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

Minister, the Senate committee that inquired into this bill heard stark evidence of how the burning of wood from native forests for energy can in no way be considered renewable and in fact very clear evidence that burning native forest wood for energy actually emits more emissions than coal. So I'm pleased that in your speech last night you committed to the Senate committee recommendation to review the renewable energy status of wood from native forests, noting that Labor rejected classifying the burning of wood from native forests as renewable in both 2011 and 2015, and I urge you and the government—and scientists and forest protectors are urging you—to make this change as a critical part of protecting our forests. I also want to go more broadly to the importance of protecting our forests and the link with acting on climate and bring to your attention the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's assessment. They found in their Sixth Assessment Report earlier this year that the protection, improved management and restoration of forests and other ecosystems have the largest potential to reduce emissions and/or sequester carbon and that safeguarding biodiversity and ecosystems is fundamental to climate resilience development.

So I've got two questions that I want to ask you, and I'm going to ask them both at once in the interests of time. Firstly on that latter point, in light of those findings from the IPCC I want to know what work the government is doing or is intending to do on the bigger picture to assess protecting Australian forests for their value in carbon sequestration and storage. My second one, then, is asking whether you could give us some more details, please, on the process that you outlined last night, where you said that you were going to:

… release a consultation paper … consider next steps in light of the results of that consultation and look to make any necessary changes to the regulations by the end of the year.

But then you committed to:

… exploring further amendments to primary and subordinate legislation to embed the targets and the Paris Agreement into a wider set of relevant legislations and schemes.

So I want to know the potential of embedding protection of forests and not considering wood from native forests as a renewable in further work down the track.