Liberal (and National) or Labor, right or left, successive governments have failed the 20,000-plus workers in the New South Wales hardwood industry.
At the NSW Budget Estimates on Tuesday, August 27 2024, the following exchange occurred between The Hon Wes Fang (National Party) and Anshul Chaudhary (CEO of Forestry Corporation of NSW)
The Hon WES FANG
Can you provide an idea of what the impact is of illegal protesters? What impact does it have on harvesting operations? Does it have an impact on the mental health of Forestry Corp workers?
ANSHUL CHAUDHARY:
It is obviously difficult when—the main point here is that we want to make sure that everybody is safe, and I want to make sure that we have a safe workplace where our staff can go. They’re doing an honest job. They’re implementing the current Government policy, and they should feel safe in doing so— our staff and our contractors. Any time there’s a protest, we want to make sure that it’s done in a safe and respectful manner. Therefore, we have our forests that are closed when there’s an active harvesting operation going on. We do find sometimes protesters have gone into closed forests that do put themselves and others at risk. It does take a toll on everybody.
The Hon. WES FANG:
Those illegal protesters, they do more than just target the forestry; they target the workers. Can you provide some context around how they threaten workers in their hometowns? What is the extent of that harassment?
ANSHUL CHAUDHARY:
Yes. There have been instances where our staff have been confronted in certain places, particularly in public places. We don’t condone any of that sort of behaviour. We do support our staff because they go through a lot of psychological issues as a result of that as well. Again, the point is that we want to make sure that everything is done in a safe and respectful way—nothing against protesters, of course, but we want to make sure it’s done in a safe manner.
Then a bit later at Page 81 of Hansard. The Chair is The Hon Mark Banasiak MLC (Shooters, Fishers and Farmers Party)
The CHAIR:
In the short remaining time I’ve got, Mr Chaudhary, just picking up on Mr Fang’s comments around psychosocial impacts of protesters on your workers, have you recently lost any people from the hardwood division because of these psychosocial hazards—in particular, any managers?
ANSHUL CHAUDHARY:
I wouldn’t go into specific individuals, Mr Chair, because I want to respect their privacy, but we have had a couple of members that have left the organisation.
What is not stated here is that senior staff members of Forestry Corporation of NSW resigned due to intimidation and harassment from protesters, both in the forests and in their homes and hometowns. Not only was the employee of Forestry Corporation of NSW intimidated, but a family member was also confronted at the same time while shopping in their local area.
The point is that the current and previous NSW State Governments have done nothing about this intimidation and harassment. Nothing has been done on other occasions where real physical risk to individuals has been involved. What seems to occur is that the police usually come to remove protestors, and if they are charged, they generally are let off the charge in the Local Court.
Compare this with the following events in NSW:
- June 25 2024
Three men were charged over climate protest above the Hunter River in Newcastle. An activist climbed Kooragang rail bridge and suspended himself over the Hunter River in an effort to block train movements in to the Port of Newcastle. These trains being mostly coal trains.
- April 2023
Dozens of people associated with Rising Tide were arrested after a coal train was scaled bound for the Port of Newcastle and the protesters started to shovel coal out of wagons. On this occasion, there was serious risk of the people in Agencies seeking to take the protesters out of harm’s way of being injured themselves.
- June 27 2022
Climate protesters who blocked the Sydney Harbour Tunnel were made subject of the new anti-protest legislation to prosecute ten people of Blockade Australia arrested during peak-hour climate change protests in Sydney.
- June 10, 2021
Extinction Rebellion activists closed the shipping terminal at Port Botany for four hours. The action shut down all truck movements and on average there are 200 truck movements from the terminal per hour. Action was taken by NSW State Police.
These events range from the previous Coalition Government to the current Minns Government. Both governments have done and have done nothing to protect workers in the native forestry industry of NSW.
Their double standards between acting on major public events where television cameras record the disruption to public infrastructure and risk to the well-being of individuals who are not protesters are extraordinary.
To take it one point further, the NSW Parliament has passed laws that tackle intimidation. This is found in section 13(1) of the Crimes (Domestic and Personal Violence) Act 2007 (NSW).
Intimidation has a broad definition and can refer to any act that creates fear of physical or mental harm. It can include physical as well as non-physical acts and threats of future harm.
Obviously, some form of action was contemplated by the NSW Parliament.
Has anything been done regarding the latest acts of protesters. No! There were no cameras and no news bulletin that would arise. Yes, double standards!
- Please Note: Wood Central does not take an editorial stance on the debate over native forestry in Australia. However, from time to time, it will republish opinion contributions from subject matter experts which it deems is in the public interest. These articles will be fact checked before publishing.
