Mood:  hug me

They don’t log the water catchment for Sydney. But they do on the south coast. And they've started vandalising a new area this week

Sent: Monday, May 14, 2007 9:14 AM

Subject: [chipstop] gulaga blockade bust - ON NOW!

The police are currently at the Gulaga blockade camp. Twelve arrests have been made but some of these are repeats, so it's not 12 people.
The contractor, Mathie arrived this morning to start logging the forest. His vehicles have been unable to enter the compartment; someone is locked onto Mathie's ute.

It appears that the contractor was not originally set to be Mathie, but he is now lined up to do the job. This may be a way for the industry to get the Wandella injunction invoked as some of the people who are subject to that injunction may be involved. Peter Rutherford failed at the chipmill the other day and may now see this as another opportunity to take out some of the key people in the SE forest campaign.
If you can get there - now is the time. Drive through Central Tilba (from south), keep going along Punkalla Road, following "To Mount Dromedary" signs. [and see directions in her following email message: SAM editor]

regards
harriett

CHIPSTOP campaign against woodchipping the SE forests, PO Box 797 Bega NSW 2550 Australia, http://www.chipstop.forests.org.au

…………………………….

Harriet writes again regarding the lovely Gulaga area:

The Gulaga blockade continues, but logging has also started.
A heavy police presence yesterday allowed the Mathie crew to enter with their machines, after a long delay caused by blockaders.
The same thing happened this morning with police arriving more slowly and in smaller numbers, but acting very decisively to clear the road.
Of yesterday's 13 arrests, only one was maintained. The others were told that they were not to be arrested after all.
Today a couple of people were taken away in the paddy wagon for refusing to get off the road quickly enough.

We have had good numbers on both mornings, but a big effort is needed to maintain and if possible increase numbers.

A slight correction to my previous directions: the "To Mt Dromedary" sign at the turn-off from Punkalla Rd is no longer there. The (left) turn is at a T-junction 3kms north from Central Tilba.
Another correction: don't turn left at the  last "To Mt Dromedary" sign about 2.5kms from that turn off. Continue along a further approx 0.5kms to the camp. .....A prohibited zone has been declared, but the road is a council road and cannot be closed by State Forests.

regards
harriett

Picture: Protest Gulaga Mountain, NSW South Coast 15th May 2007

..................

With all the talk in the news cycle today about Cadia mine in Central NSW stealing water from the public water supply at Orange  

(Crucial water given to goldmine) and coal mines sucking the water table dry too (Mine may need river supply in a crisis) it’s pretty clear who the bully boys in our political economy are.

Indeed John Howard is a mediocre hypocrite on this very topic: PM's push to reveal violence in schools. Indeed the PM is obviously indulging in some counter spin after The Bastard Boys docu drama on ABC the last two nights strongly implied he was right behind the pseudo military takeover of employment on the docks in a quasi Mussolini type operation. The show has created quite a reaction generally

Suggestions 'Bastard Boys' timed to Combet election run 'bizarre' - ABC Online - 4 hours ago
Kelty may sue ABC over waterfront drama - The Australian - 12 hours ago

The thing about the show over the last two nights was that both Liberal-Coalition and Labor looked like bullies with the former calling up jackboots and attack canines and the latter beating up their own union rep in a drunken rage, to spitting on security to promises to kneecap the scabs.

Another frightening example is of this tacit support for systemic bullying especially of the Coalition but also the ALP came last year when the Greens attempted to bring the business slave cult known as the Exlusive Brethren to account for abuse of children and parents. We listened last year with increasing anger at the haughty and contemptuous reactions of the Liberal Minister defending these cultists in the Senate from any transparency. The ALP were similarly pathetic in taking a stand against these cashed up ultra patriarchical, misogynist cultists in that Senate session.

The implication was profound: The big party politicians came from the same abusive style of hierarchical power and it would take blatant illegality as distinct from grotesque emotional abuse for the two major parties to pursue the public interest . And didn't the evidence of illegality pile up through 2006 and 7, despite the scornful rejection of The Greens motion that day. I must say I was never so proud of Bob Brown as that day on the PNN radio vindicated here: Four Corners - 25/09/2006: Separate Lives, and Showdown looms for secretive sect - National - smh.com.au and Brethren bid to cover up sex assaults on girls - National - theage ... and ABC Radio National - Background Briefing: 30 April 2006 - Elusive ...

The scandal of the EB boss cockroaches under their secretive rock was instructive for the moral cowardice and tacit support for systemic bullying of the two major parties until it became just too ugly even for PM Howard's Liberals as substantial financial beneficiaries of donations. Nor did we hear a pipsqueak from that champion of female rights Prue Goward for a cult that denies education to girls or computers. What a betrayal of public duty.

Indeed there is a  Liberal Labor party gerrymander here in Australia. On land use it's backed by brutal union logger thugs like Michael O’Connor.

You won’t read about the loggers at Gulaga above though except here on a micro news blog, or maybe the Bega District News well outside the real politik glare of marginal Sydney seats:

20 arrests at Gulaga protest

ABOUT 30 conservationists briefly blocked logging equipment yesterday (Monday) as it arrived at the section of forest due to be logged near Gulaga Mountain. [ more ]

…… Among those arrested in the morning was Tilba Chamber of Commerce President Sol Ramana-Clarke who got his first experience in the back of a paddy wagon after riding his bike up to the protestors' camp on Punkala Road.

Tourism accounted for far more revenue than all primary industries put together, including logging, and the pristine nature of the mountain needed to be protected, he said.

"I just felt for once in my life I should say no to logging of this compartment as its on either side of the road that leads up to the sacred site, an area regularly used by the Umbarra cultural tours and other tourists and visitors who come to this area," Mr Ramana-Clarke said.

"It seems ludicrous that logging be allowed on either side of one of our main tourism attractions and sacred sites for the whole region."

A group of forest activists camped out for a week on Punkala Road adjacent to where the logging activity is now underway.

On Saturday, singer John Williamson drove down from an appearance at Batemans Bay to lend his support to the forest vigil.

NSW Forests says the same 280-hectare section or compartment was logged 20 years ago and that the latest logging is selective with buffer zones around creeks and along the access roads.

But Gulaga Protection Group chair Sean Burke said the community was not consulted properly, especially since NSW Forests and the State Government would have remembered the outcry of opposition when logging was first proposed in the area two years ago.

……………………..

Unless its actually proven illegal logging the Metropolitan ABC both tv and radio are very wary of covering the sacred cow of loggers destroying water catchments like Gulaga on the NSW South Coast, and spreading bushfire risk. Things have changed since 1992-95 when the Big Media were happy to embarrass the NSW Coalition government here. But the public opposition to logging hasn't changed as shown by polls of the great majority of regional people let alone city people:

April 2002...East Gippsland opinion poll on attitudes towards logging, of general significance for regional Australia

Even criminal assaults by Gill Mathie’s logging crew as proven last year in court were hardly reported in the big smoke except here Sydney Indymedia by this writer 27^th Sept 2007

South Coast logger convicted of criminal assault of conservationist, is this evidence of terrorism?

Sent: Wednesday, September 27, 2006 1:53 PM

Subject: Wandella assault verdicts

Not even the sympathy of country music legend John Williamson last Saturday, or protest of the local President of the Chamber of Commerce arrested yesterday will probably get a mention on the NSW Stateline ABC programme shaking in their boots under the current pro logger Howard Board at the ‘public' broadcaster.

Yep. We have a society built on bullying, right out of the bullying British class system probably.

Bullying is widespread

- in land use decision making privileging the muscle men over good policy as above, and here Run for it while the coast is clear: cash cows are eating your parks

- In the schools according to this very sad, expensive case suggesting a life long victim mentality 

Bullied at school - now he'll walk away with $1 millionLEONIE LAMONT | Ben Cox has no friends, is unlikely to make any, or form any romantic relationships. At 18, his teenage life has "all but been destroyed".

-  in the parliaments, as Minister Phil Koperberg in the news today (Minister ready to turn off taps to towns) had to struggle like hell to avoid the blows of the ALP Right and allegedly from the likes of Paul Gibson (Bad blood in new cabinet - National - smh.com.au).

- in politics more generally when ever one tries to be honest and be one’s own man or woman as per this highly revealing feature on the 20 year anniversary of the Fitzgerald Inquiry, such that the Commissioner virtually fled Queensland’s ALP closed shop for doing his job properly: Cost of cleaning out the Moonlight State | Qld | The Australian including this sleazy side of tribal politics where honesty is seen as a deficit:

“IN the mid-1990s, a Queensland minister was discussing a possible appointment to the High Court with a very senior member of the Keating government. He floated the name of Tony Fitzgerald QC.  "Isn't that the bloke who headed a corruption inquiry and ended up jailing National Party ministers?" his federal counterpart asked. Told that it was, indeed, the same person, he replied: "Well, he's got no chance. If he'll jail them, he'd jail our blokes too." That exchange typifies the attitude of many in authority to Fitzgerald; it was wonderful to employ him to do the dirty work and give the Queensland Police Service and political scene a long-overdue enema - but he soon became too hot to handle, mainly because he was his own man. Fitzgerald moved south to NSW in the late 1990s. “

and

“But the politicians and others who wanted to settle scores attacked the figure as excessive. Fitzgerald was wounded. Throughout the inquiry, he and his family had lived under threats of violence and retribution from corrupt cops and underworld figures, and the government was forced to place armed bodyguards in his home 24 hours a day. Several branches of the media were clearly self-serving and unfair to Fitzgerald, and his report contains references that show how he, in turn, regarded the media. He wrote that some journalists at his inquiry constantly misreported that much of the evidence was "hearsay". "Journalists were unfortunately encouraged in this aspect of misreporting by some of those who were the subject of allegations by some lawyers," he wrote. "Other allegations aimed at undermining the commission were published on the basis of rumour or misinformation from sources who had reason to fear the commission's work. "As a result, the public was misinformed." In another section he wrote what every serious journalist should have framed on their desk: "The media played a part in exposing corruption, but as one of the most powerful institutions in our society must also share the blame for its growth. …………………..“

- in the green ngo sector.  Consider the kind of honesty of this writer that identifies that under the Carr now Iemma government there is as much logging of native forest heritage in NSW as when the ALP was elected in 1995. Despite a "peace deal". This exposes the kind of systemic dishonesty that allows peak green group figures here like Jeff Angel to collaborate with government and deceive their own membership that they have done a good job when in fact they have lost the plot, just as NSW collaborates with Victoria’s Bracks ALP to destroy original forest in East Gippsland at the Eden Chipmill.

 Prior to the 2003 NSW Election we published a list of areas to be degraded and chipped by loggers drying out wet forests, promoting hotter bushfires, and degrading volume and quality of water catchments, all massively contributing to the climate change impacts by loss of carbon store. Senator Kerry Nettle (Greens) picks up the theme here today:

Federal government get science wrong on logging NSW SE Forests

15.05.07

Greens Senator Kerry Nettle has urged federal minister for the forestry,
Senator Eric Abetz to go back to school and get his science right before
backing further logging of native forests in South East New South Wales.

Senator Nettle asked Minister Abetz in federal parliament last week;

"Has the government conducted a study of the climate change impact of
the logging of native forest in south-eastern New South Wales, in
particular for the supply of Eden woodchip mill for export
woodchipping?"

The Minister said No. He then got his science wrong by claiming;

"You chop down a tree, you replant it and any carbon that escapes is
then drawn back out by the new growing tree."

Minister Abetz is just wrong.

The kinds of forest that are being logged for woodchips in South East
New South Wales have been growing for hundreds of years and release
massive amounts of carbon from the wood chips, the roots and soil.

"Plantation forests that replace old growth and high value native forest
never capture even half the amount of carbon that was lost logging the
original forest.

Regional forest campaigner, Ms Harriett Swift said "when communities
around the south east are making important personal efforts to cut their
own greenhouse emissions, policy makers should be calling the logging
industry to account.

"The native forest logging industry is doing enormous damage to the
climate and that can't be allowed to continue," she said.


Contact - Jon Edwards 0428 213 146

....................

It’s only getting worse 2003 – 2007 with the foothills of the Gulaga Mountain only the most recent. That list is here

19/3/2003...NSW government 'Big Logging List' giving background to the Bob Carr/ALP government real forest performance in the lead up state election in March 2003.

That list includes at point 3, and 4 the following litany of destruction by bullies of the environment:

3. Big List (100 minimum)of forest logged/seriously damaged from community reports and State Forest records released (forest name, year of logging, info source respectively). This list is not exhaustive given time constraints and lack of co-operation and does not account for other natural areas also damaged:

- Avon River SF 2002, State Forests via reputable source 2003

- Badja SF, 2001-2, 1996 ecology action sydney photos, The Wilderness Society literature, State Forests via ChipStop 2003

- Bagawa SF 2002, State Forests via reputable source 2003

- Bald Knob SF 2002, State Forests via reputable source 2003

- Bebo SF 2001, State Forests via reputable source 2003

- Bangadilly SF 1996, State Forests via ChipStop 2003

- Barradine SF 2002, State Forests via reputable source 2003

- Barrington Tops SF 2002, State Forests via reputable source 2003

- Beaury SF 2002, State Forests via reputable source 2003

- Bellangry SF 2002 NEFA media release 8/5/02

- Benandarah 2000, 2002 State Forests via ChipStop 2003

- Biddon SF 2002, State Forests via reputable source 2003

- Bodalla SF, 1996-2002 State Forests via ChipStop 2003, Steve Ryan TWS 7/1/00

- Bolaro SF, 1998 Steve Ryan TWS email 7/1/00, State Forests via ChipStop 2003

- Boyne SF 1996-2001 State Forests via Chipstop 2003

- Brother SF 2002, State Forests via reputable source 2003

- Bulahdelah SF 1998 TWS 16/12/98 media release

- Bungawalbin State Forest, 2000/1, Richmond Environment Network email, NEFA media release 29/3/01.

- Bungabbee SF 2001, NEFA media release 29/3/01

- Buckenbowra SF TWS Wildernews 1999, 2000 (imminent, and refers to 13 other forests at risk), State Forests via ChipStop 2003

- Campbell SF 2001, State Forests via reputable source 2003

- Chaelundi SF 2002, compartments 170, 185-7, 190, 192-3 State Forests via reputable source 2003

- Chichester SF 2001-2002, State Forests via reputable source 2003

- Cobbora SF 2002, State Forests via reputable source 2003

- Colymea SF 1996 State Forests via ChipStop 2003

- Conglomerate SF, 2000-2, Richmond Environment Network email, NEFA flyer, State Forests via reputable source 2003

- Copeland SF 2001, State Forests via reputable source 2003

- Conjola SF 1996, State Forests via ChipStop 2003

- Clouds Creek - see Conglomerate

- Cumbil SF 2002, State Forests via reputable source 2003

- Currambene SF 2002, State Forests via ChipStop 2003

- Currowan SF, 1998, 2000, 2002 State Forests via ChipStop 2003

- Clyde SF, 1996 State Forests via ChipStop 2003

- Dampier SF, 1996-2002, TWS email 7/1/00, ecology action photos, State Forests via ChipStop 2003

- Denobollie SF 2002, State Forests via reputable source 2003

- Divines SF 2002, State Forests via reputable source 2003

- Etoo SF 2002, State Forests via reputable source 2003

- Ewingar SF 2002, State Forests via reputable source 2003

- Flat Rock SF 2002 State Forests via ChipStop 2003

- Gibberagee SF 2002, State Forests via reputable source 2003

- Gladstone SF 2002, State Forests via reputable source 2003

- Glenugie SF 2002, State Forests via reputable source 2003

- Goonoo SF 2002, State Forests via reputable source 2003

- Irishman SF 2002, State Forests via reputable source 2003

- Kangaroo River SF 1999, NEFA media release 9/7/99 ("Labor's 1995 Forestry Policy has been dishonoured and subverted ...." Suzi Russel, John Corkhill)

- Leard SF 2001, State Forest via reputable source 2003

- Lincoln SF 2002, State Forests via reputable source 2003

- McDonald SF 2002, State Forests via ChipStop 2003

- McPherson SF 2002, State Forests via reputable source 2003

- Meryla SF 1998 State Forests via ChipStop 2003

- Manly Dam forest, Sydney 1998-9, Green Left Weekly 30/6/99 at p2

- Marengo State Forest, 2001 NSW forest networker email, The Advocate p5 23/8/01

- Minnon SF 2002, State Forests via reputable source 2003

- Mogo SF, 1996-2002 State Forests via ChipStop 2003, Steve Ryan TWS email 7/1/00

- Monga SF, 2001-2, ecology action photos, TWS, SEFA media release 18/8/01

- Moruya SF 1996, 1997, 1998, 2002 State Forests via ChipStop 2003, 1999 Steve Ryan TWS email 7/1/00

- Myall Lakes SF 2000-1, ecology action photos, TWS Sydney flyer 2000

- Myall River State Forest 1999-2002 20-23/2/01 p3, p16, p2, p7/8 Newcastle Herald quoting The Wilderness Society, State Forests via reputable source 2003

- Nambucca SF 2002, State Forests via reputable source 2003

- North Brooman, 1998, 2002 Steve Ryan, TWS email 7/1/00, State Forests via ChipStop 2003

- Oakwood SF 2003, State Forests via reputable source 2003

- Olney SF 2001-2, TWS Newcastle email, State Forests via reputable source 2003, State Forests via reputable source 2003

- Ourimbah SF (Watagans/Jilliby Reserve proposal), 1999-2002, NEFA leaflet)

- Orara East State Forest 20/3/01 The Advocate page 3 quoting Coffs Conservation Alliance

- Orara West 2001, State Forests via reputable source 2003

- Peak Alone SF 2000, ecology action photos

- Pilliga SF, Jim Tedder North Coast Environment Council 19/8/96

- Pilliga East SF 2001-2002 State Forests via reputable source 2003

- Pilliga West SF 2002, State Forests via reputable source 2003

- Pine Creek SF, 2001, Native Forest Network (re koala habitat) letter, RIC mr

- Scotchman SF 2002, State Forests via reputable source 2003

- Sheas Nob SF, 2001, Clarence Environment Centre news clipping, State Forests via reputable source 2003

- Sherwood SF , 2000, Richmond Environment Network email, NEFA flyer

- South Brooman, 1996-2002, State Forests via ChipStop 2003, Steve Ryan TWS email 7/1/00

- Shallow Crossing SF 1997, 2002 State Forests via ChipStop 2003

- Stewarts Brook SF 2001, State Forests via reputable source 2003

- Stroud Mountain - see Myall River SF

- Tallaganda SF 1996-2002 Steve Ryan TWS email 7/1/00, 2002 State Forests via ChipStop 2003

- Terry Hie Hie 2001, State Forests via reputable source 2003

- Timbarra Plateau and forest (clearing, blasting for gold mine), 1997-2001, various sources

- Tomerong SF 1996 State Forests via ChipStop 2003

- Tomago clearing koala habitat Newcastle Herald 5/1/96, Daily Telegraph

- Toonumbar SF 2002, State Forests via reputable source 2003

- Trinkey SF 2002, State Forests via reputable source 2003

- Tuckers Knob SF 2002, State Forests via reputable source 2003

- Viewmont SF 2002, State Forests via reputable source 2003

- Wandella SF, 1996-2002, ecology action sydney, TWS email 7/1/00, State Forests via ChipStop 2003

- Wandera SF 1996, State Forests via ChipStop 2003

- Watagans - see Olney, Ourimbah, Wyong SF

- Wang Wauk SF 2002, State Forests via reputable source 2003

- Way Way SF (reference?)

- Wild Cattle Creek State Forest 1996, 2002 over from 1995, NEFA media, letter 9/11/95, NEFA media release 7/7/95, State Forests via reputable source 2003

- Wingello SF 1996, 1997 State Forests via ChipStop 2003

- Woodenbong 2002, State Forests via reputable source 2003

- Wyong SF, (Watagans/Jilliby Reserve proposal), 1999-2002, NEFA leaflet

- Yalcogrin SF 2002, State Forests via reputable source 2003

- Yadboro SF 2002 State Forests via ChipStop 2003

- Yarindury SF 2002, State Forests via reputable source 2003

Nalbaugh SF?

4. pre-emptive logging of new national park

- Gibraltar Range National Park, 1998, Clarence Environment Centre

- Nymboi-Binderay NP, 1998, CEC

- Bulahdelah NP, 1998, CEC

Picture: victim of logger violence in Victoria in 2000. The industry has a culture of aggression and brutality both to the forest and to their green critics.

Posted by editor at 2:46 PM NZT

Updated: Wednesday, 16 May 2007 11:38 AM NZT

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