REPORTER
The flooding of the Franklin River is being touted by some as not just AN issue, but THE issue. Not the parlous state of the economy, not soaring unemployment, but this - an undeniably beautiful but nevertheless remote and, until now, little-known expanse of bush. It's voters' feelings on this, we're told, that will determine who governs Australia. But just how has a cause by a band of greenies in Tasmania grown into a national issue? And how powerful an issue is it?
Exterior of a building
WOMAN
..Hayden went downriver, our film crew were arrested...
REPORTER
The Tasmanian Wilderness Society's headquarters in Hobart. It's a sort of behind-the-lines command post for the greenies' blockade on the Franklin, manned by up to 50 people, all volunteers. Emergency supplies go in, news of arrests comes out. Now approaching 950 cases. As the news spreads, the support grows. The Society's turnover this year is estimated at more than $1 million. One reason is that in the past two months alone membership has doubled to more than 8,000. But more than that, the Society is working with most of the conservation groups in Australia - all told, there are more than 300,000 people - proof, says the Wilderness Society, that it's a potent political force.
WOMAN
Rod, does the Doncaster circulate in the Diamond Valley?
REPORTER
The headquarters for the political battle is the Society's office in Melbourne. The main aim is simply to tip out of office government members in 13 key mainland marginal seats. That, in effect, means votes for Labor. And if the money keeps coming in, it promises to be a vigorous campaign. 45,000 'Put Liberals Last' posters have already gone out. Doorknocking is underway. For the referendum in Tasmania last year, the Society claims to have knocked on every door in the State. So how much support is there? You're told that the unmistakeable 'No Dam' sign is the biggest-selling sticker in Australia, and you're shown how the Tasmanian Wilderness Society's branches have multiplied. There are now 70 - not just in Australia, but in America, New Zealand and the United Kingdom.
WOMAN
Fill it out and send it to the address up there, which is the head office of the Tasmanian Wilderness Society, yes, in Victoria.
REPORTER
The Deakin electorate in Victoria has one such branch. Some of its members are veterans of the Lake Pedder campaign. The selling of paraphernalia and direct donations, the Wilderness Society says, are the main source of funds. The Society's shop in Melbourne alone, for example, will make an estimated profit this year of $70,000. The Wilderness Society says the money is going out as quickly as it's coming in. The publicity has been remarkable, especially internationally, helped of course by the outpourings of publicity-wise British botanist David Bellamy.
DAVID BELLAMY
Look at this in the paper this morning. 'HEC burning wilderness at camp site, MP says.' Burning it to try and destroy part of your heritage, part of the world's heritage. That's why I'm here. We've got to win.
REPORTER
All this and a blockade, too. What better time for the Wilderness Society to launch its cause politically? And it's worked, for two good reasons. Firstly, the blockade has stuck rigidly to a code of nonviolent protest. They've projected an image of being dedicated but reasonable people. Secondly, by media manipulation, which they've virtually developed into an art form. The Society has the skill of knowing exactly what the media wants and when. And it's got backup - from telex machines to videotape. Press releases have been landing on radio newsdesks, for example, in exactly the right format for bulletins. And all timed for the media silly season when news is scarce.
A workshop
WOMAN
It's really good to have a careful look at yourself...
REPORTER
Media workshops like this throughout Australia teach members how to use television to their advantage. All this by a group that the Tasmanian Premier Robin Gray called a 'ratbag collection of mainland unemployed'. Nor does the Wilderness Society's director, Bob Brown, quite fit the bill as the chief guru of some lunatic fringe. A registered medical doctor, he opted out of the mainstream. But even here at his idyllic retreat in northern Tasmania, he's convinced the dam is an election issue.
BOB BROWN
We've got 39 dams, 26 power stations and the worst unemployment since the Great Depression. The dams are draining money away from employment-creating opportunities in the cities and towns, and thousands of people are out of work because our economy is out of balance.
REPORTER
But such serenity takes a back seat as Bob Brown crosses Bass Strait to win more support.
The reporter talks with Bob Brown at an airport
REPORTER
Yes, of course. But are you not worried that you may alienate some of those Liberals, that is, Liberal voters who have otherwise supported you?
BOB BROWN
I don't think that the Liberal voters who have supported us are going to be alienated. They will be alienated from the Liberal Party if a solution can't be found when one is there, and that's the risk we take.
Map of Australia indicating marginal electorates
REPORTER
We rang the sitting members in the 13 marginal electorates under fire and asked them whether they favoured the dam or not. None of them said they were in favour. Eight said, no - they were against it. Five could not, or would not, answer categorically either way.
REPORTER
But is it fair to put out of office or to attempt to put out of office men who have openly supported your cause?
BOB BROWN
Because those men have had the opportunity to cross the floor, to save the Franklin River already by supporting the World Heritage Bill, the introduction of that to Parliament, and have failed to do so, they are indicating that, in future, they will put their government before the Franklin River. Now, we put the Franklin River before any political party or any government.
REPORTER
And at headquarters, too, organisers are convinced that such resolve will have a telling effect at the ballot box.
WOMAN
It's a symbol of all the things that might be going wrong in Diamond Valley, or wrong as far as the environment goes in Victoria. And if you take the Barrier Reef, people are concerned about their Barrier Reef, our research shows that people are concerned about our World Heritage areas, and the south-west is one of those.
REPORTER
A symbol to you, perhaps, but do you really think it's a symbol to that individual voter?
WOMAN
I think the evidence is there in the rallies we've had and, as I said, those marginal electorates.
REPORTER
Single-issue politics don't have much of a record of success at election time. What makes you think this issue is going to be any different?
BOB BROWN
Well, clearly it's become an enormous national issue. It's not just a single issue. It's an issue which embodies the aspirations of Australians for a better future. That's the challenge to our politicians. Either they take up the challenge that the Australian public is putting to them by its concern for the Franklin River, or there's going to be a change in the political set-up, I believe.