Kristy McBain (Eden-Monaro, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Regional Development, Local Government and Territories) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That this bill be now read a second time.

Illegal logging has wide-reaching and devastating impacts on climate, nature, and people. As the world's most profitable environmental crime, this complex problem is linked to corruption, organised crime, civil war, exploitation, and violations of human rights.

Illegal logging can destroy forest ecosystems, reduces biodiversity, and contributes to species extinction. It deprives local communities of opportunities to improve their quality of life and undermines the rights and practices of Indigenous peoples that care for country. And it costs governments and primary industries billions of dollars every year in lost revenue.

Australia is not immune to these impacts. Trade in low-priced, illegally sourced timber undermines the prices that can be obtained for local, sustainably produced products. This has negative effects on supply chains, business decisions, industry profitability, investment, and jobs in the Australian economy.

Given the scale and reach of these environmental, social, and economic impacts, global action is necessary to effectively combat illegal logging. The Australian government is committed to playing its part and working with the international community to address illegal logging.

In 2012, Australia introduced world-leading illegal logging prohibition laws that were among the first of their kind internationally.

The Illegal Logging Prohibition Act 2012 seeks to reduce the harmful impacts of illegal logging by restricting the importation and sale of illegally logged timber and timber products in Australia, and the processing of domestically grown raw logs that have been illegally harvested. This includes a requirement for timber importers and processors of raw logs to conduct a risk assessment process known as 'due diligence' to minimise the risk of importing or processing illegally sourced timber or timber products.

As global awareness of deforestation and consumer demand for sustainable timber products have increased, Australia has welcomed regulatory approaches introduced by many other countries to combat illegal timber harvesting and associated trade. This wider action globally has helped produce new approaches that Australia can adopt to augment our own laws.

This bill seeks to do just that, implementing the improvements identified through both the statutory review of the act and the sunsetting review of the Illegal Logging Prohibition Regulation.

Measures in the bill will modernise and strengthen the act, to better protect the Australian market from illegally harvested timber and timber products and support sustainable and legal timber trade into the future.

In particular, new and emerging timber identification technologies hold great potential to enhance existing compliance and due diligence efforts. The Australian government is currently delivering a $4.4 million trial of timber identification methods. This trial will inform effective implementation of timber testing under a reformed act. It aims to ensure the supporting reference databases, systems and access to testing tools are in place to do so, so that Australian can readily identify products entering its market.

Timber testing offers compliance officers a means to verify whether claims made about harvest origin and species of regulated products are accurate and assess whether importers' and processors' due diligence efforts are up to scratch. Timber testing can also confirm whether products are in fact illegally logged through closely pinpointing the harvest location and has supported prosecutions overseas relating to illegally logged timber.

We know that the Australian timber producers and environmental groups alike support these developments and want to see these tools and techniques used effectively in Australia. The bill will allow for the taking of samples and testing of timber products at the border and beyond for compliance purposes.

This will be complemented by a new requirement for importers and processors to give notice before importing or processing regulated timber products. This will enable the government to target testing and other regulatory efforts through having more information on what is entering Australia's market in advance.

The amendment bill will also provide more flexible enforcement options and expanded monitoring and investigation powers. This includes the addition of strict liability offences, injunctions, and enforceable undertakings to the act.

Amendments will also enable audits to be carried out to determine compliance with the due diligence requirements and extend the time frame for issuing infringement notices to 24 months to afford more time for audits and other compliance actions to first take place.

Finally, further amendments will permit the publication of details of contraventions of the act on the department's website, which provides a further deterrent for noncompliance, and allows the regulation to be remade as rules, enabling more flexibility in updating key guidance on sourcing legally harvested timber that is incorporated by reference.

Together, these amendments to the laws will help make Australia an even less attractive destination for illegally sourced timber and further protect Australia's reputation in international markets as a supplier of sustainable and legally sourced timber products.

Strengthened illegal logging laws will complement other key Australian government priorities, such as supporting global action to mitigate climate change and protect biodiversity, combating organised crime, and alleviating the costs of corruption in developing countries.

As a leader in international efforts to combat illegal logging, we know the eyes of the world are watching us. Other countries look to Australia to lead the way on timber legality laws.

This bill will both uphold our reputation as a global leader through adopting further best-practice regulatory approaches, and help address the environmental, social, and economic harms of illegal logging and associated trade.

Debate adjourned.