AFPA has expressed deep disappointment that Australia's forestry sector has once again been horse traded on new national environment laws, ignoring the evidence showing Australia's native forest industry is sustainable and already delivering strong environmental outcomes.
The new Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) laws, negotiated overnight between the Albanese Government and the Australian Greens, will not achieve improved environmental outcomes in our native forests but instead undermine the future of Australia's world-class and sustainable native forest industry.
Under the EPBC reforms, the removal of Regional Forest Agreements (RFA) - which have effectively served the nation and managed our forests sustainably for decades - will strangle the native forest industry in green tape and put at risk any future plantation investment. As the Federal Court confirmed last year, RFAs are an alternative mechanism by which the objects of the EPBC Act can be achieved.
AFPA Chief Executive Officer Diana Hallam said: "I have grave concerns for the future of our native forestry and plantation industries after seeing the new laws.
"With the loss of RFAs, native forestry will be effectively treated as 'high-risk land-clearing', and the Commonwealth Government will likely find themselves, once again, in the middle of every disputed forestry decision.
"The loss of Victoria's RFA last year has had a terrible impact on local jobs and communities and undermined new plantation establishment.
"The suggestions that plantations can replace the timber from our native forest estates are false - it will just lead to more imports from Brazil, Indonesia and countries with worse environmental standards than ours.
"The Federal Government claims it supports our ongoing sustainable native forestry sector, so it will be incumbent on them to prove this following the draconian deal with the Greens, who want to end native forestry.
"Unfortunately, the $300 million forest growth fund relies heavily on concessional loans, which will be of little help to a sector under immense financial pressure due to the depressed housing market, a flood of cheap imports, increasing energy costs and considerable uncertainty around their operating arrangements.
"We expect any federal support for timber processing facilities will likely be used to process imported timber from less sustainable sources, which is a worse outcome for the environment, the economy and rural and regional communities that rely on this wonderful industry for their livelihood."
