The Australian http://www.news.com.au/national/ Industry splinters on woodchip book By MADELEINE COOREY 19apr99 A TASMANIAN timber wholesaler has broken ranks with the industry and will sell a book the National Association of Forest Industry wants banned. The proprietor of Timber Wholesale and Timber World, Kim Booth, said he was happy to sell the 100 copies of the book, Forest-Friendly Building Timbers, that were delivered to his store yesterday. "I think it's important that people stand up for democracy in this country and NAFI is way out of line on this," Mr Booth said. "They've got no right to dictate to the public what they want to read." The association has threatened legal action if hardware stores sell the book, which it claims is misleading and inaccurate. On Tuesday, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission said it would investigate possible breaches of the Trade Practices Act by NAFI in asking BBC Hardware to withdraw the book from its shelves. NAFI executive director Robert Bain said distributing the book was like selling a "quack-cure" for cancer. "We would be disappointed if anyone in the forestry industry was selling such a misleading and deceitful book," Dr Bain said. "The book does not give a true account of the merits of various types of timber. This book is factually inaccurate, it's wrong, it's misleading." But author and publisher Alan Gray said he was encouraged by Mr Booth's decision to sell the book. "I think what it shows is that NAFI does not represent the timber industry, they represent the multinationals . . . the woodchippers who want to fleece our forests." Mr Gray said other timber industry figures had told him they wanted to stock the book but were too afraid to speak out against NAFI. The ACCC has begun to investigate claims that unlawful pressure was applied to BBC Hardware to convince it to withdraw the book. "We are confident that the ACCC can get to the bottom of this matter," Mr Gray said. ************************************************************************* 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
