UNLESS Greens leader Bob Brown finds almost a quarter of a million dollars in the next three weeks he will be out of the Senate.
Senator Brown has received a bill for a court action over logging in Tasmania's forests. Forestry Tasmania lawyers have threatened to push him into bankruptcy if he does not send a $239,368.52 cheque by June 29.
Yesterday Senator Brown said he had $10,000 cash to his name, and little chance of selling remaining property by the due date.
He has already raised more than $600,000 in costs for the case that was lost in the High Court. "I don't have the money," he said.
He said he would be "exploring all avenues to pay this bill on time", and would see his bankers next week.
"The loggers would love to see me unseated," Senator Brown said.
"I intend to pay, one way or another."
Greens supporters are also being urged to make donations and Senator Brown has held two exhibitions of his photographs to raise funds.
He needs to find the money to save his political career.
Clerk of the Senate, Harry Evans, told Senator Brown last week that the constitution ensured "you would be disqualified from further service in the Senate and your place in the Senate would become vacant" if he were to be declared bankrupt or insolvent.
Senator Brown's strife began with a victory in 2006.
He went to the Federal Court to claim that logging in Tasmania's Wielangta Forest threatened the endangered wedge-tailed eagle, the swift parrot and the Wielangta stag beetle.
The Federal Court's Justice Shane came down on Senator Brown's side, requiring logging to be halted. The ruling, hailed by environmentalists, had implications for logging across Australia because it held that regional forest agreements were subject to overriding environmental protection legislation.
However, the environmentalists' celebrations turned out to be short-lived.
Within three months, Forestry Tasmania appealed to the Full Federal Court, and the Howard and Tasmanian governments intervened on behalf of Forestry Tasmania.
Then Prime Minister John Howard and Tasmanian Premier Paul Lennon, in response to the initial Wielangta judgement, agreed at about the same time to amend the Tasmanian Regional Forests Agreement.
The section in which the state agreed to protect endangered species from logging was rewritten.
In November 2007, the Full Federal Court overturned the earlier decision. In effect, it found that Regional Forests Agreements gave no guarantee that the environment, including endangered species, would not suffer because of logging.
The moratorium on logging the Wielangta forest, in Tasmania's south-east, no longer applied. Senator Brown was ordered to pay costs.
Last year the High Court, in a two-one decision, refused Senator Brown's attempt to appeal against the ruling.
Two weeks ago, Senator Brown received a letter from Forest Tasmania's lawyers demanding $239,368.53.
The lawyers said that if the money did not arrive from Senator Brown by June 29, there would be a further interest bill of $2,830.99, which would rise by $69.04 a day thereafter.
The letter also said Forestry Tasmania reserved its right to issue "relevant notices or petitions under the Bankruptcy Act".
Logging has not yet resumed in the Wielangta forest, although roads have been prepared and contractors sought.
Email a friend
Favourites
Del.icio.us
Facebook
Digg
StumbleUpon
MySpace
Reddit
Newsvine
LinkedIn
Kwoff
Twitter