FORESTRY TASMANIA ACCUSED OF PUSH POLLING

Expensive polling and cheap spin doctoring used to justify ancient forest logging.

Still Wild Still Threatened has today accused Forestry Tasmania of push polling and lodged a complaint to the Market Research Society of Australia over alleged breaches in their Code of Professional Conduct.

The EMRS poll for Forestry Tasmania released earlier this week told respondents that an 'anti-forestry' group had carried out a 'coordinated attack' on major public buildings around the world.

Ed Hill of SWST said that this term is blatantly false and designed to achieve a negative result. Follow this link to the Still Wild Still Threatened website to view images of the so called "attack" http://www.stillwildstillthreatened.org/image-video-galleries/actions

He said the peaceful protests that had been carried out internationally by Still Wild Still Threatened could not be described as a coordinated attack on public buildings - a term which brings to mind images of September 11th. Forestry Tasmania is using distorted language to link forest protesters with terrorism, said Mr Hill.

"This is not only blatantly inaccurate and defamatory. It also cynically exploits public disgust with terrorism for Forestry Tasmania's benefit."

The use of the term attack on public buildings is a breach of the Code of Professional Conduct for Market Research, said Mr Hill. The Code states that the researcher must not make misleading and inaccurate statements in order to secure Respondents co-operation. This is clearly what has happened in this case as the researcher has inaccurately and misleadingly described the protest to respondents deliberately securing their negative response. Forestry Tasmania has resorted to expensive push polling, paid for with public money and cheap spin doctoring, to justify ancient forest logging. Said Mr Hill.

Mr Hill said that SWST had also written to EMRS to objecting to the terminology and to seek a public apology.

TCA Smear Campaign uses Bogus Photos, Ill-gotten Car

Still Wild Still Threatened were appalled at the desperate smear campaign mounted by Timber Communities yesterday on Parliament Lawns. The bogus photos of Camp Florentine mid-dismantling mislead the public and make a mockery of TCA's credibility.

After conservationists were forcibly evicted from Camp Florentine by Forestry Tasmania and Tasmania Police, dismantling of the protest camp began and all personal belongings, tools, and other camping equipment were returned to the rightful owners and the demolished building materials and infrastructure was all properly disposed of.

“The stunt on Parliament Lawns yesterday was a desperate attempt by Timber Communities Australia to take the focus off the disaster that is clearfell logging and recent job losses in the woodchipping industry due to the market downturn,” says Still Wild Still Threatened spokesperson, Natalie Keene.

“Still Wild Still Threatened asks how Forestry Tasmania, an arm of the Government, can give Timber Communities Australia, a lobby group, a crushed car removed from a protest site as propaganda to mislead and distract the public,” says Ms Keene.

“Clearfelling, and its spin-off practice aggregated retention, are draconian, third-world practices and woodchipping is an economically unviable industry laying waste to our ancient forests. Industrial scale logging and woodchipping has created a mess our of our pristine forests and the devastation of a clearfell is undeniable and irrevocable” says Ms Keene.

In late 2008 inspectors from the Derwent Valley Council investigated the OH&S of the protest site , approving the safety of all temporary dwellings and hygiene employed by the campers.

Camp Florentine is celebrating 3 years of standing up for the ancient forests of the Upper Florentine this week and a family picnic day will be held in the forest this Sunday, all are welcome.