Nick McKim (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On 14 August this year a photo was taken of a log truck just outside Maydena in southern Tasmania, and it clearly shows a single tree on the back of a log truck. Photos like this are an obscenity.

Helen Polley (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator McKim, please resume your seat. You know it's not acceptable to have props in the Senate. I appreciate you're passionate and you want to make a point, but please adhere to the standing orders. You may continue.

Nick McKim (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Photos like this are an absolute obscenity: a single trunk of a magnificent forest giant on the back of a log truck. This tree was slaughtered in coupe FO020B in the Upper Florentine Valley in southern Tasmania, right on the boundaries of the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area. The pathetic excuse given by Forestry Tasmania was that this tree presented an access or a safety risk. Logging trees like this in forests like the Upper Florentine Valley in the middle of a climate and biodiversity crisis at a global scale is an absolute obscenity. It is a crime against our climate and a crime against nature. These are precious carbon-rich forests. They are home to beautiful, unique creatures, many sliding towards extinction thanks to the native forest logging industry.

I want to give a shout-out to the brave activists from the Bob Brown Foundation, the Wilderness Society, the Grassroots Action Network Tasmania and the Derwent Valley environment group who've been in these coupes, particularly coupe FO020B, to protect what is left of this beautiful, precious forest. There have been seven arrests in recent times, including three yesterday. These activists and forest defenders are heroes, and they deserve the thanks of everyone here for standing up for these magnificent forests.