Logging opponents in Tasmania’s north-west are providing training sessions for residents who want to participate in protests. Source: ABC News
The Forests of Lapoinya Action Group (FLAG) is lobbying to protect 49 hectares of native regrowth forest, which according to FLAG is home to threatened species including the freshwater crayfish.
Resources Minister Paul Harriss has rejected an earlier plea to intervene with the contentious area of forest due to be harvested next month.
FLAG representative Stewart Hoyt said members of the Wilderness Society were training residents who wanted to protest peacefully. He said he was prepared to be arrested defending the forest.
“Direct action is peaceful, non-violent civil disobedience and it’s taken only as a last resort, where all the doors to negotiation have been shut,” he said.
“And I, hopefully, don’t believe all the doors have been shut.”
Braddon MP Joan Rylah has strongly criticised FLAG for planning training days in civil disobedience.
“Tasmanians confirmed their anger at this sort of job-destroying activity when they voted out the Labor-Green minority government in 2014,” she said.
“In addition, both houses of Parliament have since passed the toughest workplace protection laws in the country, providing for on-the-spot fines and imprisonment of repeat offenders who try to stop workers earning a living.
“The fact is, Lapoinya coupe is regrowth production forest. All sides of politics, including the Greens, voted for it to remain production forest with the passage of the so-called ‘peace deal’ through Parliament.”
Mr Hoyt said the training would take place during the first week of January and involve a full day of working through protest scenarios and learning about how to protest safely.
He said participants would be trained in how to react when people were yelling and screaming at them.
“You don’t scream and yell, you don’t throw rocks, you don’t do crazy stuff,” he said. “These are local people, every day people who have just said ‘no’.”
He said the Government’s response was over the top.
“We’re supposed to be in negotiations with, quote, the Government,” he said. “It’s been 11 days since we put in a plea to the Premier.”
Logging is planned to commence during the second week of January.
