The Prime Minister, Mr John Howard, and the Premier, Mr Jeff Kennett, should be held accountable for their failure to protect Victoria's native forests, the Australian Greens Senator Bob Brown said yesterday. Arrested for obstructing forest operations at Goolengook forest in East Gippland yesterday, Senator Brown said Mr Howard's performance on conservation had been the worst of any government since the 1970s.
"It's John Howard and Jeff Kennett who should be in the dock for failing to defend National Estate value forests," Senator Brown said. "These are the 'high conservation value' forests John Howard promised his Regional Forest Agreement would protect." "But now we all know the RFA is a sham, a licence to log wild forests," he said. The Federal and State Governments last night refused to comment on Senator Brown's assertions.
Senator Brown and 14 other protesters were arrested about 8am after 30 police swooped on conservationists trying to stop timber workers from logging sections of the Goolengook forest. This brings to 52 the number of protesters arrested this week. Senator Brown was taken to the Orbost police station and was later summonsed to appear in the Orbost Magistrates Court on 19 June. Senator Brown faces a maximum fine of $2000, but will not face disciplinary action before the Senate because it is a civil offence.
A 1991 Victorian Government report said Goolengook offered one of the best opportunities in Victoria for the protection of cool-temperate rainforest and contained some of the state's oldest eucalypts and tree ferns.
The Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union's assistant national
secretary, Mr Michael O'Connor, said he was disgusted at Senator Brown
allowing himself to get arrested. "He's sitting back there with a huge,
smug grin on his face at all the media attention he's going to get, when
all he's doing is playing a cruel joke on working people who face losing
their jobs," Mr O'Connor said. He said Australia had one of the world's
best natural forest management plans, which preserved the rights of working
people to log native forests yet preserved natural forest structures. Mr
O'Connor said CFMEU members would make Senator Brown the target of a jobs
awareness campaign.