by Sue Bolton
A program called "The Phoney Forest War" went to air on ABC Radio National's National Interest program on Sunday 15 July. The two guests on the program were environmentalist and author of "The Forest Wars, *Judith Ajani, *and forest industry lobbyist *Robert Eastment.*
Judith Ajani presents the case that the plantation sector has expanded so much over the last 10-15 years that it could easily replace logging in native forests immediately. She also claims that there are more workers employed in the plantation part of the industry than the native forest part of the industry, but she says that within the CFMEU's forestry division , there are more members from the native forest industry than the plantation industry.
This is especially relevant given Kevin Rudd's decision to betray (again) the ALP national conference's decision and decide not to protect any more native forests. The Liberal Party is portraying this as caving into the union. The reality is that both the Labor Party and the Forestry Division of the CFMEU have caved in to the capitalists that log the native forests.
The link to a transcript of the program is here.
