Joe Ludwig (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Hansard source

The answer to the honourable senator’s question is as follows:

(1) The Joint Government Responses for Victoria and New South Wales are not yet complete.

The Commonwealth and New South Wales Governments have made significant progress on the Joint Government Response and have scheduled a meeting to discuss final comments on the draft.

The Commonwealth and Victorian Governments have made significant progress on the Joint Government Response and expect to meet to discuss final comments on the draft.

It is expected that the Joint Government Responses for both States will be finalised by the end of 2012.

(2) The Joint Government Responses will be made publicly available once the ministerial approval process has been finalised.

(3) The RFAs aim to implement ecologically sustainable forest management; establish a Comprehensive, Adequate and Representative (CAR) reserve system; and provide certainty of investment in forest businesses.

As part of the five-yearly review of RFAs, each state outlines its improvements and enhancements to the RFA accredited forest management system over the intervening period since the RFAs were signed or an earlier five-yearly review was completed. The Independent Reviewer evaluates the information provided by the State, and aided by public comments, makes appropriate findings and recommendations on the implementation of the forest management system as well as suggested improvements for the forest management system.

(4) As part of the five-yearly review of RFAs, each State outlines its improvements and enhancements to the RFA accredited forest management system over the intervening period since the RFAs were signed or an earlier five-yearly review was completed. The Independent Reviewer evaluates the information provided by the State.

(5) The information on changes to a State’s forest management system is presented holistically in the Report on Progress with Implementation of each State’s RFAs. These documents are available for each specific agreement at http://www.daff.gov.au/rfa/regions.

(6 – 8) All RFAs contain a clause to allow the Parties to each RFA (the Commonwealth and each RFA State) to jointly determine a process to extend an RFA for a further period.

High level discussions with Tasmania and Victoria have commenced on the timing for the 3rd five-yearly reviews. The third five yearly review provides for discussion on the process of RFA renewal.