Charges of criminal trespass against Bob Brown and Colette Harmsen, after they were arrested in central Tasmania’s Styx Valley of the Giants earlier this year, were dropped by the police prosecutor in the Hobart Magistrates Court today.

Outside the court, Brown said that Forestry Tasmania had not put out proper signage about its logging in the forest, had not lawfully asked people to leave these public forests, and had then imposed on police to apply undue bail conditions which precluded arrestees from going back into forests all over Tasmania. The Magistrates Court has ruled that those conditions were unacceptable. It is likely that dozens of other people arrested in the forests in recent times will similarly have their charges dropped.

“Forestry Tasmania brought in the police, at public expense, but the whole effort was wasted because of its own incompetence. The sooner this hollowed-out and unwanted bureaucracy is closed down, as has happened in Western Australia and Victoria, the better for all concerned. Native forest logging will grind to a halt in Tasmania and the state government and opposition should wave it off sooner, not later,” Brown said.

“My immediate concern is that Forestry Tasmania is also covering up the destruction of two giant trees which were cut down and exported although they were outside the logging boundary in the Styx. Surely Forestry Tasmania should be charged with that crime? One of the trees was approaching four metres in diameter. Premier Rockliff needs to explain this travesty,” Brown said.

“It is also clear that Ali Alishah needlessly spent three months in Risdon, at public expense. Had he not pleaded guilty the charges against him would have been dropped as well. The Premier should recompense Alishah for wrongful imprisonment,” Brown said.