EARTH MATTERS can be heard in 3CR Melbourne Sunday 11am, 2XX Canberra Tuesday at 10am, 8CCC Alice Springs between 8-9pm, 5UV Adelaide Thursday 2pm, 7LTN Launceston 7:30pm Monday, 2VOX Wollongong between 9-10am & much more!! Earth Matters Programme 67a Juliet Fox 3CR Community Radio 03 9419 8377 ComRadSat Programme 5/2/1999 CUE SHEET INTRO : Hello and welcome to Earth Matters ..." OUTRO : "... on Earth Matters. See you later." DURATION : 26'20" (frogs til around 27'20) Regional Forest Agreement process - solving the conflict? Recently environmentalists and loggers gathered on the steps of Parliament in Melbourne, while inside the 2-day national public hearing of the Senate Inquiry into the Regional Forest Agreement (RFA) legislation went on inside. This action came soon after a blockade and "counter-blockade" in Victoria's Otways forests. Just the sort of clash that the RFA process was supposed to sort out. Today on Earth Matters we hear from Yorick Piper from the Forestry Division of the Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) and Gavin McFadzean from the Wilderness Society in Victorian. Yorick explains why a "picket line" was established in the Otways forests and what the CFMEU's position is on the RFA legislation. Gavin joins the program to give his view of the "picket line", as he was one of 16 environmentalists held in the forest on the other side. He also answers questions with regard to just how the environment movement is dealing with the issue of job security for timber workers and how the union fits into this. The Battle for Big Hill Big Hill is just 50 metres high, but it's the lookout point for the visitors to and residents of Stawell in north-west Victoria. Plans to see the hill turned into an open-cut gold mine have caused great concern among residents and they've formed the Big Hill Action Group. The concerns of the group include environment and health issues, as well as noise levels and decreases in property values. Big Hill is part of the Box-Ironbark ecosystem - and the mine itself along with tailings dams and pipelines with detrimentally affect the area. A primary health concern is the presence of dust particles that can lodge in the lungs.
