Opera House – a desperate cry for forests
Monday, October 10th, 2011
Last Saturday, forest activists scaled Sydney’s Opera House and unfurled a huge banner reading:
‘No Harvey No! Stop selling Aussie forest destruction’!
“We have come to the centre of Sydney to send a clear message to Harvey Norman that profiting from the destruction of our spectacular forests is absolutely unacceptable’ said Ula Majewski, spokesperson for The Last Stand.”
‘Our internationally iconic Aussie forests are still being destroyed by industrial logging operations. We are taking peaceful action from the top of another great Aussie icon to tell Harvey Norman that selling Aussie forest destruction is no way to do business’ said Miranda Gibson, currently perched atop the Opera House..
~ The Last Stand Inc.
^http://www.thelaststand.org.au
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Why do forest activists scale the Sydney Opera House to protest their message?
They personally risk their lives, are arrested, put in gaol; and in these days of corporate background checks, are denied corporate employment for the rest of their lives.
How many of our readers realise the seriousness of these young people and their moral custodial commitment to fighting for the protestion of Australia’s remaining and irreplaceable ancient forest ecosystems? Australia’s youth represent and prepared to be incarcerated to protect Australia’s natural heritage. These protesters in generations to come, when the economic bigotry has died, will be venerated as Australian diggers defending what is uniquely Australian.
While the mainstream media are more interested in a commercial football match in Auckland that comes around and goes around, the vicious industrial lumberjacks in Forestry Tasmania, Forestry Victoria, and Forestry New South Wales (or whatever their rebranded name) are daily decimating vast hectares of Australia’s wild native forests. This State-sanctioned ecological massacre of old growth forests is the core reason why Australia has been internationally degraded with a backward reputation for recording the highest rates of wildlife extinction in the 21st Century. Australia is down their in ecological degradation with Zimbabwe, Rwanda and Mozambique.
Why do forest activists scale the Sydney Opera House to protest their message?
Well, start to appreciate the grassroots struggle that has for years been unreported by the mainstream media…
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‘Conservationist halt roading operations in the iconic Styx valley’
‘Today twelve conservationists have halted a new roading operation in the Styx Valley as part of a ten week campaign to highlight the urgent need for Tasmania’s high conservation value forests to be protected. The recently started roading operation leads to Coupe SX038D and is within a high conservation value area proposed for formal reserve. One protester is in a tree sit, which is attached to roading machinery, preventing any operations from continuing for the day.
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“The fact that a new road is currently being pushed into high conservation value forest in a area that should have been under moratorium weeks ago, is a clear indication that Forestry Tasmania are not taking appropriate action to reschedule coupes and implement the moratorium” said Miranda Gibson, spokesperson from Still Wild Still Threatened.
“How can the Tasmanian community have faith in Forestry Tasmania when they have not only failed to meet the moratorium deadline, but are now blatantly disregarding government directive to reschedule coupes? If Forestry Tasmania were serious about implementing the moratorium, they certainly would not be wasting taxpayers money investing in brand new roads to access iconic forests that have been earmarked for protection.” said Ms Gibson.’
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[Source: Still Wild Still Threatened, 20110412, ^http://www.stillwildstillthreatened.org/main-categories/current-news].
Maranda Gibson, defender of Tasmania’s forest heritageOne of the arrested protesters on the Opera House last Saturday
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Prepared to be arrested for Tasmanian principle
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Styx Valley
Tasmania’s remaining wild forests..disappearing by…LARGE TRUCKS USING ROAD 24 HRS DAILY
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Legal Sequel: ‘Opera House abseilers fined $200’
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[Source: Sydney Morning Herald, 20111109, ^http://www.smh.com.au/environment/conservation/opera-house-abseilers-fined-200-20111109-1n6vv.html].
‘Three activists who scaled the Opera House, unfurling a banner bagging a retail giant, have been fined in a Sydney court. Miranda Gibson, 30, and Roseanne Phillips, 22, scaled the landmark on October 8 and abseiled from the western side of its western sail.They unfurled a 10 by 12-metre yellow banner stating:
“No Harvey No! Stop selling Aussie forest destruction”
. Scott Mackenzie, 37, also climbed to the top of the building carrying the banner on his back, but remained on the peak. They each pleaded guilty, in Downing Centre Local Court today, to a count of trespassing. Magistrate Janet Wahlquist fined them $200 each, plus court costs.. Outside court, Gibson, from the protest group The Last Stand, said the protesters had achieved their goal.
“We took action to bring the plight of our great and iconic native forests to another great Australian icon in the heart of Sydney, and to send a clear message to Harvey Norman that profiting from Aussie forest destruction is no way to do business in this day and age,”
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Fined $200 in NSW to dare to protest against destruction of Tasmania’s ancient native forests
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. The Last Stand has singled out Harvey Norman after a year-long investigation into its timber usage which, the protesters say, was contributing to the destruction of native forests. They claim to have tracked timber from native forests in Australia through its shipment to China for processing into furniture, and then to its final sale in Australia through Harvey Norman stores.The store has previously said it was being unfairly targeted and did its best to source timber from sustainable sources.’.
When will Gerry Harvey come clean on his personal profiting from native forests?
GO…search your morals Gerry Harvey!
Tasmanian Devil
(Photo by Matthew Stewart, Flickr).
