Small Book Creates Big Headache for Australian Forest Industry
4/15/99
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RELAYED TEXT STARTS HERE:
Title: Small Book Creates Big Headache for Australian Forest
Industry
Source: Environment News Service
Status: Copyright 1999, contact source for permission to reprint
Date: April 15, 1999
Byline: Bob Burton
CANBERRA, Australia, April 15, 1999 (ENS) - Attempts by the
Australian National Association of Forest Industries (NAFI) to use
legal threats to stop the sale of a book advising consumers on
alternative timbers to those from logging native forests, have
backfired.
Instead of the book being withdrawn by the publishers, Australia's
corporate watchdog, the Australian Competition and Consumer
Commission (ACCC), is investigating the timber industry body for
possible breach of the anti-competitive behaviour regulations.
In late March the book, "Forest Friendly Building Timbers" was
launched at the hardware chain, BBC Hardware, by Catholic priest,
Father Paul Collins and co-author, Alan Gray.
Collins said, "If this book has one simple message, it's that native
forest logging and wood chipping should be seen in the same light as
whaling." To Collins, logging old growth forests and wilderness areas
when alternatives exist "is a sin."
Gray said "this book makes every timber consumer a native forest
campaigner."
"Forest Friendly Building Timbers," subtitled "don't wreck wildlife
homes to build yours," provides consumers with information on sources
of timbers either grown in plantations or from recycled sources.
The book highlights replacements for eucalypt timbers such as Alpine
ash and mountain ash from Victoria, blackwood, and Tasmanian Oak from
Tasmania, jarrah and karri from Western Australia as well as
rainforest species such as myrtle, huon pine and from old-growth
forests around the Asia and the Pacific Rim.
Within days of the launch, NAFI's lawyers sent letters to Gray, co-
editor and publisher the Howard Smith Group, the parent company of
BBC Hardware, and the book's distributors Gordon and Gotch, claiming
that the contents of the book contravened provisions of the Trade
Practices Act aimed at preventing "deceptive and misleading conduct."
NAFI warned that unless Gray withdrew the book from sale within 24
hours it would commence legal proceedings.
Following legal threats from the National Association of Forest
Industries, BBC, which had formerly stated that it "supported the
development and production of the "Forest Friendly Building Timbers"
book," announced that the company had "not authorised use of its name
in the publication" and was withdrawing the book from sale.
Welcoming BBC's decision to cease the distribution and sale of the
book, NAFI executive director, Dr. Robert Bain said "the aim behind
the book is to advance the extremist campaign to stop all native
forest logging in this country, and many of its contributors are well
known for their campaigning on this issue."
Gray was defiant. Refusing to bow to the pressure he took his case to
the public.
"We have drawn a line in the sawdust with this book, and we're saying
to Australians that if you care about native forest and native
animals, don't make your house a museum of rare native timbers. Our
wildlife need native forest for their homes but we can use plantation
timber for our homes" Gray said.
NAFI's legal threat has backfired.
Not only was the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission
unconvinced that the book could be described as 'misleading or
deceptive,' the chairman of the ACCC, professor Alan Fels, warned
that NAFI themselves are covered by - the Trade Practices Act. They
should be "careful not to engage in misleading or deceptive conduct,"
he warned.
Earth Garden Publications, Alan Gray's company, and environment group
The Wilderness Society have lodged formal complaints with the ACCC.
(The Wilderness Society in Australia is unrelated to its U.S.
namesake.) The complaints allege that the pressure that led to the
withdrawal of the book constituted a breach of legislation designed
to prevent anti-competitive behaviour.
Wilderness Society campaign director, Alec Marr, says, "the desperate
tactics employed by NAFI to force BBC hardware to withdraw the book
is testimony to the fact that the native forest logging companies are
determined to suppress the fact that there is enough plantation
timber available to meet our building needs."
The ACCC has contacted BBC Hardware to ask if any unlawful pressure
was applied to the company to withdraw the book from its stores. It
is currently awaiting a response before considering whether it will
investigate further.