Former Australian Greens leader Bob Brown said he would use a seat on the board of one of Tasmania’s most controversial environmental groups to help boost the state’s economy. He said that Ta Ann could benefit from the group. Source: The Herald Sun
Dr Brown has joined the board of the group Markets for Change, branded “eco-terrorists” by Tasmania’s forestry industry for their campaigns in the Asian markets for Australian timber producers.
The group aims to expose companies selling products, such as furniture and flooring sourced from forests with conservation values. It is one of several vocal green groups not involved in Tasmania’s long-running forest peace talks between the industry and environmentalists.
The stalled negotiations, which have aimed to end the bitter 30-year conflict over forests in the state, include “mainstream” groups The Wilderness Society, the Australian Conservation Foundation and Environment Tasmania.
In February, Markets for Change was among several organisations to announce a cyber-campaign aimed at the Japanese customers of Malaysian-owned Tasmanian timber veneer producer Ta Ann.
The groups claim the company harvests old growth forests, a claim Ta Ann denies.
Dr Brown, who retired from federal politics in April after 16 years in the Senate, said accusations Markets for Change was jeopardising the Tasmanian economy were wrong. “It’s quite the reverse,” he told AAP.
“Markets for Change is actually a stamp of authenticity for those people selling products with a genuine label and a dinkum label.
“If you’ve got a brand, and our brand is natural goodness … then you need to make sure that there aren’t shysters or people abusing that label because they damage the label right across the board.
“Markets for Change is great for the Tasmanian economy, which is going to more and more depend on that authenticity and genuineness in its labelling.”
He said companies such as Ta Ann could benefit from a “watchdog” group.
“Nobody, including the forest industry, has anything to fear if their advertising is truthful,” Dr Brown said.
“In future, the people selling products out of Tasmania … are going to be very grateful for organisations like Markets for Change.”
The re-emergence of the Greens’ founding father hasn’t pleased everyone, with Tasmania’s Liberal opposition branding the group “saboteurs”.
“Bringing Bob Brown out of retirement to front Markets for Change is the clearest sign yet that trying to appease environmental groups will never work,” spokesman Peter Gutwein said.
“Tasmanians would be outraged to hear that Markets for Change is embarking on a fundraising campaign so that it can ramp up its efforts to sabotage the Tasmanian economy”, said the Liberal member for Bass.
Dr Brown said he was hopeful the peace talks would succeed but wouldn’t buy into whether Markets for Change would accept a deal.
