Australia’s Nature Positive Laws—which until now looked destined to be delayed until after the next Federal Election—could be back on the table after the Greens agreed to renegotiate their passage in exchange for “stronger action to protect native forests and critical habitat from logging and deforestation.”
The laws—Albanese’s signature environmental policy—represent the most significant change to environmental regulations in decades and have been tied up in the Upper House for several months. It comes as the Labor Government could not get agreement from the Greens and left-leaning cross-benches over the new laws – which saw the Greens aggressively push for a ‘climate trigger’ which would see future land-use approvals require regulators to consider climate impacts.
While the Greens will continue to push for a climate trigger as part of broadscale environmental reform, it will “in an offer of goodwill” instead focus on removing Regional Forest Agreements (RFAs) and Continuous Use exemptions, which it said are “crucial for closing loopholes that allow native forest logging and deforestation around the country.”
“Time’s up for native forest logging,” said Senator Sarah Hanson-Young, the Greens spokesperson for the Environment. “In the coming fortnight, the Prime Minister and Environmental Minister can work with the Greens to save Australia’s great forests from the chainsaws and bulldozers before it’s too late.”
“Closing the legal loopholes that allow large-scale native forest logging and land clearing to go unassessed will have tangible impacts on the protection of critical habitat in Tasmania, NSW, and Northern Australia, where deforestation is out of control.”
According to Senator Nick McKim, the Greens’ Forests Spokesperson, “any support for Labor’s so-called Nature Positive legislation must go hand in hand with action to end native forest logging.”
Senator McKim said the country’s 10 RFA’s are a loophole “that exempts native forest logging from Australia’s environmental laws, allowing the loggers to trash nature and destroy threatened species’ habitats for far too long. It has to end.”
“This exemption has allowed the rampant destruction of some of the world’s most precious ecosystems, trashing biodiversity and habitats of iconic and endangered species like the koala and swift parrot.”
- To learn more about Australia’s Nature Positive Act and its implications for Australia’s native forest industry, click here for Wood Central’s special feature.
