The Australian Forest Products Association (AFPA) thanks Minister for the Environment, Senator the Hon Murray Watt, for the invitation to today's Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Reforms Roundtable, in Canberra. The key message from AFPA to those assembled was that reform of Australia's environmental laws must recognise the nation's environmental, economic, and social goals and that sustainable native forestry and much needed plantation forestry is vital if Australia is to achieve its decarbonisation ambitions.
Attended by AFPA Chief Executive Officer Diana Hallam, the Roundtable included representatives from across environmental, industry and property sectors, and discussed the Albanese Government's EPBC Act reform agenda, including the establishment of a national Environment Protection Agency (EPA) along with National Environmental Standards.
Diana Hallam said, "When invited by the Minister to speak, I made it clear that we support EPBC Act reform, but that sustainable native and plantation forestry must be allowed to continue and grow in recognition of its importance to Australia's climate goals. I alerted those gathered that in the five years since the independent review of the EPBC Act (the Samuel Review) was handed to government there have been many developments in science, innovation and data capture that demonstrate forestry's improved custodianship of the environment. We have also seen some terrible consequences arising from decisions made in haste that have been to the detriment of forest industries and the environment.
"For example, since the removal of the Victorian Regional Forest Agreement (RFA) and abolition of VicForests, the Victorian Government is now forced to pay forest contractors $72 million annually for bushfire management. Expanses of Victorian Mountain Ash have failed to regrow following severe bushfires, something VicForests would have been legally required to address, and uncertainty reigns because EPBC Act approval requirements remain unclear without the RFA and VicForests guidance impeding plantation investment.
"More recently an Australian Federal Court decision in January 2024 confirmed that Regional Forest Agreements are achieving the objects of the EPBC Act and it is noteworthy that the NSW North East RFA references the EPBC Act 94 times. Improvements to Australia's environmental laws will help provide regulatory certainty and allow Australia's forest industries to be rightfully acknowledged as leading practitioners of ecologically sustainable development.
"Without native and plantation forestry, we cannot protect the environment, and we cannot decarbonise the economy. A strong forestry sector is required to meet so many of Australia's future challenges, and its essential the Albanese Government's EPBC Act Reforms support a strong forestry industry going forward," Diana Hallam concluded.
