Australian Environment Foundation (AEF) was launched on World Environment Day 2005 in Tenterfield. It's formation had already been announced at the Timber Communities Australia conference in Tasmania attended by then Prime Minister John Howard. AEF was established by the Institute of Public Affairs, a conservative right wing think-tank.

AEF state that "the AEF is a different kind of environment group, caring for both Australia and Australians. Many of our members are practical environmentalists – people who actively use and also care for the environment. We accept that environmental protection and sustainable resource use are generally compatible".

AEF Launch Statement

"The Australian Environment Foundation is a not-for-profit, membership-based environmental organisation, having no political affiliation. The great majority of Australians believe themselves to be environmentalists but have little or no say in the environmental policies being put to governments. These policies are almost exclusively the domain of a tight network of conservation groups ensuring one view, and one view only, is put forward."
(AEF media release 2 June 2005)

The AEF Team

KERSTEN GENTLE (SPOKESPERSON)
Kersten Gentle is the Victorian State Manager for Timber Communities Australia. The organisational aim of TCA is to "secure long term access to natural resources to generate employment and a future for regional communities" (i.e. to retain access to Australia's native forests for logging).

LEON ASHBY (DIRECTOR)
In 2002 Leon Ashby was Convenor of Landholders for the Environment and is a dairy farmer in South Australia. Leon was the organiser of two rallies held in 2001 at Roma and Winton that attracted more than 1000 landholders protesting against the implementation of Queensland’s Vegetation Management Act. He is President of Bushvision. The following is a letter to the editor of News Weekly (8th Feb 2003) from Leon Ashby addressing National Park management:

"While early burning is one option, I want to raise another and that is by allowing cattle to graze our parks. They recycle the grasses into dung which assists with maintaining soil fertility and ultimately biodiversity in the soil. Plants also become healthier when grazed for short durations (much like pruning improves trees and bushes). With correct grazing management national parks could require very little early burning (which rarely gets done, even if it's written in the parks management plan) ... and it would raise a bit of revenue as well. Despite it being commonsense that our more brittle environments need grazers to keep the carbon (vegetable matter) cycling properly, our parks are becoming fire bombs and gradually less fertile due to the unscientific and nonsensical approach our government departments adhere to."
Leon Ashby - Landholders for the Environment Kongorong, SA

TOM BOSTOCK (DIRECTOR)
Tom Bostock was a partner of Mallesons Stephen Jaques from 1970 to 2004, and is presently Special Counsel to Gadens Lawyers, practising principally in corporate law. The AEF states that Tom "is also a director of the Lavoisier Group, a body dedicated to drawing public attention to the controversial and hotly contested state of the science about global warming and the cost to the Australian economy and to Australians generally of mandatory reductions of carbon emissions".

Recently Promoted Activities

• Public Land Rights Rally held in Echuca on 5 October 2008 to protest against the Victorian Environmental Assessment Council proposals to protect red gum forests of the Murray River
• The launch of the Australian Climate Science Coalition who refer to climate change as the "global warming hoax" and state that "science is rapidly evolving away from the view that humanity's emissions of carbon dioxide and other 'greenhouse gases' are a cause of dangerous climate change".

Recently Listed Articles on the AEF Website

• Are environmentalists on the road to Damascus?
• The Greens: illogical and treacherous
• Pulp Mill Should Go Ahead Says Conference
• Regulation no answer to reef run-off, say farmers
• Don't pine for old-growth forests, says Bartlett

> download Article "Burke's Backyard: the new face of greenwashing in Australia."