A Victorian Government attempt to overturn the dismissal of obstruction charges against a Greens senator failed in the Supreme Court yesterday. The Government had asked Justice Murray Kellam to overturn the dismissal of charges against Senator Bob Brown and two co-accused, Mr Alistair Knight, 20, and Ms Emma Hess, 29, by a magistrate. The three denied obstructing a forest operation on 13 June last year along the Goolengook River near Orbost.
Justice Kellam upheld the dismissal, saying that the legislation at the time, while confusing, stated that the correct heritage buffer zone on dither side of the river was 200 metres, not 100 metres as the Government claimed. He said it was the logging that was unlawful, riot the obstruction of it by Senator Brown and his cohorts.
Senator Brown said outside the court that the Premier, Mr Jeff Kennett,
should issue a "statement of shame" to apologise to the hundreds of citizens
who opposed the years, they have been illegally logging some of Victoria's
prime heritage forests," Senator Brown "They've broken their own laws.
It's a measure of the Premier as to whether he can apologise. "We're delighted
with the outcome."
Ms Susan Crennan, QC, for the director of public prosecutions, told
the court during the appeal hearing that the magistrate had erred in determining
the width of a heritage river corridor in the Goolengook forest block in
Senator and the two protesters claimed unlawful forest operations were
taking place.
Ms Crennan said the magistrate accepted evidence in which a ruler was
used on a map of the area to determine the width of the heritage corridor,
but instead the whole map and the words on it should have been considered.
She said the correct width of the buffer zone was 100 metres, which meant
the logging operation was lawful. She said a detailed forest management
plan to preserve the local environment had been drawn up.
But Mr Brian Walters, for Senator Brown, said a 200-metre buffer along
each side of the river had been authorised by the Heritage Rivers Act,
which came into existence three years before the forest management plan.
Mr Walters said forestry staff had allowed logging in an area that Parliament
had said should not be logged.