[Greens-Media] Common sense prevails: logging protest charges in Glen Innes dismissed

[John Kaye]

Media Release
John Kaye MLC
Greens NSW MP

27 July 2007 
 
Common sense prevails: logging protest charges in Glen Innes dismissed

Charges against four activists - including three grandmothers were dismissed in the Glen Innes local court yesterday.  The Diehard Creek 4 were arrested at a logging protest west of Grafton in the Mt Mitchell forest on 26 November 2006.

Greens MP John Kaye said: Its a great outcome for justice and for the environment.  These good citizens were not engaged in violence and were only attempting to protect an endangered species and their own water catchment from destructive and unnecessary logging.

The four took peaceful direct action to try to protect water quality and the habitat of the Hastings River Mouse, listed by the NSW Government as endangered.

Its now clear changes should never have been brought against these people. The police at the protest failed to respond to allegations that the logging was illegal and they failed to bring forward a meaningful case against the protesters. 

What's more, Mr McLean from Forestry NSW in his evidence yesterday during the court case failed to give guarantees that logging in this area would stop, said Dr Kaye.

Spokesperson for the four, Caroline Joseph, said that "it's hard to understand that anyone could think that timber with an estimated commercial value of $140,000 is more important than the safety of a species facing extinction, the water supply for a community and the good names of four people standing up for future generations." 

The Minister for Primary Industries and Natural Resources, Ian Macdonald, opened the ALP campaign for Oxley before the state election in November last year by announcing the cessation of logging at Diehard Creek in the Gibraltar Ranges west of Grafton. The Minister had assured members of the Wytaliba Community whose water supply was threatened that the logging of Diehard Creek would stop and said that he was responding to community concerns.

For comment from Greens MP John Kaye: 0407 195 455
For comment from the activists spokesperson Caroline Joseph: 0409 996 423