Australia’s management of forests and its $23 billion forest products industry is starting from a position of strength, with strong and robust arrangements to support environmental standards. That is according to Matt Lowe, Australia’s Deputy Secretary, Agriculture, Fisheries & Forestry Policy Group, when quizzed by Senator Richard Colbeck, a Tasmanian Liberal Senator and former Assistant Minister of Agriculture and Water Resources, during the Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport Legislation Committee estimates committee this week.
Last week, Wood Central revealed that Australia’s five remaining regional forestry agreements (RFAs) – three in New South Wales and one each in Western Australia and Tasmania will be brought under the wing of the new Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act from July 2027. The five Victorian RFAs were terminated on 31 December 2024, following the Victorian Government’s decision to cease native forestry in that state, whilst the Queensland government never signed the RFA agreement.
On Monday, Murray Watt – the Minister for Environment and Water – who did the deal with the Greens to pass his complex set of seven EPBC reform Acts late last week, and Julie Collins – Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, stressed that the new EPBC reforms will not lead to the death of native forestry in Australia.
“I need to be very clear, we’re not ending native forest timber,” Minister Collins said during a Doorstop at Western Junction Sawmill in Tasmania, with Minister Watt stressing that the RFAs are not going anywhere. “What the legislation says is that, just like every other industry in Australia, RFAs will need to meet the new national environmental standards and that the arrangements for RFAs will become accredited by the Federal Government.”
Murray Watt – the current Minister for Environment and Water – and Julie Collins – Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry at the Western Junction Sawmill on Monday.
Speaking about the RFAs, Lowe said the current system – which stood the test of a High Court judgement, after being challenged by environmental groups – has got strong processes around managing and avoiding unacceptable impacts on threatened species: “We think the RFA system and RFA states are coming to this from a position of strength given the robust arrangements that are already in place,” he said.
And whilst there is some work to be done to define those national environmental standards, Lowe suggested a gap analysis approach was ahead “I think that, for us, the important thing is to support RFA states with a transition to that accreditation by basically going: ‘Okay, here’s what the RFA achieves. Here’s what those national environmental standards are asking for, and here’s what we need to do to address what those national environmental standards are asking for.'”
On Friday, Wood Central revealed that Michael O’Connor – the National Secretary of the powerful Timber, Furnishings and Textiles Union and current member of the Responsible Wood board, which manages the Australian Forestry Standard said the union “fully expects the industry’s environmental management system to stack up when assessed against the new standards.”
“Our union expects the sector to do well if the new standards are sensible and applied in a reasonable, evidence-based way — which we’ll be pushing for,” O’Connor said. Under the reforms, environmental assessments of forestry operations — currently managed through the Regional Forest Agreement (RFA) framework, which complies with the current EPBC Act requirements under that well-established Federal-State arrangement — will shift to an alternative accreditation pathway aligned with the yet-to-be-finalised National Environmental Standards.
According to O’Connor, “our call is simple. The finalisation of the standards — and the assessment of operations against them — must ensure ongoing active and sustainable forest management, support sustainable development in timber communities, and deliver a stronger future for the workers who manage these forests and those whose livelihoods they sustain.”
Please note: The exchange between Senator Colbeck and Departmental Officers is significant for the Australian native forestry industry. The full transcript will be run next week in a series of articles picking up further material from the Department of Climate and material that is contrary to what Officers of the Department of Agriculture and Forestry are saying.
