Wedge-tail eagles, the swift parrot and other rare bird species are losing their habitats due to logging of Tasmania's forests, while the resulting wood chips that are exported to Japan are used to fire boilers to provide "green" electricity there. The irony in this was inescapable, when Australian Greens leader Senator Bob Brown pointed it out in his address to FCA members and guests in Sydney on 4 November, as it also was when Senator Brown told his audience of over 30 foreign correspondents that Australia's carbon emissions would be reduced immediately by 20 per cent, if we stopped logging our forests now.

Footage copyright Foreign Correspondents Association - Richard Monk