Anti-logging bill puts Australian senator in debt

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(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-06-09 16:04

CANBERRA, Australia -- An Australian politician on Tuesday said he would pay an outstanding legal bill before it forces him from his Senate seat but has asked for donations to help with the cost.

Anti-logging bill puts Australian senator in debt

Undated file photo shows Australian Senator Bob Brown. [Agencies]

Bob Brown owes 240,000 Australian dollars ($189,000) to Forestry Tasmania, a state government agency, following a failed bid to stop logging in a forest that is home to endangered birds and insects.

If he fails to pay the bill by the end of the month and is declared bankrupt, he would be disqualified from the Senate.

"I will pay this bill by the 29th of June because I am absolutely not going to have the logging industry have the pleasure of seeing me leave the Senate," Brown told Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio on Tuesday.

Brown, the leader of the opposition Greens party, said he had received thousands of dollars in donations since he publicly announced his plight Monday.

"I have been deeply moved by the public response that has followed," he said.

Brown won a ruling in 2006 to stop logging in Tasmania's Wielangta Forest, claiming it threatened endangered species like the wedge-tailed eagle, swift parrot and Wielangta stag beetle.

But the ruling was overturned on appeal and Brown was ordered to pay court costs to Forestry Tasmania.

Agriculture Minister Tony Burke said Brown's colleagues hoped he would stay in the Senate.

"I do think it's fair to say that across the parliament ... there is a universal view that people hope that we don't end up with his career concluding in this particular way," Burke told Sky News television.

Forestry Tasmania said Brown has known about the bill since January 2008.