SOUTH EAST FOREST ALLIANCE
THE WILDERNESS SOCIETY
CHIPSTOP

JOINT MEDIA RELEASE 6 November 2001

Eden Monaro Candidates -
Call to Reject Charcoal Plant

Conservation groups today called on the candidates for the Liberal Party, Gary Nairn, and the Labor Party, Steve Whan, to publicly repudiate the proposed charcoal plant for the Southern Forest region , anywhere.

The question is "Will Gary Nairn and Steve Whan publicly repudiate the proposed charcoal plant, anywhere?", said spokespersons for the groups.

"The position of the Labor candidate Steve Whan is expected to be particularly revealing."

" Labor has just agreed that other proposals all around the country, including one for Batemans Bay, to woodchip and burn native forests for fuel in electricity plants should be postponed indefinitely and a truly independent public inquiry held into the whole idea."

"It is time for these two so called community representatives to heed the huge community concern about the attempt to start another massive woodchipping operation on the South Coast, to service the proposed charcoal plant at Mogo near Bateman's Bay."

"Now is the time for these candidates to lay their cards on the table with all voters who really care about the environment of the South Coast and the regional economy which depends on nature based tourism."

"Calls by Gary Nairn for the plant to be relocated somewhere less immediately obvious than the outskirts of Batemans Bay are just an attempt to divide and conquer the community on behalf of a rapacious and environmentally irresponsible native forest timber industry. Equally contemptuous of the voters are pious suggestions from Steve Whan that the community opposition might be supported at some future time, just keep up the outcry!"

"The cynical might think that both approaches are deliberate attempts to avoid the real charcoal plant issue until the Federal election is out of the way, then it will be business as usual between the timber industry and the major parties."

"The call is now, the community really wants to know whether this economically insignificant timber industry is more important than the forests and the best future of the South Coast?"

"Silence on this issue is not an option for the candidates"

Further comment
Noel Plumb South East Forest Alliance 0425 23 83 03

Glen Klatovsky The Wilderness Society 9282 9553 or 0410 482 243

Harriet Swift CHIPSTOP 0414 908 997