Monique Ryan (Kooyong, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That this House:

(1) acknowledges the devastation caused by ongoing native forest logging in this country;

(2) commits to protecting our native forests from logging;

(3) abolishes the effective exemption from environment laws that has been granted to native forest logging currently covered by regional forestry agreements between the federal and state governments; and

(4) further commits to implementing the recommendations of the Independent Review of the Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999, as soon as possible, to arrest the decline of our iconic places and the extinction of our most threatened plants, animals, and ecosystems.

Deforestation is the third-largest source of carbon emissions globally. To meet our target of a 43 per cent reduction by 2030, Australia must reduce its carbon emissions by 15 megatons each year. Each year we log two per cent of our native forests, resulting in the release of 15 megatons of carbon dioxide. We could meet our 2030 emissions reduction target simply by stopping native forest logging.

The native forests of the central highlands of Victoria are among the most carbon-dense forests in the world. Cessation of the native forest logging industry in Victoria would result in emissions savings equivalent to taking 730,000 cars off the road every year and ceasing logging in Tasmania would result in emissions savings equivalent to taking 1.1 million cars off the road every year.

This motion proposes the abolition of the effective exemption from the national environment laws that has been granted to native forest logging currently covered by regional forestry agreements, RFAs, between the federal and state governments. It also commits to implementing the recommendations of the Independent Review of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 as soon as possible to arrest the decline of our iconic places and the extinction of our most threatened plants, animals and ecosystems.

RFAs are 20-year state-federal agreements underpinning the management of most of Australia's commercially productive native forests. They aimed to deliver certainty of resource access to forest industries and to ensure that those industries were profitable and protective of environmental values. The objectives of RFAs have not been met. They have failed to protect biodiversity and to maintain ecosystem processes. They have been associated with poor governance and abject forest protection. They've overseen the loss of profitability of, and declining employment in, native forest logging industries. They've led to the overcommitment of forest resources to wood production and failed to account for other forest values which outweigh those of wood production. Eighty-seven per cent of native forest logs from states like Victoria are used for woodchips and for paper production. Only 7.5 per cent are used for saw logs. We have alternative sources of wood products, recycled paper and plantation timber. We have to use those and stop logging our native forests. The economic value of our native forests for carbon storage is far greater than the value of those forests for woodchips and for pulp.

Victoria had one mega fire in the 1800s and one in the 1900s. We have already had three this century. Thirty per cent of everything planned to be logged in the next five years in Victoria was burned in the Black Summer bushfires. Victoria has lost over 77 per cent of its old-growth forests in the last 25 years. Forests are more flammable for up to 70 years after they are logged and regenerated. Logging creates a greater risk of more severe bushfires, which endanger people's lives and property and lead to further carbon emissions. The extreme flammability of our landscapes means that there is no certainty of wood supply for a collapsing timber industry. Our backup resources have been lost through over cutting and recurrent fires.

The industry loses large amounts of money. In 2020 the PBO estimated that immediately ending native forestry in Victoria could save as much as $190 million over a decade. Logging in Victoria, which is planned five years ahead, is now taking place in areas of the highest habitat and conservation value for 70 threatened forest-dependent species. These include Victoria's animal emblem, the critically endangered Leadbeater's possum, and the endangered southern greater glider. The key threatening process for other marsupials is the accelerated loss of hollow trees. Old-growth forests support significantly greater numbers of animal species than regrowth forests. Logging also has major impacts on forest soils causing erosion and loss of water sources.

Using our native forests for carbon storage rather than logging will still require a major skilled workforce for Australia. This workforce can manage our carbon stocks and storage, repair the damage from soil erosion and extreme sedimentation, protect water catchments. We can maintain and expand the workforces associated with the forestry sector in climate-appropriate ways. Protecting and restoring our native forests is a crucial mitigation strategy for us to meet our net zero emission targets. We need the vision to embrace it.

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