the joke is being played by the logging industry. In 1981, 2641 people were employed in forestry and logging in Victoria. By 1991 this had shrunk to 1410 people, less than one job in a thousand in the state (81198 Census Characterists of Victoria).
Whatever the logging industry is on about, it isn't jobs.