The Wire

Approximately 200 demonstrators gathered today in front of Parliament house in Sydney. They are opposed to NSW Premier Bob Carr’s plan to open up wilderness areas for commercial filming. At the centre of this ongoing debate has been the application to shoot scenes for the action movie “Stealth” in the Grose wilderness area of the blue mountains. A decision by the Land and Environment Court last week deemed any such activity to be illegal and Justice Lloyd went on to declare that wilderness should remain sacrosanct. This weekend the Film Application Bill was drafted by the NSW State government, a bill that if it goes through would, according to the protesters, water down the protection afforded by the wilderness act. Ironically, this is a piece of legislation that was introduced by Bob Carr himself back in 1987. She-Fah Szetu went along to the demonstration and spoke to Keith Muir from the Colong Foundation for Wilderness, as well as other protestors.