The Wire

One of the defining moments from the 2004 election was the footage of Tasmanian forestry workers embracing Prime Minister John Howard a week out from the election. It had the effect of politically knee capped the then Labor leader Mark Latham. The dispute between forestry workers and bosses and green groups has been painted as intractable and unsolvable – after all, how do you save the trees when working class jobs are at risk? Well a veteran of the industry believes she has the answer. Dr Judith Ajani has worked in the forest industry for 22 years and has also conducted research on the issue at the Australian National University. In that past she has advised government and opposition leaders and helped to stop all old growth logging in Queensland and Western Australia. She explained that she embarked on her book, The Forest Wars, to solve the conundrum of why old growth logging had not ceased years ago despite the fact that there are enough plantation reserves in the country to serve both the domestic and international markets. The Wire asked her whether she had solved that puzzle during the course of writing her book.