Dear Mr Tony Burke MP,

As a public relations practitioner, the news regarding you using Gunns’ promotional material for your Ministerial statements in Parliament didn’t sit well with me at all. I appreciate your own media advisors may brief you, but it would be great if you and them could work together with groups outside of Gunns (e.g. university academics, Forests for Lawyers, Wilderness Society) that could assist you in gathering the facts and therefore a full understanding of this important issue – an issue that continues to fly in the face of what Australians consider important, namely biodiversity and climate change.

I attended a Biodiversity Summit on Saturday in Canberra and learnt a great deal about the latest scientific evidence surrounding the value of carbon storage in old growth forests in fighting climate change along with the legal and policy changes that need to take place in Australia and internationally with respect to forests and biodiversity. I hope some of your staff attended as well.

I urge you and your team to set the record straight with a statement of fact.

Yours sincerely,

Elissa Jenkins