maple street co-op

Editorial by Ruth Parnell
From "Maple Street Co-op News", Aug/Sep 2004

Since we reported last issue on the Maleny Woolworths protest campaign, tree-sitter Daniel Jones accidentally fell out of the bunya pine he'd been protecting on behalf of a goodly proportion of the Maleny and surrounding community. We thank him for sitting it out for so long, and send him our healing thoughts for a rapid recovery.

So while Daniel and the protest tent are down, the Maleny community is certainly not out. Strategies are still being considered for buying back the two Bunya Street lots from Cornerstone, but time is running out when such a large sum of money is involved.

Maple Street Co-op has made a pledge towards the buy-back; generally, our directors, staff and members regard it as folly for a supermarket to be built on the Obi Obi creekbank in the heart of Maleny. But everything's in go-slow mode until the Court's decision on the high bank. Before our next issue is out, we may know what's in store. Whatever happens, however it happens, the Maleny community will not go quietly...

Nor should we go quietly over the proposed Free Trade Agreement with the USA. As this edition comes out at the beginning of August, there'll be only days left for us to make submissions to the Senate Committee ahead of its decision on the fairness or not of the FTA's terms for various sectors of the Australian community. Our particular concern is that the FTA would allow a flood of genetically engineered, irradiated and compromised organic food into this country, and with no labelling to indicate otherwise. We need to be alert and probably alarmed. So if you'd like more info, ask at the Co-op – before it's too late!

Ruth

[From "Maple Street Co-op News", August/September 2004; published by The Maple Street Co-operative Society Ltd, 37 Maple Street, Maleny, Qld 4552, Australia, tel (07) 5494 2088, email maplest.co-op@serv.net.au,
website http://www.maplestreetco-op.com.au]