Crime, fiction and political intrigue

According to the ABC program the A-Team succeeded in getting the Keating government to back away from forestry issues and successive governments have followed along this same path. Sixteen Melbourne councils, representing over a million people have voiced their objections to logging in the Water Catchments but the State Government still appears to ignore them.

When the A-Team was disbanded in 2001 the records were meant to be destroyed but instead they found their way into the hands of the Four Corners team to give us a precise look at the way the population at large, and the government in particular have formulated their ideas in respect of logging and woodchips.

Four Corners revealed the extent of the A-Team’s illegal activities and the influence they wielded. These activities including spying, sabotage, the infiltration of political parties; stacking branches as well as damage to Amcor’s competitors.

Local front groups

In 1996 as the Greens Candidate for McEwen I came up against a lobby group calling itself The Forest Protection Society (FPS). It was clearly aimed at confusing the public by appropriating the term “protection” while simultaneously helping to expand the logging in the Central Highlands. The group had organised more than 200 forestry industry workers who attended an information evening in Marysville held by the FPS. The local media revealed the FPS Healesville Branch President to be resident in the area. He had also been a local Councillor (Mountain Views 18th December, 1995).

At the time of the 1996 Federal election the battle over forests was so intense that the Victorian Greens decided to split the ticket, putting Labor preferences at risk. The move almost certainly helped the Liberals into power and upset the Labor stalwarts. However, an environment party that sold out to the perceived rogue logging was just unthinkable.

After the 1996 election the battle for the environment in the Central Highlands seemed to be lost. Then came the drought and Melbourne’s water was put at risk. The Forest Protection Society appeared to dwindle alongside the gathering momentum of Melbourne protesters and another bigger, more efficient group became visible:Timber Communities Australia (TCA) is now the voice of the anti-environmentalist movement and they are very vocal.

In 2004 Greens Senator Bob Brown outlined some of the activities of Timber Communities Australia as well as some of its sources of funding. This is what Senator Brown had to say about the TCA:

When articles on the forests appear in print or go to air, there is an outcry from the forest industry. But what at first appears to be a broad based response to a media story is, in fact, a highly orchestrated campaign by a small cabal long linked by personal history and involvement with the woodchip industry and using an innocuous-sounding organisation called Timber Communities Australia, as a front to give it credibility.

Since its inception in 1987, TCA has been positioned as the voice of the little people caught between the conservation movement, governments and the large woodchip companies. It purports to be the authentic voice of those who are merely seeking to make a living and keep their jobs, to feed their families. Its advertisements feature stereotypes of the hard-working family - craftspeople, bee keepers, people in truck-stop cafes and children in the bush with their grandparents. Its web page says it is a grassroots organisation which “exists to encourage the sensible, balanced multiple use of our forests for the benefit of all Australians”.

The Senator goes on to say:

In fact, it is the brainchild and mouthpiece of NAFI, [the National Association of Forest Industries], headquartered in Canberra, the lobby group of Australia's logging and woodchip corporations. NAFI and Timber Communities Australia share a common headquarters in Canberra and a common executive director …

Senator Brown told the Senate that the financial returns for TCA revealed its lack of grassroots support:

In 2001-02 only 4 per cent, or $43,630, of Timber Communities Australia's income came from its members. Seventy-six per cent, or $730,000 out of $965,498, was from direct industry contributions. In the following year, 2002-03, direct contributions from industry to TCA rose to 86 per cent - $734,154 of the total of $838,977 - and, conversely, member contributions fell by $4,228 to only $39,402.

NAFI's in-kind contributions to Timber Communities Australia, by way of space, salary and administrative assistance, were valued at a further $67,891. In other words, industry contributions pay the wages of … Timber Communities Australia's ubiquitous Tasmanian spokes-person, and eight other staff around Australia.