Former Greens leader Bob Brown has failed in a bid to have a trespass charge levelled against him over an anti-logging protest dismissed.
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Brown and fellow activists, Kristy Alger and Karen Weldrick, have pleaded not guilty to trespassing in a forestry coupe in Tasmania's Eastern Tiers on November 8, 2022.
They say they were defending the habitat of the critically endangered swift parrot.
A joint hearing in Hobart Magistrates Court was put on hold on Tuesday after the trio argued they had no case to answer.
Brown, Alger and Weldrick's lawyer claimed the legislation used by Forestry Tasmania in their arrest was invalid for that purpose.
Magistrate Jackie Hartnett on Wednesday ruled against the no-case argument.
She said the forestry officer who asked them to leave the production timber zone had the required authorisation to do so.
The hearing is expected to resume on March 18.
"Our case will be that Forestry Tasmania's logging of the ... coupe was unlawful," Brown said outside court.
Sustainable Timber Tasmania forest officer Dion McKenzie told a hearing on Monday there were about 10 people at the coupe when he arrived on November 8.
He said he asked the group to leave but three people didn't.
The court was told at one point Brown was sitting on a tree stump while Alger and Weldrick had attached themselves to machinery.
Mr McKenzie said a habitat tree, earlier used by a sit-in activist as part of the protest, was felled on November 8.
He said it was cut down on safety grounds as it was over-mature and had features likely to make it a fall risk.
Mr McKenzie also agreed with the suggestion from the activists' lawyer Kathleen Foley SC the tree was meant to be retained but was not.
Australian Associated Press
