Janet Rice (Victoria, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I also rise to take note of this document. In his review, which is highly critical of our existing environment laws, Graeme Samuel went to the situation of our logging laws—the regional forest agreements. We've had many debates in this chamber about the complete inadequacy of the regional forest agreements in protecting our forests and the wildlife that depend on our forests—the wildlife that, so sadly in so many cases, is becoming critically endangered and hurtling towards extinction.

Graeme Samuel had some pretty strong words to say about how he saw the regional forest agreements operating. He said:

… the Review considers that the provisions for RFAs are the most unacceptable and require immediate reform.

He also said:

The Review considers that the environmental considerations under the RFA Act are weaker than those imposed elsewhere for MNES—

matters of national environmental significance—

and do not align with the assessment of significant impacts on MNES required by the EPBC Act. Submissions from stakeholders indicated concern around the effectiveness of the RFAs to protect threatened species that rely on the forest areas covered by RFAs. There is also great concern that the controls on logging within forests have not adequately adapted to pressures on the ecosystem such as climate change or bushfire impacts.

There is insufficient Commonwealth oversight of RFAs and the assurance and reporting mechanisms are weak.

Essentially, the RFAs are not protecting our forests. Graeme Samuel called for immediate action to make sure that logging operations are covered under the same environmental standards as other actions, and that they be subject to the same national environment standards he proposes in his review.

This is damning. Graeme Samuel's report completely reinforces and underlines what people who are concerned about the future of our forests have been talking about for decades. If you go into our forests and see the destruction of our forests, you can see what's going on. Graeme Samuel, in his review, has said, 'Yes, this is what's occurring; our forests are not being protected by our logging laws. Species are being left to hurtle towards extinction, and immediate action is needed.'

But what action have we seen from this government? They have been sitting on this report for the last three months. We've had another summer of logging operations; another summer of logging the habitat of swift parrots, which are critically endangered; another summer of logging the habitat of Leadbeater's possums, which are critically endangered, another summer of logging the habitat of greater gliders, which are rapidly reducing in numbers; and another summer of logging the habitat of koalas. This is what's currently going on in our forests, and this review has said, once and for all, that this is going on and that immediate action is needed.

The Greens say that the only responsible thing that this government should do—and it should have done it years ago, if not three months ago when it got this report from Professor Samuel—is to put an immediate moratorium on logging in our native forests. We know the native forest logging industry is the rump of the timber industry in Australia. Almost 90 per cent of the wood that comes out of Australia comes from plantations. The Greens believe, and anyone concerned about the future of our forests believes, that we should be increasing that so that 100 per cent of the wood coming out of Australia comes from plantation forests.

There is no role for logging of our precious native forests in Australia. There should be an immediate moratorium on the logging of all of our native forests. We should be scrapping the regional forest agreements, which have not been protecting our forests. They have not been protecting jobs. They have been destroying our critical heritage—our First Nations cultural heritage, our environmental heritage. They have been destroying habitat for animals. They have been destroying our water supplies. They have been impacting upon the potential of these forests to be wonderful resources for tourism and recreation. This report lays out clearly that our forests are not being protected and that urgent action is needed to make sure that they are.