A handful of protesters are lying motionless on the pavement outside Parliament House this afternoon, staging a symbolic protest against Tasmania’s native forest logging industry.
The Bob Brown Foundation demonstration features activists dressed in endangered swift parrot costumes, sprawled across the car park in a “funeral march” for threatened wildlife.
Campaign manager Jenny Weber said the action highlighted the urgent need to end native forest logging as politicians returned to parliament.
“Ending native forest logging is both realistic and urgent,” she said.
“Tasmania can, once and for all, securely protect the island’s most precious forests for their climate benefits and all the threatened species that depend on forests for their survival.”
Among the protesters was Colette Harmsen, who described a “grim reaper” figure – cloaked in black and wielding bloody chainsaws – leading the procession.
She said it marched a trail of “murdered wildlife” towards Parliament House.
“Every logged and burnt native forest is an added insult to an already threatened habitat for wildlife and fragile ecosystems,” she said.
The protest comes as both the Liberals and Labor continue to back the logging industry.
The Liberals in recent days announced plans to roll back previously promised forestry wood bank expansions, a move cautiously welcomed by the Greens and environmental groups.
The Bob Brown Foundation says it will keep lobbying the government to strengthen forest protections.
