FED: Greenies rally against senate forest inquiry

AAP General News (Australia)
02-01-1999
FED: Greenies rally against senate forest inquiry

MELBOURNE, Feb 1 AAP - Environmentalists are rallying outside Victorian Parliament today to
protest at the "sham" senate inquiry into the future of native forests.

Only two days of public hearings for the whole of Australia would be held as part of the
senate inquiry into the Regional Forests Agreement, Environment Victoria spokesman Rod
Anderson said.

He labelled the consultation process "a sham and a fraud".

"It is little more than a hugely expensive public relations exercise to give resource
security to the woodchipping and whole log export industries, at the expense of Australian
jobs and other values," he said.

The RFA Bill handed over the control of logging back to the states and removed commonwealth
powers which had protected forests, he said.

While the RFA project was meant to resolve longstanding conflicts over native forest
logging, it had been so badly handled it would entrench conflict in the forests for years to
come.

About 100 protesters were on the steps of parliament, including one who climbed onto a
street lamp and waved a placard.

Earlier a protester wearing a mask of Prime Minister John Howard wielded a chainsaw against
others dressed as wildlife as part of the protest.

A convoy of logging trucks is due to also rally outside parliament as part of a union
protest in relation to the forest issue.

AAP lmw/sp/jlw/bjm/de

KEYWORD: FORESTS

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