Bob Brown Foundation host mock ‘Forest Fiends’ Banquet outside Parliament House
Environmental protesters have staged a macabre dinner party outside Parliament House, serving a mock menu of endangered species to highlight the impact of forest logging.
Roasted cloned Tasmanian tiger, a spotted-tailed spit-roasted quoll, smoked swift parrot and west-tailed eagle served on a sour woodchip mash were on the menu at the Bob Brown Foundation’s Forest Fiends banquet.
On Wednesday evening, BBF protestors – donning masks splattered with fake blood depicting politicians including Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Environment Minister Murray – staged a mock dinner party outside Parliament House.
The demonstration targeted a Parliamentary Friends of Forestry dinner attended by state and federal politicans, believed to be taking place inside at the same time.
“As Federal logging Minister Julie Collins, Forestry Tasmania CEO Greg Hickey and other logging industry members walked past our endangered species banquet, we reminded the logging supporters that native forests need urgent protection,” Bob Brown Foundation Campaigns Director Jenny Weber said.
“Although the event was indeed satire, Bob Brown Foundation acknowledges the seriousness of what is at risk due to the continued logging of native forests, and that the overwhelming science repeatedly proves that intact native forests are essential for the sake of the future of the planet.”
Ms Collins and Mr Hickey were contacted for comment.
State Labor MP Shane Broad - the dinner’s co-convener who was depicted by a bloodied mask – said while he respected people’s right to protest, the imagery went “a bit too far”.
“I think the imagery was just a little bit off tap and maybe next time the Bob Brown Foundation should tone it down a bit,” he said.
“I don’t think we need those sorts of violent images being outside Parliament House in Tasmania.”
BBF forest activist Colette Harmsen emphasised Australia has the worst mammal extinction rate in the world.
“Tasmania has over 650 threatened species. This includes species listed as endangered, vulnerable, or rare, and a small number of species that are also extinct. Many of these species rely on forests for survival,” she said.
“The Tasmanian logging industry, funded by government and taxpayers, threatens the habitat of many species, so they might as well be eating them, they’ve already signed their death warrant.”
The protest comes after another environmental group, Tasmania’s Wilderness Society, launched legal action in the Supreme Court challenging the state’s Forest Practices Authority decision to approve logging in Huon Valley forests identified as critical to the survival of the critically endangered swift parrot.
It’s estimated there are fewer than 750 of the species left in the wild.
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