Small Book Creates Big Headache for
Australian Forest Industry
By 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Instead of the book being withdrawn by the publishers, Australia's corporate watchdog, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), is investigating the timber industry body for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.
Source: © Environment News Service (ENS) 1999. All Rights Reserved.
FOR PERSONAL, EDUCATIONAL USE ONLY. NOT TO BE REPRODUCED WITHOUT PERMISSION FROM THE SOURCE