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

As Senator Rice is well aware, the way the regional forest agreement system works is that it essentially displaces the EPBC in relation to forestry endeavours and has its own system of managing the environmental needs of those forests. That is a system that we continue to support.

Senator Rice is also aware that the Victorian government has made decisions about the future of its native forests. We respect their right to make those decisions but we do support the ongoing efforts in other parts of the country to pursue native forestry, including in Tasmania, which is what they've chosen to do. We are trying to strike a balanced approach which meets the forestry needs and the timber needs of our country and supports the workers in those regional communities while also maintaining environmental protections.

Senator Rice asked about the EPBC. Again, she would be aware that the EPBC and the Samuel review is currently being considered by the government, and we'll have more to say about that before too long.