Greens demand action on Sumatra logging claims

ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation), 3 August 2011

The Greens say the ACCC needs to investigate whether paper products being sold in Australian stores are the result of logging in Indonesian forests.

The ABC's Foreign Correspondent program last night aired claims Sumatran rainforests are being cleared by Asia Pacific Resources, which runs the world's largest paper mill.

Greens Leader Bob Brown says Australian consumers need to know if they are being hoodwinked.

"I'll be referring the program to the ACCC to investigate the claims that there is labelling on this paper from rainforest destruction in Indonesia claiming it to be coming from plantations," he said.

Senator Brown says the Federal Government should ask the Indonesian government for an explanation of the widespread logging.

He says the logging was supposed to have been stopped.

"The Howard Government, with high publicity, gave $200 million of taxpayers' money to Indonesia to stop this logging of the rainforests," he said.

"But in fact what we saw on Foreign Correspondent is a broad-scale destruction of some of the most important wildlife habitat on the face of the planet."