http://www.theage.com.au/daily/990412/news/news4.html Fels enters fight over forest book By CLAIRE MILLER ENVIRONMENT REPORTER The fight over a book promoting plantation timbers intensified yesterday when Australia's chief consumer watchdog questioned the legality of the timber industry's role in stopping sales by a hardware chain. The chairman of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, Professor Allan Fels, warned that the actions of the National Association of Forest Industries may be in breach of the Trade Practices Act. Professor Fels also said the commission would decide this week whether to investigate why the national chain BBC Hardware withdrew the book from its stores. Until the forest association threatened BBC Hardware with legal action, the company supported and promoted the book, Forest-Friendly Building Timbers. The book argues that Australia's construction needs can be met from plantation and recycled timber, and asserts that logging in native forests contributes to mass species extinction. Professor Fels said he did not believe the association had a case in its claim that the book contravenes the Trade Practices Act on the grounds it contains misleading or deceptive information. He cited section 65 of the act, which exempts ``information providers'' from the sections covering misleading and deceptive conduct, which are themselves aimed at regulating commercial behavior. Professor Fels said the association and its lawyers had an ethical obligation to disclose the full provisions of the act. ``They should be careful themselves not to engage in misleading or deceptive conduct,'' he said on Radio National. Professor Fels told The Age he had no evidence, but there had been a suggestion, put hypothetically in the radio interview, that BBC Hardware may have been pressured by suppliers to pull the book. He said boycotts in which competing companies joined together to pressure another company were illegal. ``If they were (pressured), it would clearly have to be investigated - if there is any evidence of that,'' he said. ``No formal complaint has been made (but) we will consider whether to pursue the matter this week.'' The book's publisher, Mr Alan Gray, of Earth Garden Books, and the Wilderness Society intend to complain today to the commission about the association's tactics. Mr Gray said yesterday he had confidence in Professor Fels' office to establish the truth. Legal action is still pending against Earth Garden Books, the society and two distribution companies. The association's executive director, Dr Robert Bain, welcomed an investigation. ``Under no circumstances did we put any commercial pressure on BBC Hardware,'' he said. ``It is a misleading and deceptive book, there is no getting away from it. ``(But BBC's) decision may not have been based on the Trade Practices Act, for all we know. All we know is that when they had a cold, hard look at the book, they decided to withdraw it.'' BBC Hardware said in a statement last week only that the company did not authorise the use of its name in a Wilderness Society publication. The book is not a Wilderness Society publication but the product of an independent publisher. BBC Hardware, which also has full-page advertisements in the book, has refused to comment further. BBC Hardware is not a member of the forest association, but most of its suppliers and its main rival, Bunnings Timber, are members. Copyright (c) David Syme & Co 1999. Any unauthorised use, copying or mirroring is prohibited. [This posting is provided to the individual members of this group without permission from the copyright owner for purposes of criticism, comment, scholarship and research under the "fair use" provisions of the Federal copyright laws and it may not be distributed further without permission of the copyright owner, except for "fair use."] Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.alexia.net.au/~www/mhutton/index.html Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
