Cassy O'Connor MP | Greens leader
The presence of activists in takayna/Tarkine is clearly making a big impact on planned logging operations in the region.
While the Liberals and Suss Timbers Tasmania (STT) would never admit protesters are influencing their decision making, the evidence on the ground says otherwise.
The Liberals’ claim that logging ceased because ‘customer requirements’ had been met is the latest in a long line of desperate attempts at spin.
The logging operations in coupe BO092C only stopped as a result of the intervention of protesters. The notion that logging activity was unexpectedly shut down, but that this happened to coincide with the loggers completing their work is laughable and makes no sense.
The only way the Liberals’ statement might carry a hint of truth is if the customer in question saw the backlash to this logging and got cold feet.
Perhaps the footage of clearfelled rainforest, which was broadcast nationally and globally, or the growing community outcry provoked a reconsideration? After all, we know there are very few places left in the world that still have an appetite for old growth forest products and the death and devastation they embody.
The Liberals think they can use weasel words to wriggle out of accountability for their crimes against nature, but now more than ever Tasmanians are seeing straight through them.
The devastation inflicted by logging operations in the takayna / Tarkine rainforest is heartbreaking and unjustifiable, but without the intervention of forest activists it could have been much, much worse.