Tourism industry backs logging
Loggers blockade cancelled
Tourism industry backs logging
Blockade cancelled
Geelong Independent
15th March 2002
Front Page
By Sally Poehland
Otway loggers yesterday backed down on plans to blockade tbe Great Ocean Road after winning the backing of the region tourism industry. But Otways Ranges Environment Network spokesman Simon Birrell said the industry's support for logging "may be a result of blackmail" in the lead up to Apollo Bay Music Festival on the weekend.
The Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union had planned to blockade the Great Ocean Road on the weekend in response to green groups' protests closing down logging work.
But in an historic move, representatives from Geelong, Otway, and Surf Coast tourism boards agreed to a joint statement with the union and Victorian Forest Harvesting and Cartage Council backing logging.
The statement said the tourism boards recognised "the right of timber workers to harvest from approved coups ,without the threat of protest and illegal workplace disruptions".
"Likewise, the region's tourism industry calls on the timber industry to refrain from protest action that disrupts the communities of the Otways and Great Ocean Road:'
The statement also said the logging and tourism industries could "work to maximise employment opportunities and income for the region".
Mr Birrell said Geelong Otway Tourism participation in the statement was not consistent with its past opposition to logging.
`"They wrote a submission to State Government regarding the Regional Forest Agreement saying logging was damaging to the future of the tourism industry," he said.
"Why has there been such a turnaround by Geelong Otway Tourism? Is it a result of blackmail?"
Geelong Otway Tourism chair Roger Grant denied his organisation had succumbed to logging industry threats.
"The joint statement features points of agreement between the two industries, yet there will still be differences," Mr Grant said.
"But instead of affecting each other's workplace when differences arise, we'll meet at an organisational level to seek an agreement"
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