After 17 years proffering tips to gardening enthusiasts on Burke’s Backyard, Don Burke is spearheading the new face of anti-environmentalism in Australia as chairman of the Australian Environment Foundation (AEF).
Don Burke: the new face of greenwashing in Australia
“The greatest threat to the world’s environment is the conservation movement.” – Don Burke
After 17 years proffering tips to gardening enthusiasts on Burke’s Backyard, Don Burke is spearheading the new face of anti-environmentalism in Australia as chairman of the Australian Environment Foundation (AEF).
Far from the conservation-based ideals the name is intended to conjure up, the AEF is a conglomeration of pro-logging, pro-nuclear, pro-GM and other resource industry interests, with links to well-funded conservative think tanks.
Purporting to provide the voice of “practical environmentalism”, the AEF marks a change from the single-issue front groups epitomised by the work of logging industry lobby group Timber Communities Australia (TCA, formerly known as the Forest Protection Society). Instead, the AEF represents a new level of collaboration between industries and across issues, seeking to claim back the ground gained by the environment movement.
The formation of the AEF was first mooted at the ‘Eureka Forum’ organised in December 2004 by the conservative think tank the Institute of Public Affairs (IPA). The AEF was formally launched on June 5, 2005 - World Environment Day! The key policy positions of the IPA include advocacy for privatisation, deregulation, reduction of the power of unions and denial of most significant environmental problems, including climate change.
The IPA is also known for its attacks on the charity status of several high-profile environment groups on the basis of their ‘political’ work. This stance is ironic given the AEF’s own charity status and the acknowledgement of the AEF executive director Max Rheese that: “The AEF is not involved in any on ground work for the environment ... we’re advocating for change in policy on environmental issues.”
The AEF website address and phone number were initially those of the Victorian TCA. Australian Securities and Investments Commission documents list Mike Nahan, the former executive director of the IPA, as one of the AEF directors. The documents also list AEF’s registered place of business as the IPA office.
AEF conferences are sponsored by industry bodies, including the Forest Industries Association of Tasmania – the body overseeing controversial industrial logging and woodchipping in Tasmania, multinational agricultural biotechnology corporation Monsanto, and Murray Irrigation Limited.
However, these links are not always acknowledged by the AEF. Speaking out against accusations of being a front group for industry on the basis of the shared business details with TCA, Max Rheese told Triple J radio: “At one point in time that would have been the case ... neither of those are the case now [sic], because we don’t need that to be so.”
In his role as AEF chairman, Don Burke has been vocal in a range of areas, including his support for the logging and nuclear industries, and in opposition to ‘draconian’ native vegetation legislation to curtail broadscale land clearing.
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