Tenterfield Community Rally

About this Item
Speakers - Chappell Mr Raymond; Yeadon Mr Kim
Business - Private Members Statements

TENTERFIELD COMMUNITY RALLY

Mr CHAPPELL (Northern Tablelands) [6.08]: When honourable members were here for the opening of Parliament a blockade was being conducted in compartment 195 of Forest Land State Forest, south-east of Tenterfield, by the North East Forest Alliance. That blockade led to an urgent meeting of business people and others in the community of Tenterfield, fearful of the impact of the blockade and the possible closure of the local timber industry as a consequence of it. At that meeting it was decided to hold a major community rally on 10 May. As local member, I was invited to become involved, together with the Minister for Land and Water Conservation, the Forest Protection Society and various other people.

That meeting went ahead and a good assessment of the number of people in attendance that day is approximately 2,000 out of a community of about 3,500 people in Tenterfield. I take that number not from my own count but from the count made by one of the media representatives who walked in and through the crowd, doing a count. So, the number is genuine. During the course of the rally in the town centre a reply was received from the Minister which indicated that the community's response on that day was the result of a cynical and destructive campaign of misinformation by a group called the Forest Protection Society. The Minister went on in his press release to say:

This is action by them to manipulate the situation within the community and to undermine forest policy.

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It was not a cynical and manipulative campaign. I should like to quote from a letter subsequently written to the Minister by the local Catholic parish priest:

The notion you imply that these people, including the Business Houses, could be manipulated by extremists, is laughable to anyone who knows Tenterfield and its people.

This Protest arose from a meeting of concerned Business People. The motion to close businesses for two hours as a Protest was their decision and it was unanimous. It was made, not because of influence by extremists but because Businesses are hurting through the ongoing drought and current economic hardship. They saw it as another example of a decision made in Sydney by bureaucracy without their views even being sought.

I can attest to that. The response was from a community genuinely fearful of the loss of another industry and desperate to protect it. When all the facts of the matter are known, the blockade by the North East Forest Alliance had nothing to do with old-growth logging. This area had been logged three times - and in one compartment four times. The protest was not about the emotional issue of woodchipping or wilderness areas. The area had been logged previously. The community believed that if the North East Forest Alliance was to succeed in having a compartment of regrowth logging locked away from the industry, it would succeed in locking up the hardwood industry throughout the length and breadth of rural New South Wales. This community feared for its own future and was genuinely concerned that the very nature of the blockade was intended to test the Minister and the Government, at the beginning of its term, on the ability of the timber industry to retain its place in the community and to be sustainable and ongoing - nothing to do with old-growth rainforest or woodchipping, but all about genuine forestry practice. The local parish priest did as I did: he extended an invitation to the Minister. In the close of his letter he said:

. . . come to Tenterfield, visit the Forest areas in question, obtain the facts for yourself first hand. Then you will know why your remark, the closure of Business Houses "was an example of a community manipulated by extremists", is laughable, and indeed a source of anger to many decent, hardworking, Australian people.

More importantly, you will be able to make a decision based on facts - free from any bias and one that takes into consideration the genuine concerns of a WHOLE and struggling community.

Again I extend an invitation to the Minister to visit the area. Twice in writing and twice personally I have invited the Minister to look at the areas and to meet the people so that he can understand that they are not intent on destroying the environment or on logging every tree standing in any forest. The community is reacting in a responsible way according to the controls and regulations that apply. [Time expired.]

Mr YEADON (Granville - Minister for Land and Water Conservation) [6.13]: I make clear from the outset that I understand the concerns and fears held by people in rural New South Wales in relation to the forestry industry, particularly those in Tenterfield. A number of groups and people, including National Party members of this House, are cynically manipulating and exploiting that fear for their own short-term political opportunism. Environmentalists did blockade a compartment in the area. Police informed us that it would take some time to remove those people from the area and that it would result in disruption. An alternative solution was achieved. As a result of action by this Government, agreement was reached with the environmentalists that State Forests, or the logging contractor, could enter the area to rectify the situation and remove the logs that had already been cut down.

At no time did I call any of the ordinary folk of Tenterfield extremists, but certainly leaders of the Forest Protection Society - particularly the infamous Robyn Loydell - were in the area exploiting the fears of local people. Logging contractors have experienced minor disruption but no jobs have been lost. Restriction of resources on the north coast is simply the result of the policies of the previous Government. Members of the previous Government took the matter down to the wire, did not address the issue and had no plans, strategies or policies. Now the issue has come home to roost; it is on their heads. [Time expired.]

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