AUSTRALIA: Survey supports reduced logging
Copyright 2001
The Mercury, Hobart
September 13, 2001
MORE than two-thirds of Tasmanians support Tasmania Together forest conservation targets, a poll by political analyst Richard Herr shows.
The survey, commissioned by the Wilderness Society, said 69 per cent of Tasmanians supported recommendations for an end to clearfelling in forests such as the Styx and Tarkine by the end of 2002. Of the 535 people polled across Tasmania, 70 per cent believed the state's tall old-growth forests should be fully protected (41 per cent) or mostly protected (29 per cent) from logging.
A total of 67 per cent believed that the current rate of woodchipping was definitely too high (40 per cent), or probably too high (27 per cent).
Only 2 per cent supported an increase in woodchipping.
Braddon Labor MHA Bryan Green attacked the poll saying: "The survey was at best, confusing and at worst, an example of push polling."
Associate Professor Herr rejected any claims of push-polling, which he said involved deliberate attempts to put misinformation into the public domain.