Thirty Years of Creative Resistance - Friends of the Earth Australia

In 1994, FoEM worked with the Kerrup
Jmara community to set up a tent embassy
in the main street of Portland, to protest
endemic racism against the Aboriginal
community and specific incidents of
discrimination around policing and the
provision of health services.
FoEA experienced a period of slow but
persistent growth in profile and activity
from about 1994. In recent years, FoE
groups in rural and regional areas have
become re-established including in
Northern NSW, on the New England
tablelands and at Stawell in western
Victoria. Bridgetown – Greenbushes
Friends of the Forests, a long established
group working to protect native forests in
south west Western Australia, joined the
FoEA network in the late 1990s.
The 1996 Federal Election highlighted
major differences between the approaches
and values of key environment groups.
Disillusioned with the ALP’s inability to
deliver on forest issues, The Wilderness
Society (TWS) openly courted the Liberals,
declaring the Coalition’s announcement of
its environment election promises, which
were linked to the controversial partial
privatisation of Telstra, a ‘great day’ for the
environment.
The Australian Conservation foundation
(ACF), with a broader social awareness
and closer historical links with the
Australian Labor Party (ALP), was more
circumspect, labelling the policy as a
mixture of ‘the good, the uncertain, and
the disappointing’. At a meeting with most
of the key green groups in Canberra, FoE
sought to unite the groups against the
Coalition’s approach, arguing that linking
the partial privatisation of a public asset
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FoE was one of the few green groups to voice opposition
to the sale of Telstra.
with funding for environmental protection
and restoration, was simply blackmail.
FoE also argued that the environment
deserved core and assured funding, not
drip feeds from asset sales. Although
initially positive about this move, ACF
later refused to sign a joint movement
position. Unwilling to engage on potentially
provocative social issues, some other
groups argued that taking a position on
the Telstra issue would be too difficult or
simply that it fell outside their sphere of
activity.
FoE was ultimately joined by the Arid
Lands Environment Centre and the
Conservation Council of the South East
Region and Canberra to denounce
the Coalition’s proposed environment
package. A number of the national groups
marked themselves as either being
complicit in this ‘privatisation by stealth’ or
completely lacking in social perspectives
through their comments or positions at this
time.
The director of the Surfrider Foundation
stated ‘(surfers) don’t give two hoots about
selling Telstra or economic rationalism,
…all we know is that we need money for
the environment and we don’t care how
(the government) gets it’. David Butcher
of the WWF stated ‘if it comes between
telephones and the environment, I’d flog
the phones every time’, and Alec Marr of
TWS said ‘it’s an excellent package that
deserves funding regardless of the sale of
Telstra’.
FoE 30 Years 51