Australia: Arresting ’em for trespass on public land is a “blatant intrusion of politics”

“The Upper Florentine forest is owned by the people of Tasmania and it
is blatantly unjust to charge people with trespassing in their own
forests,” said Mr Booth. Greens Shadow Forests spokesperson Kim Booth
MP said it is disappointing that Tasmania Police now appear to be
adopting the forest industry strategy of taking legal action against
selective groups of high-profile protestors, and called on Police
Minister Jim Cox to ensure that Tasmania’s police force remains
apolitical at all times.

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“Targeting high-profile protestors for prosecution is blatant
intrusion of politics into the application of the law which should not
be tolerated by a democratic society, and also appears to be closely
related to the forest industry’s preferred strategy of lodging
lawsuits against specific high-profile individuals and groups.”

“Why are Tasmania Police only charging 11 high-profile protestors for a
walk in the forest that involved 500 other people?” “Tasmania Police
should not be allowing themselves to be politicised in this way by
Bartlett Labor due to its fixation on vandalising our special places.”

“The Forestry sector are forever complaining that many of Tasmania’s
forests are ‘locked up,’ but in reality it is Forestry Tasmania, aided
by police under direction of Bartlett Labor, who are locking the
people out of their own forests, and then charging them with trespass
when they walk onto public land past Forestry’s locked boom gates.”

“It is an extraordinary scenario for people around the world who are
watching the Bartlett government arrest people for walking peacefully
through World Heritage value forests to raise awareness that promises
to save them have not been kept, while at the same time the
destruction of these unique forests by the woodchip industry
continues. To those watching this does not make sense,” Mr Booth said.

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