Contact your Labor MP or Senator
Mr. Oakeshott has been given some incorrect information by the logging industry. So we've put together this fact sheet that explains why this policy is bad news for native forests and for renewable energy. Below are some things you might want to mention while you're on the phone to your MP or Senator:
- Rob Oakeshott's motion will use taxpayer money to prop up the destruction of native forests. Right now, demand for native forest products is crashing as customers request more sustainable supplies instead.
- Mr. Oakeshott says "not one more tree would be cut down" because of his motion. Wrong. According to ANU economist Judith Ajani, "[o]pening native forest wood to the energy market will turn the economically and environmentally desirable trend decline in native forest logging into increasing logging levels." 1
- The environmental conditions in Mr. Oakeshott's bill are unenforceable. There have been similar constraints supposedly applied to the wood-chipping industry for 30 years, and they have allowed for the clear-felling of forests throughout Australia and export of millions of tonnes of woodchips.
- It will mean less money for real renewable energy, like wind, solar and geothermal. As Andrew Macintosh, Associate Director of ANU Centre for Climate Law and Policy explains2, the renewable energy legislation is capped, which means there are a set number of renewable energy certificates.
- It will increase our carbon emissions. Australia has the most carbon-dense forests in the world. 3 When these forests are logged and burnt, that carbon is released into the atmosphere and only a portion is reabsorbed over several decades when trees regrow. This results in large carbon pollution emissions.
CALL NOW!
If Rob Oakeshott's proposal to regulate the burning of native forests for power as renewable energy isn't voted on in parliament in the next few days it will pass into effect unchallenged!
Please, urgently contact your local Labor MP or Labor Sentator if you do not have a Labor member in your electorate.
Not sure what to say? Ask them to take action to ensure Rob Oakeshotts bill is the number 1 priority on Monday. There are talking points to the left on why Mr Oakeshott's proposal shouldn't be supported.
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