Cut Down
Olivia Newton-John falls foul of the Tasmanian government for decrying the destruction of the state's forests and wildlife
On a trip to Tasmania in February, singer and conservationist Olivia Newton-John was overcome by anger and sorrow. Amid the beauty of a forest valley was an ugly swathe where the island state’s famous 400-year-old eucalypts had been razed for woodchipping. The scene “really shocked her,” says Planet Ark founder Jon Dee, who had travelled to Tasmania with Newton-John, a spokeswoman for the Sydney-based conservation society. “She teared up and went silent”.
But Newton-John, 54 - on a US concert tour before returning to Australia to be a guest at the ARIA awards this month - has now found her voice. Speaking out on the Nine Network’s A Current Affair on Sept. 30, an enraged Newton-John lambasted Tasmania’s wood-chipping industry for destroying old-growth forests, and for protecting new tree plantations by poisoning native animals “in a cruel, evil and horrid way.”
Her comments have sparked an equally cranky backlash among Tasmanians, many of whom depend on the forestry industry for their livelihood. The plight of these people “is forgotten in the emotion of this debate,” said deputy premier Paul Lennon. “No-one cares about them and their struggle to survive and bring up a family on $25,000 a year.”
Yet Tasmania’s 8,500 timber workers-about 10 per cent of the workforce-generate $1.1 billion of the state’s annual income, says forestry industry union leader Scott McLean. In part, this is due to the use of 1080, a poison that stops possums, wallabies and wombats eating seedlings.
Environmentalism “may be good and well in the big cities on the mainland,” rails McLean, “but this state relies on the forest in-dustry for its lifeblood. Without it, we’re gone.”
All the same, 1080 - also commonly used by farmers to cull rabbits, foxes and feral dogs -is being investigated by chemicals watchdog the National Registration Authority, and its use may be banned when the authority completes its study next year. “Members of the public were concerned about environmental aspects,” says principal scientist Dr David Loschke. “Occasionally someone’s pet dog will find some bait and die.”
To animal-lover Newton-John, who, with vegetarian daughter Chloe, 16, divides her time between environmentally friendly homes in Byron Bay on the north coast of NSW and Los Angeles, it is the loss of native wildlife that hurts the most. As the poison shuts down the creatures’ nervous systems, “they die a horrible death,” she has lamented. “Why don’t they just fence the areas off?”
That alternative has also been mooted by Planet Ark’s Dee. “We’re not anti-business. We want people to be able to keep their jobs, we want people to be able to make money,” he says, “just not at the expense of wildlife and these ancient forests.”
Not so simple, counters McLean. “You’re talking about 900,000ha of fencing… Who’s going to pay for it? People have just got to pull their heads out of the clouds.”
But it’s unlikely that Newton-John-“a warrior,” says her friend, actress Didi Conn - will change her tune any time soon. Along with Dee, she plans to canvass the shareholders of Tasmanian wood-chipping giant Gunns Ltd, hoping they will act to reduce deforestation and the use of 1080.
“It’s bad enough that they’re cutting down the trees,” says Newton-John, “but to go back and poison the animals, that’s not on. That’s not an Aussie thing to do.”
By Elisabeth Adams
Photo caption:
p> “If people hear about this they will probably be as horrified as was,” said Olivia Newton-John (at home in Byron Bay in February). “It should be stopped.”