Australia’s new environmental laws will provide “tangible gains for the environment and for business,” that is according to Murray Watt, Australia’s environment minister, who yesterday passed a suite of new laws – including updating the 26 year old Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act and setting up a new federal Environmental Protection Agency – were passed through the Labor party room yesterday, paving the way for the long-anticipated reforms to be tabled to Parliament tomorrow.
It comes as the Albanese government has been under mounting pressure from environmental groups and the Greens to modernise the laws, with the Australian Conservation Council warning that Australia has lost 2/3 of its native forest since colonisation, whilst Professor Andrew Macintosh told ABC Drive (from 1 hour 2 mins 52 seconds to 1 hours 12 mins 33 seconds) that land clearing – including logging and native forestry – must be referred to in the new reforms.
“Since 2000, when the legislation started, over 11 million hectares of native forest have been cleared, and 3 million hectares of remnant forests have been cleared,” Professor Macintosh told presenter Chris Bath. “But only a tiny percentage of that has been referred to under the legislation,” he said, adding that the amount of forest loss equates loosely to the size of Victoria (for native forest loss) and Tasmania (for remnant loss).
However, despite mounting pressure from groups, Wood Central can reveal that Watt – a former Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Minister – will likely opt against removing the carve-out for regional forestry agreements (RFAs). Speaking to Wood Central on the condition of anonymity, a source familiar with the matter said the decision, which will be revealed to Australia’s $26 billion forest products industry later this week, is due to pressure from Tasmania. “At this stage, Watt is sticking his neck out for forestry,” the source said, adding that “forestry and the way it is treated shouldn’t change with the new reforms.”
“An RFA is an agreement between the Commonwealth and the state to regulate forestry operations at the state level, thus giving the state regulatory bodies control over compliance,” according to Jack Rodden Green, a legal expert who has spent more than a decade consulting on the RFA’s.
As it stands, there are 10 Commonwealth RFAs in operation, including 5 in Victoria, 3 in Western Australia, 1 in Western Australia, 1 in New South Wales, 3 in New South Wales and 1 in Tasmania. (In addition), there is also a ‘Comprehensive Regional Assessment for South-East Queensland’ that covers forest operations in South East Queensland, but that was established by the State Government and is not considered an RFA,” he said. These agreements have effectively enjoyed exemptions from national environmental laws on the basis that reserves and forest-practice requirements are sufficient. In effect, they are long-term plans for the sustainable management and conservation of Australia’s native forests.”
Please note: Wood Central will have additional coverage on the reforms and their impact on the Australian forest products industry in the coming days.
