Allegra Spender (Wentworth, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

Last Sunday I had the pleasure of joining Wentworth locals in Christison Park, a beautiful stretch of land that's perched on top of the cliffs and provides amazing views of the ocean and Sydney Harbour. I was there alongside colleagues from Woollahra council to celebrate National Tree Day and join members of our community as part of Australia's largest tree-planting and nature-care event. I was in the park, planting trees, tending to grasses and talking to Wentworth locals about the importance of conserving our natural environment combating the climate crisis. In that hour or two elsewhere across Australia, the staggering truth is that 52 hectares of unique and threatened species habitat were bulldozed—an area equivalent to 28 times the Sydney Opera House.

Australia has the highest rate of deforestation in the developed world and, every year, we log about two per cent of our native forests. The consequences of this destruction are enormous: we are the mammal extinction capital of the world and, if we continue at our current rate, we will lose national treasures like the koala and greater glider forever. In southern New South Wales there are over 250 threatened species that have been affected by native logging in the last two decades, and most of this logging is to make low-value products like woodchip and paper pulp, which we could get from plantations instead.

Beyond the damage to our environment, the logging of native forests is also making the climate crisis worse. Our native forests are an incredibly powerful carbon sink. For centuries they have taken carbon dioxide out of the air we breathe, stored it safely under the ground and used it to generate new life. When we cut them down and we burn what's left to help clear the land faster, forestry experts estimate that this generates emissions of up to 15 megatonnes each year. If we stopped logging native forests in southern NSW, it would be by far the largest carbon abatement project in the state.

Whilst native forest logging is destroying our environment and accelerating the current crisis, it's also costing us money. In the past two years alone, the New South Wales state Forestry Corporation has lost nearly $30 million in taxpayers' money. In the last financial year, VicForests lost $54 million. In a cost-of-living crisis, where every dollar matters, this isn't how we should be spending people's hard-earned money.

The good news is that we have an opportunity to turn things around. We can protect our environment in ways that benefit our economy and provide new, high-paying jobs for people who currently work in native forest logging. This is a significant issue; I care very much about the livelihood of people who currently work in forestry, and I want to make sure that we find a way to support them through a change that is good for our environment and good for the economy. It needs to be good for those communities too.

In NSW, transitioning to active forest management, sequestering carbon and sustainable tourism are estimated to have a net benefit of nearly $50 million, with plantations taking up the slack for making timber products. This transition must be carefully managed, and in New South Wales that means supporting the roughly 600 workers who are currently employed in native logging activities. We all want the best for our workers and our wildlife, so real support means a proper plan for transition. It doesn't mean creating a culture war that pits people in the cities against people in regional and rural Australia.

Ending native forest logging would be good for our environment, good for our climate and good for our economy. I welcome the commitment the minister made to me in question time a few months ago that she would bring native forest logging under tough environmental laws, but I urge her to go further, to follow in the footsteps of her colleagues in Victoria and Western Australia to develop a national transition plan and to end native forest logging across Australia for good.

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