Ted O'Brien (Fairfax, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Climate Change and Energy) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Organised crime, civil wars, slave labour, corruption, the extinction of species and environmental destruction have all been linked to the global practice of illegal logging. This pernicious practice not only damages forest ecosystems and local communities but also costs the global community up to $240 billion each year, according to the United Nations. This makes illegal logging the world's most expensive environmental crime and, in an economic sense, significantly distorts the free and fair operation of timber markets the world over. While most of this illegal activity occurs overseas, this is not to say the impacts of below-market-price and illegally sourced timber aren't felt here in Australia, nor does it suggest that there is not a role for Australia to play.

As a general principle, the coalition gladly supports further practical actions to tighten and strengthen Australia's laws against the importation, sale and use of illegal timber. As such, I second the sentiments of the shadow minister for the environment, fisheries and forestry, Senator Jonathan Duniam, and express my pleasure in seeing Labor continue the work of the former coalition government in this policy area, specifically in regard to reviewing and monitoring the content, operation and effectiveness of relevant laws and regulations in this policy area on a number of occasions. Broadly speaking, it is also good that, at the 2022 federal election, the Labor Party basically carbon copied the coalition's forestry policies. Whilst we wouldn't normally condone plagiarism, one of the outcomes of that course of action from Labor was that they promised to match our policy to assign $4.4 million to strengthen Australia's fight against illegal logging and stop illegal timber imports from undercutting Australian producers.

Specifically in relation to the Illegal Logging Prohibition Amendment (Strengthening Measures to Prevent Illegal Timber Trade) Bill 2024, we are also pleased that Labor has continued the considerable work that we had started when we were in government in respect of reviewing the sunsetting of the Illegal Logging Prohibition Regulation 2012. That review began in 2021. It was aimed squarely at assessing whether the act and the regulation were allowing Australia to best play our part in effectively reducing the many harmful impacts of illegal logging. So it's a welcome development to see some movement now from the Labor Party.

During the years of the coalition government we, likewise, oversaw the advent of two other major review processes. The first of these was conducted by KPMG in 2015 to examine the impact of the Illegal Logging Prohibition Regulation specifically on small businesses. The second was a statutory review of the act, which was undertaken in 2018 by the then Department of Agriculture and Water Resources. Each of those exercises shed valuable and important light on how Australia could potentially strengthen and improve our approach to countering illegal logging. As has been acknowledged by Minister Watt, this particular bill gives expression to important improvements identified as part of those previous reviews. We're glad that the Labor Party has adopted that approach and has continued with the direction that had been established for them by the coalition.

All of that said, there are a few things associated with Labor's execution of this approach that we think need further scrutiny. The first is that we would obviously like some more information from the government, and in a reasonable time frame, about how the content of each of the proposed new regulations and rules might look. We won't be in a position to understand all of the detail and the likely impacts that flow from this bill until we can see those changes more specifically.

Of course, when it's the Labor Party and forestry involved, our nervousness about this kind of situation necessarily grows exponentially. That's because Labor has historically made so many bad decisions and so many false promises to Australian forestry workers and their families. Foremost among these have been the disastrous decisions—involving many broken promises, I might add—by the state Labor governments of Victoria and Western Australia to end native forest harvesting from the beginning of this year.

A division having been called in the House of Representatives—

Sitting suspended from 11:44 to 11:56

That has not only decimated jobs but it's also a disaster for the environment. At a time when demand for timber in Australia is continuing to accelerate, we do not support the policy position of those two state Labor governments or, might I add, of the Greens and the teals in this regard. Their approach of trying to eliminate even the small amount of native timber harvesting activity that remains here will not only continue to harm Australia socially and economically by triggering mass job losses but it will also substantially increase our importation and use of timber from countries with weaker environmental regulations, including those where tropical rainforests are logged unsustainably and illegally. Not to mention the further devastating impact this will have on timber towns and communities.

During this parliamentary term, Labor has made some other really bad decisions in forestry, and the federal forestry minister has also completely caved in to the federal environment minister time and time again. Alarmingly, he has even stood idly by as the environment minister has instructed her department to rewrite the relevant laws in the EPBC Act, to rip up the regional forestry agreement system that has operated successfully and provided certainty in Australia—for both industry and environmental advocates alike—for around 25 years. In regard to native forestry, that system has imposed very significant prohibitions on the level of native forestry harvesting that occurs across Australia. More specifically, there are around 132 million hectares of native forest area in Australia, and only 0.06 per cent of this area is harvested annually. That's the equivalent of six trees out of every 10,000. This comparatively very low level of harvesting means that Australia now already imports more than $5½ billion of wood products annually, and that figure is continuing to soar. A 2022 Forest & Wood Products Australia study even found that, without significant changes to the status quo, Australia's reliance on imported timber will likely further surge and potentially even double by 2050. This is made worse by the fact that this study was also written before the Victorian government decided, in May of 2023, to bring forward its native forestry ban by six years, from 2030 to 2024.

During this term of parliament, the environment minister has also noticeably failed to back in the Prime Minister's explicit pre-election promise to Tasmanians to not end native forestry. In fact, she even appeared as the keynote speaker at an event at last year's ALP National Conference that was called 'ending native forest logging'. The government is also shamefully hiding the details of exactly how far the minister intends to go in rewriting the relevant laws, even after two years in office. We assume that the Labor Environment Action Network and the far left of the Labor Party have been told what will be done and what the environment minister's secret plan is. But every other Australian will be left on tenterhooks until the next time the Labor Party is elected to government—whenever that might be.

In relation to this bill more specifically, we have heard from stakeholders that not all parts of the forestry sector are fully in agreement with it. That includes feedback that they have not been properly consulted and that, in some cases, their representations have actually been ignored. There are also some arguments being mounted by them about a likely substantial increase in red tape and the potential practical unworkability of at least some of the new arrangements. Indeed, there are a range of points of contention that we think warrant at least some further examination.

It is on that basis that we will allow this bill to pass the House of Representatives, but we also suggest that it should be referred to a short Senate committee inquiry. This is not to thwart nor to block the passage of this legislation. Indeed, we strongly suspect that anyone who is prepared to voice public criticism of this new legislation and/or the process that has led to it in such a Senate inquiry may also choose to criticise the coalition, not just the Labor Party. Our intent in calling for a short Senate inquiry is so that we can genuinely understand, right across the parliament, whether there might still be further amendments to the bill worth making.

The bill does deliver some important changes, and the philosophy behind it, if you like, is right. The coalition hopes that, if there is further work that can be done to improve the bill's practical operation and it's workability, the government will be open to it.

Graham Perrett (Moreton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise in support of the Illegal Logging Prohibition Amendment (Strengthening Measures to Prevent Illegal Timber Trade) Bill 2024, which was brought to the parliament by the fabulous Minister Murray Watt. This bill is an election commitment and an important update to existing legislation. It will ensure that Australia is both well positioned and well armed for success in our fight against illegally logged timber and timber products entering our country.

The term 'illegal logging' refers to a range of illegal activities: the harvesting of protected species, logging in protected areas, logging with fake permits and using illegal harvesting methods. Sadly, illegal logging occurs all over the globe, including in Australia, but the particular hotspots include the Amazon basin, Central Africa, South-East Asia and in the Russian Federation. I put on the record my particular concern about something that is actually, I guess, legal logging, or non-illegal land clearing. For example, in Queensland, bulldozers clear vegetation and that doesn't require the consent of the environment minister either at the state level or the Commonwealth level. But I digress. That's another issue that we need to deal with.

It is currently estimated that up to 10 per cent of the timber imports to Australia may have been illegally logged. This has an adverse effect on our sustainable timber industry and its linked supply chains, investment and jobs. The Australian forestry industry is crucial. It has an annual economic contribution of around $25 billion and supports about 80,000 jobs, particularly in the bush.

Fighting illegal logging is not just a local matter. Illegal logging needs to be addressed on a global scale as well. This is necessary for economic, societal and environmental reasons. We can be proud that Australia has been at the forefront of this fight since 2012. That's when we introduced world-leading logging prohibition laws in the Illegal Logging Prohibition Act. This act was amongst the first of its kind internationally. It focused on restricting the import and sale of illegally logged timber and timber products. Isn't it a proud record that Labor has of being a middle country going to the rest of the world and saying, 'We need to address this harm'? Whether it be tobacco or the internet, Australia does have a proud record, particularly under Labor governments.

The legislation also restricted the processing of domestic timber that had been illegally cut down. The act included a requirement for timber importers and processors to conduct due diligence on the source of their timber. I have been contacted by one of my constituents about timber coming from Myanmar. Just tracking down the provenance of the timber, particularly that used in the marine industry, was an interesting process. Nevertheless, in the years since this act was introduced there has been growing awareness of the detrimental effects of illegal logging, both at the individual consumer level and at the broader societal and government levels. Australian consumers are increasingly demanding sustainability in the timber product industry. We want to be sure that our wooden floors, furniture, takeaway containers and even the paper that this speech is printed on have been both legally and sustainably sourced.

Alongside this, there is also increasingly widespread awareness of the devastating environmental and societal impacts of deforestation. Governments around the world have responded with tightened regulatory approaches, as well as with new technology, to combat illegal practices. As a result, we now have the opportunity to harness a more global approach and to work with the international community to fight illegal logging and the resulting trade. To make progress in stopping illegal logging, there needs to be an interconnected approach of enforced legislation, international frameworks and cooperation amongst governments and organisations. A global approach is required because, if consumer countries continue to allow the import of illegally logged timber or timber products, then they are basically complicit in the illegal trade. We need to shut down the market for illegal timber.

With these amendments, Labor will also implement the recommendations from the statutory and sunsetting reviews of the Illegal Logging Prohibition Act 2012, which indicated that there were challenges with enforcement. These recommendations include identifying contraventions and taking appropriate and timely compliance action. This bill will strengthen and modernise the act both to protect the Australian market from illegally logged timber imports and to bolster the sustainable and legal international timber trade. It will push one down and lift the other one up.

The detrimental effects of illegal logging and the resulting illegal timber trade are wide ranging. In the places where illegal logging occurs, there are destructive effects on indigenous peoples and local communities. The effects it was having on indigenous people was a particular concern raised with a parliamentary delegation by representatives from Myanmar. Our forests are central to the livelihood and cultural heritage in many of these indigenous communities. It is, sadly, not unusual for conflict and human rights abuses to occur as a result of confrontations over land rights and logging rights.

As the most profitable environmental crime, illegal logging is linked to a range of shady dealings such as corruption, organised crime and exploitation—and other crimes, I would suggest, including murder. The United Nations estimates that the global illegal timber trade is worth between $30 billion and $100 billion annually. In many, cases this unregulated market directly affects developing countries with tax revenue that they cannot collect and it lowers the price of the product for producers who are actually following the law. The good producers are being punished by the bad. The World Bank estimates that timber-producing countries lose up to $15 billion per year in lost revenue because of this.

There is no denying that illegal logging is an environmental disaster. We have all seen the terrible pictures of vast swathes of cleared rainforest, sad scars on the landscape. At the local level there is a staggering loss of biodiversity, and destruction of the habitat of endangered species. Other impacts include soil erosion, the potential for dangerous landslides and run-off of sediment, and often pollutants into rivers and coastal waters that damage fragile ecosystems. I'm sure that members of the coalition would be up in arms at this clearing, particularly if there were a hint that it was being used for renewable energy, putting up solar panels—then they'd be animated. But we should all be concerned about all illegal logging, because all sensible people know that illegal logging has also contributed to climate change. We all know the science by now that forests are carbon sinks. When large sections of forest are decimated, there are vastly fewer trees to perform the critical act of soaking up carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. It's a natural process. And when the felled trees are then burned, their stored carbon is still released into the atmosphere as dangerous CO2. Not that CO2 in the atmosphere is dangerous, but that these are dangerous levels of CO2.

This wide range of negative impacts shows the complexity of this global problem. Thankfully, there are new weapons in our arsenal, both practical and regulatory, which can assist in combating this pernicious trade. On the practical side, research is progressing into new and emerging timber identification technologies. These technologies employ genomics to determine the identity of the tree species and the geographic origin of logged trees. The Australian government has invested $4.4 million in a timber identification trial. Some would say this provides fingerprints for trees—I wouldn't, but the aim is to ensure that reference databases, systems and procedures are fit for identification purposes under the amendment to the act. Timber testing will be deployed alongside best practice regulatory approaches to support compliance personnel in verifying the origin and species of imported timber. It will enable them to assess the accuracy and strength of the due diligence procedures of the provenance of the timber.

The bill also introduces necessary regulatory enhancements. These include the requirement for importers and processers to give prior notice before importing timber—knowing what is coming into the country in advance enables targeted testing on the origin of the timber. The amendments also include further regulatory strengthening, with more flexible enforcement options and expanded monitoring and investigation powers regarding testing and analysis of samples. The bill also provides for strict liability offences, injunctions and enforceable undertakings—a sliding scale of changing behaviour. We are bolstering due diligence measures by enabling audits to determine compliance with regulations. There is also an extension to the time frame for issuing infringement notices to 24 months. This allows a thorough completion of the audit and associated compliance activities. The bill also enables naming and shaming, with details of contraventions to be published on the department's website. This will act as a deterrent for others seeking to profit from the illegal-logging trade—a business that is doing the wrong thing and turning a blind eye could be called out for so doing.

This bill is an important part of ensuring that our illegal-logging legislation remains in step with international efforts to stamp out the practice and the trade. Strengthening traceability processes and regulatory systems will make Australia an unattractive destination for those seeking to profit from illegal logging and all the harm that goes with it. It will also enhance our reputation for and commitment to sustainable timber production. These measures will minimise the negative effect of the trade on our local industries and supply chains.

The bill also enjoys broad support from the forestry industry and environmental stakeholders, as the CEO of the Australian Forest Products Association pointed out:

Illegal timber not only undermines the environmental sustainability of the forest products industry, it also undermines our domestic biosecurity protections creating a heightened risk of potentially devastating pests and diseases that can devastate local industry.

I note that the opposition have indicated their support for this legislation as well.

I'd like to end by taking a moment to look at the broader picture. The amendments in this bill are in line with the Albanese Labor government's commitment to supporting global action on climate change, to protecting biodiversity and to stopping species extinction. In just two years in government, Labor has developed a nature repair market and expanded the water trigger so that oil, gas and fracking projects need to be assessed for their impact on our precious water resources. We'll be establishing an independent environment protection agency, a tough green cop on the beat, and the new Environment Information Australia body, which is basically the ABS for the bush. We've made a $100 million investment in faster environmental approvals. The Minister for the Environment and Water is also pressing ahead with consultations for further updates to the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act.

The amendments in this bill also support other key government priorities, such as taking on organised crime and corruption that disadvantage developing countries, particularly indigenous communities. Such matters are concern are everyone's concern, as global citizens, especially for the globe's 13th biggest economy, a country that can have a great role on the stage in terms of leading the middle powers to do the right thing. I commend the bill to the House.

Dan Tehan (Wannon, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Immigration and Citizenship) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

As a general principle, the coalition is happy to support further actions to tighten and strengthen Australia's laws against the importation, sale and use of illegal timber. We're actually pleased that the government has continued the process that we put in place and started, to review and monitor the content, operation and effectiveness of the relevant laws and regulations in this policy area on a number of occasions. More broadly, we're also very pleased that, when it came to the last election, the current government basically took a carbon copy of our policy and decided to implement it. They haven't implemented it in the way that we think, in the end, is proving all that effective. But, in this area, they did decide to match our $4.4 million commitment to strengthen Australia's fight against illegal logging and stop illegal timber imports from undercutting Australian producers. In relation to the Illegal Logging Prohibition Amendment (Strengthening Measures to Prevent Illegal Timber Trade) Bill specifically we're also pleased that Labor has continued the considerable work that we started when we were in government in respect of reviewing the sun setting of the Illegal Logging Prohibition Regulation 2012.

We all need to make sure that we get the balance right, in this area. We have to make sure that we understand we place regulatory burdens upon our industry, upon the people who import timber, and, sadly, we've seen the need to import more and more timber, given that state governments are shutting down native forest logging, versus the need and desire to make sure we are not seeing the exploitation by illegal loggers of forests overseas. This is where in Australia, sadly, we aren't getting the balance right. By shutting down more and more of our native timber industries, what we are doing is putting more and more pressure on us as a nation to have to import timber, and that brings with it real consequences, including supply constraints. What we're seeing now is housing builds at their lowest level in well over a decade, and that's what happens when you do not manage things properly.

Honourable Member:

An honourable member interjecting—

Dan Tehan (Wannon, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Immigration and Citizenship) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

There's laughter on the other side, but, seriously, there are people at the moment who are sleeping rough because they can't get access to houses, because they can't afford to rent. We're seeing this problem exacerbated and exacerbated.

Honourable members interjecting—

Lisa Chesters (Bendigo, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The member will be heard in silence.

Dan Tehan (Wannon, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Immigration and Citizenship) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Those opposite might laugh at that, but this is what is happening under their watch. We all know the impacts of illegal logging are widespread: deforestation, damage to forest ecosystems, the facilitation of organised crime, the use of slave labour and, in an economic sense, a significant distortion of the free and fair operation of timber markets.

As I've said, we welcome this movement by the government, following all the work that we have done. There were two major reviews under us when we were in government. The first was the KPMG review in 2015 examining the impact of the Illegal Logging Prohibition Regulation, specifically on small business. The second was a statutory review of the act that was undertaken in 2018 by the then Department of Agriculture and Water Resources. Each of those reviews shed important light on how we could potentially strengthen our approach to countering illegal logging. As Minister Watt has acknowledged, this particular bill gives expression to two important improvements identified as part of those previous reviews.

Once again, continuity between good policy development and implementation in this specific area when we were in government and action by the current government shows that, when the government follows the approach of the coalition and follows it strictly, you do get good outcomes. But if it doesn't then you don't get those good outcomes. Sadly, we're seeing that in a lot of areas.

What is this bill seeking to do? First, we would like more information around time frames and about how the content of each new regulation and rule might look, because we want to make sure that, when it comes to this bill, the good ideas and good policy turn into good implementation as well.

More generally—and I touched on this previously—one of the concerns we have with the approach being taken by the government is that it is potentially going to lead to us needing more and more timber imported into this nation. One of the things I would say to the environment minister is, 'What you should be doing is making sure, especially when it comes to Tasmania, but in other states as well, that you're honouring the commitment made by the Prime Minister that native forest harvesting would occur in Tasmania.' That was an ironclad commitment that was given and that we would like to see the environment minister come out and back 100 per cent.

We would also like to see the federal Labor government start calling out more and more state governments that are putting an end to native forestry. We're seeing this in Victoria, and we're starting to see the cost and detriment of this approach. In western Victoria we're seeing areas which are being harmed, in particular in and around Raglan in my electorate of Wannon, where the community is absolutely shocked and has been devastated by the Victorian state government's approach to native forestry. We're also seeing it in Gippsland, and it's having flow-on consequences. What it means is that, in order to get timber, we're seeing a move away from native forestry and, once again, an increase in the use of plantations to make up for the fact that we don't have access to that native forest.

Plantation timber, planted in the right areas, done in conjunction with farmers and well planned with our agriculture sector, obviously has a place. But what we're seeing now—and this is deeply, deeply concerning—is our prime agricultural land being used, once again, for plantation timber, without any planning and without any proper consultation with local communities.

We've seen overseas investment—for instance, a $200 million fund just buying into high-value, high-rainfall agricultural land—without the community being reassured about the impact that this might have. This can be devastating. Once again, when it comes to the government, there doesn't seem to be any planning and there doesn't seem to be any proper consultation or any understanding about how we need to manage our land. If we all end up just subsidising one means of production over another, through one form or another, then that can have a huge detrimental effect on our nation, especially when a lot of the value-adding that goes on in our agriculture sector is dependent on, for instance, dairy or beef being produced on that land. So getting this balanced approach right is absolutely crucial. What my communities have seen and are saying to me is that this is not the current approach that we're seeing from the federal government.

We wouldn't be seeing these pressures if there weren't these ideological decisions being taken to stop native forest harvesting. Native forest harvesting has been done properly and correctly in this nation for decades. It has provided jobs in this nation for many, many years—

An opposition member interjecting

Those opposite can laugh, but I can tell them that there are timber communities in Victoria absolutely devastated by the decisions that are being taken. It's not a laughing matter when your job has been lost, and I think that to laugh in such a cynical way is absolutely insulting those timber communities.

We have to make sure in everything that we do that we get the balance right. I want to see some proper planning and understanding that if we don't then what we are going to see is our prime, food-producing agricultural land competing with other forms and means of production. Ultimately, this will mean that we're going to feed fewer people and that is not good for our nation.

The opposition supports this bill because, sadly, it's becoming more and more important that we import more timber. This is because of what's being done to our native forests and our ability to harvest those native forests in a sustainable way. We do need to get this right; we have to make sure that we get the regulatory environment right. It does seem in this one instance that the government is following the very good policies and procedures which were put in place by the previous coalition government. But I take this opportunity to say to the government: getting your planning right as to how we balance plantation timber versus our rural land—our high-producing agricultural land—is incredibly important, and is getting more and more important.

Brian Mitchell (Lyons, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Illegal Logging Prohibition Amendment (Strengthening Measures to Prevent Illegal Timber Trade) Bill 2024.

Let's make sure we draw the distinction here: illegal logging is a major global problem. The theft, laundering and trade of illegal timber happens across the world in all types of forests. Driven mostly by profit, illegal logging negative impacts on forest ecosystems, communities and economies. It is the world's most profitable environmental crime and it is linked to corruption, organised crime, civil war, exploitation and violations of human rights. In 2020, the tropics lost more than 12 million hectares of canopy—that's nearly 30 soccer fields going under the bulldozer every single minute. And none of it is replaced. The United Nations and Interpol estimate that illegal logging costs the global community up to $240 billion every year. That makes it the largest environmental crime, by value, in the world.

Australia is not immune to illegally logged products. Trade in low priced, illegally sourced timber undermines the prices that can be obtained for local, sustainably produced timber products. If you import wood, pulp or paper products into Australia or you process Australian-grown raw logs, the legislation now before the House affects you. You have legal responsibilities and you need to know your obligations. Under Australian law, illegal logging means the harvesting of timber in contravention of the laws of the country where the timber is harvested. This includes a wide range of illegal activities, such as logging of protected species, logging in protected areas, logging with fake or illegal permits and using illegal harvest methods. These have negative effects on supply chains, business decisions, industry profitability, investment and jobs in the Australian economy.

Timber harvesting in Australia is sustainably managed and regulated to the highest environmental standards in the world. Regional forest agreements are required to conform with the objectives of the act. I know there is a lot of disagreement across the House and even within political parties about the role of timber harvesting, particularly native timber harvesting, but the fact is that as a sector it is remarkably well managed and, overall, sustainable. It's not perfect; no agriculture sector is. There are pollution aspects of dairy farming and there are land-clearing aspects of beef farming and, I'm sure, other subsectors of agriculture. Timber harvesting has its issues as well but, by and large, it is highly regulated, and it creates a lot of jobs and is very important for regional communities. It is vital that we draw a distinction. Native forestry practice in Australia is nothing like the illegal operations that exist overseas, particularly across the tropics, and any attempt to draw parallels between illegal logging overseas and native forestry in Australia must be condemned.

The Australian government is committed to working with the international community to address illegal logging. In 2012 Australia introduced world-leading illegal logging prohibition legislation that was amongst the first of its kind internationally. That legislation seeks to reduce the harmful impact of illegal logging by restricting the importation and sale of illegally logged timber products in Australia and the processing of domestically grown raw logs that have been illegally logged. However, recent reviews of that legislation have identified challenges associated with its enforcement, including in identifying contraventions and taking appropriate and timely compliance action. Further, international approaches to regulating the illegal timber trade have evolved since 2012, especially with the successful use of cutting-edge timber identification technologies in some countries. This bill seeks to address the challenges with the current legislation and modernise it to ensure that it is fit for purpose now and into the future.

This bill aims to amend the act to consolidate offences in the act with civil penalty provisions currently in the regulation for clarity and consistency in accordance with the principles in the Guide to Framing Commonwealth Offences, Infringement Notices and Enforcement Powers; to provide for audits to be undertaken in relation to whether importers of regulated timber products and processors of raw logs have complied with their due diligence requirements, to better identify patterns of compliance or noncompliance with the legislation; and to enable the making of decisions on further enforcement or educational activities in relation to regulated entities. It will also provide for alternative and more flexible enforcement options, including through the addition of strict liability offences and civil penalty provisions.

The bill will extend the monitoring and investigation powers under the Regulatory Powers (Standard Provisions) Act 2014 in relation to taking, testing and analysing samples of regulated timber products and trigger the provisions in the act relating to injunctions and enforceable undertakings.

It will enable inspectors under the act to exercise regulatory power in relation to regulated timber products that are subject to biosecurity and customs control, including taking, testing and analysing samples of the regulated timber products in order to determine their species and harvest origin. Timber testing can confirm if timber products are illegally sourced through closely pinpointing the species and harvest origin, and facilitates assessment of the adequacy of an importer's or processor's due diligence.

It will provide for the time period within which an infringement notice may be given under the Regulatory Powers Act in respect of a strict liability offence or a civil penalty provision of the act to be 24 months to allow sufficient time for compliance action. It will require notice to be given of regulated timber products brought into Australia and unloaded at a landing place or port in Australia, and of the processing of raw logs within Australia, to allow for more efficient compliance action. It authorises the use and disclosure of relevant information under the act in certain circumstances, and the publication of details of contraventions of the act on the department's website to provide a further deterrent for noncompliance.

It provides protection from civil proceedings in the exercise of certain powers or the performance of functions under the act, to align with similar protections in other portfolio legislation. It ensures provisions apply to importers of regulated timber products and processors of raw logs that are partnerships, trusts or unincorporated bodies and associations. It also enables disallowable rules to be made by the minister under the act to provide for matters that require more frequent adjustment, to ensure regulatory settings are appropriate and effective. Overall, this makes the act better and stronger and more suited for the decade ahead.

I am absolutely proud—very proud—to represent the forestry communities and forestry workers of my electorate of Lyons and of my home state of Tasmania. They do fantastic work. Around 70,000 Australians are directly employed in the growing and processing of forest products, and tens of thousands more are indirectly supported along supply chains. In Tasmania, the sector supports around 5,000 jobs. Annually, the sector generates $23 billion of economic activity.

I had the pleasure of welcoming the Prime Minister to Tasmania over the weekend to announce the phenomenal $11.3 billion of investment into housing. We want quality and homegrown Tasmanian timber to build our new Tasmanian homes. At the moment, most of the construction timber in Tassie comes from the mainland. Of course it is all plantation timber—that's just the nature of the construction industry. I know I stand at perhaps some differential with members of my own party on this, but I believe there is absolutely a place to continue native forest logging. I've been very happy with the Prime Minister and the agriculture minister. They've been quite clear that there is a place for native forest harvesting, particularly in Tasmania, but, as we know, it generally comes under state jurisdiction. The fact is there is a place for it and it has a role. It is absolutely highly regulated.

I recently met with Marcus Courtney from McKay Timber in Prospect Vale in my electorate, who is working wonders making affordable homes from Tasmanian timber. The majority of the Tasmania timber struts are built in the warehouse rather than on-site, meaning they can be built up to three times faster with the same quality workmanship. He puts these struts on this platform and he knocks it together. I asked him, 'How long would it take to construct a home using this sort of mechanism, rather than getting out on site?' He said, 'You know, it would take days rather than weeks.' Of course, the industry is slow to adapt and that's the reality that we have.

It's no secret that there is a shortage of timber worldwide. I'm not sure if many members of the House appreciate the insatiable demand there is worldwide for timber right now. It's very hard to come by and this is why this bill, this amendment to the act, is so important today, because too much of that timber is being illegally sourced. There's big money for illegal loggers to illegally log the rainforests of South-East Asia, across the tropics, Brazil, the Amazon, Laos, Vietnam and other areas. They're there, and they're illegally logging. They're not doing what we do in Tasmania—that is, harvest the tree and replant and manage it for the future; they are cutting down trees, they're deforesting, they're maybe putting in some palm oil plantations and they're absolutely wiping out ecosystems. The best way to stop the pressure on that increasing is to support sustainable harvesting in Tasmania. When you support a sustainable and well-managed industry, and you give it the support it needs, you take the pressure off people who seek timber in going to the illegal suppliers.

Good forestry is absolutely good for the environment. I've got a book here; I'll briefly hold it up, but I know props are not welcomed. It is Heartwood: The Art and Science of Growing Trees for Conservation and Profit, by Rowan Reid. It's a good read. He's a forest scientist, and he makes the point I've made in previous speeches: good forestry is not conservation or industry; it's conservation and industry. Harvesting trees is a renewable industry. We've got timber all around us here—the tables, everything. The carbon is locked up. Having timber in our lives adds to our lives. I can't imagine a world where, if certain segments of the Greens party got their way, we would have none of this; it would all be plastic, cement and concrete, and no timber—terrible! I love having timber in our lives, but it's got to be well managed, well resourced and well regulated—and that's exactly what the Australian industry is. There is always room for improvement, absolutely, but the last thing we want to do is shut it down.

The amendments in this bill 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 now and into the future. By reducing the volume of low-priced, illegally harvested timber, by making sure they're not supplanting the legal marketers, by reducing the volume of low-priced timber and timber products in the Australian market, the bill helps minimise the negative economic impacts that trade in such products has on local, sustainably produced products, supply chains and industry profitability. We reward those who do the right thing.

The reforms in this bill will benefit the businesses and organisations that grow and sustainably harvest, process, manufacture, distribute and sell legally sourced timber and timber products. I thank every single member of my timber communities and timber associations for the hard work they do in making sure we have a sustainable, well-managed timber harvesting industry going forward.

Darren Chester (Gippsland, National Party, Shadow Minister for Regional Education) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It was with great pleasure I had the opportunity to listen to my friend the member for Lyons make his contribution because he is somewhat of a lonely voice of sanity in his own party room when it comes to the sustainable native hardwood timber industry in this nation. There were days in the past where the views of the member for Lyons were consistently held across the entire Labor Party room—but, sadly, those days have long since passed. Unfortunately for him, he is surrounded by colleagues who have actively campaigned for and supported the closure of hardwood timber industries in states like Western Australia and Victoria. I commend the member for Lyons for his contribution and, like him, extend my personal gratitude to the men and women in the Australian hardwood native timber industry who have worked so hard over generations to help create some of the wealth we've enjoyed in our country towns and in our cities. I despair for the way they have been treated by members of the Australian Labor Party in Victoria and Western Australia.

I acknowledge this legislation before us today, the Illegal Logging Prohibition Amendment (Strengthening Measures to Prevent Illegal Timber Trade) Bill 2024, takes some practical steps to protect foreign countries from illegal logging and protect the Australian market—which is something I'm very interested in. But, at the same time, it is impossible to make a speech here today in relation to this bill and not reflect on the abject failure in our own country of the Labor Party, the Greens and the teals to even try to understand the native hardwood timber industry. I also need to demonstrate how their constant undermining of hardworking Australians is having devastating social, economic, environmental and cultural impacts right across our nation but particularly in my electorate of Gippsland.

People actually die as a result of poorly managed public forests. Wildlife dies in extreme fire events when we don't manage our forests well. Today in Victoria, lives are at greater risk now because of poor forest-management decisions, and livelihoods have already been destroyed because of poor public policy and zealots within the government department that was meant to administer a sustainable, world-class timber industry in my state. We have thrown away, in Victoria, a world-class sustainable industry which was 100 per cent renewable. By law in the Victorian forest sector, you had to replant or reseed timber after it had been harvested. Yet, now we have left ourselves exposed to more illegal timber in this country as a direct result of the state Labor government's decision and the federal Labor Party's failure to stand up for one blue-collar worker in my state.

Country communities have been decimated. They are being torn apart because of decisions made by people who don't live in those towns and, in fact, have no interest in living in those towns, but feel they have the right to tell people in those towns what jobs they can and can't have. I've seen some stupid decisions in my political life, but the Victorian government's decision to ban the harvesting of all native hardwood timber was both illogical and bloody-minded. It wins the prize for extreme incompetence. This world-class sector has been under constant attack from activists in the judicial system, from the environmental extremists and from the cowards in elected office who are meant to protect the blue-collar workers in the Labor Party and the Greens are the Teals, who don't want to understand the facts about this industry.

Deputy Speaker Chesters, I know you are a practical, reasonable person and you would instinctively understand this: when it comes to hardwood timber, there are two choices when it comes to timber—you use your own wood or you use someone else's. The demand for hardwood timber isn't going away. The previous speaker made that very clear—demand for hardwood timber isn't going away. Sure, pine plantations can do some of the work, and structural work, with housing, but hardwood timber it is still going to be an essential part of our economy going forward. You either use your own wood, your own timber and your own forests in a sustainable way or you use someone else's. In Australia today we already import $5½ billion worth of wood products. We already have a trade deficit in timber products. As this legislation reflects, and as the agencies would fully acknowledge, it is incredibly difficult to impose Australia's environmental standards on other countries, to detect illegal activity and to investigate, and we are taking timber from countries which have poor environmental standards in the first place. Again, you can either use your own wood in an environmentally sustainable way, or you can rely on imported wood, over which you have almost no control.

Just look around this building—the member for Lyons reflected on this as well. Just look around this building or any public building or our own homes. Here in Parliament House the timber walls that surround the two levels of the entry hall are made from a variety of timbers—limed white birch, brush box and jarrah. The Speaker's chair in the House of Representatives was made by craftsman David Upfill-Brown from solid and veneer grey box. We could have gone down to Bunnings and got an imported Chinese camping chair, but we decided to use sustainable hardwood timber instead. Thank God the people who designed this building supported the native hardwood timber industry in this country! The Speaker's chair is made from Australian hardwood.

The industry in my community, despite the cuts to using their own native timber in our own region, still provide structural timber, which is used for homes, high-grade wood for furniture, and wood for musical instruments. Surely, our friends in the Greens and the Teals can at least agree that hardwood timber used for musical instruments is a worthwhile cause. That was timber that used to be harvested in my electorate, as well as a range of other everyday and essential products. You take your kids to basketball or gymnastics on a hardwood floor. That hasn't come from a pine plantation; that has come from sustainably harvested Australian hardwood timber. Going forward, I'm not sure where we're going to get that timber from, because right now in Victoria we're already raiding other states. Timber is coming from Queensland, New South Wales and Tasmania and being processed in Victoria. Timber's even coming from foreign countries to be processed in Victoria, value-added in my electorate and sold in the Melbourne market.

The most ridiculous aspect of this whole debate is that we already had an established system of reserves in place to ensure that our biodiversity, our long-term environmental needs and our obligations to future generations were being met. Just six per cent of the total area of native forest in Victoria was available for possible harvest. That left 94 per cent of Victoria's natural forest preserved in national parks and in high-conservation-value areas. That was a world-class conservation approach and a balanced approach to the hardwood timber industry in our state.

I just want to correct some of the rhetoric that you hear in this place—and it stems from ignorance, but I just want to correct it. People like to equate the hardwood timber industry in Victoria and across Australia with terms like 'deforestation' or 'land clearing'. Deputy Speaker Chesters, you and I both know that is simply not true. The sustainably managed native hardwood timber industry involves regeneration and replanting for future generations to sustainably yield that timber in decades to come. This is not land clearing or deforestation. It is sustainably managing a public reserve to ensure that future generations will also have access to incredible Australian hardwood timber.

Victoria was leading the way in making sure that the timber it was harvesting was being used for more high-value purposes than it had ever been in the past. The modern timber mill—and I'd invite anyone listening who hasn't had the opportunity to visit a modern timber mill to take the opportunity when they get the chance—is not an old sawbench with blokes in blue singlets who are missing a couple of fingers doing a very dangerous task, trying to get every last little stick out of the bush. The modern timber mill is highly technical—computerised to a large extent—turning very small bits of hardwood timber into highly valuable structural-grade products, which are in massive demand across the nation.

Future generations would benefit from a change of policy in Victoria and Western Australia to allow a sustainable hardwood timber industry to continue, and I call on everyone in this place to be vigilant to the extremists on the crossbench and to some of the Labor Party, who want to shut down the entire Australian hardwood timber industry, rely entirely on imported products and leave us exposed to being part of the illegal trade in timber, which is at the very core of the bill before the House today.

'Lock it up and leave it' is not a forestry policy; it's a recipe for disaster. We have seen this in Victoria so many times. In the Black Summer bushfires, which roared through my electorate, every one of those fires started on public land. There were lightning strikes in dry conditions in poorly maintained public forests. These were not arsonists. These were not accidents with angle grinders or someone making a mistake on a farm somewhere. These were fires that were initiated on public land. They roared across the interface of public land and private land and caused massive damage, including the loss of lives.

We need active forest management in our regional communities. Active forest management allows for a range of uses, including sustainable native hardwood timber, ecotourism, four-wheel driving, prospecting and camping. The skills of the people involved in the timber industry are incredibly important for keeping my community safe not only in times of disaster—when the fire's actually burning—but also in maintaining the logging tracks and access for everyone else to get out there and enjoy the bush. We want people in the bush. People who go out in the forests actually appreciate the biodiversity and the conservation values of those areas, and they respect the fact that you can sustainably harvest some timber and also leave large areas of conservation for the wildlife and their habitat and improve the biodiversity of that region.

Just on that biodiversity point, I have to make this point: does anyone seriously believe that a monoculture pine plantation or a monoculture blue gum plantation of hardwood achieve a better biodiversity outcome than a sustainably managed, mixed species forest on public land, harvested on a 50-, 60- or 70-year rotational basis? It is madness to think that plantations are the sole answer to our future timber industry needs, and it's madness to then try to claim that there are biodiversity benefits from that model in comparison with mixed-species forests on public land.

What concerns me the most is that there are members opposite who used to stand up for blue-collar workers. They used to say that they supported the timber industry. But they've abandoned them in their time of need. Even this Prime Minister, who before the election said he supported the hardwood timber industry, has specifically excluded native timber hardwood businesses from accessing the National Reconstruction Fund—specifically excluded the native hardwood timber industry from that fund in a dirty deal done with the Australian Greens. Again, I stress that in the middle of a housing affordability and timber-supply-chain crisis, there are two choices with timber products: use your own, grown here in a sustainably managed way, or buy it from somewhere else. The Teals led pledge to end native hardwood timber harvesting across Australia is an incredibly foolhardy commitment, but it's coming from a place of ignorance and also a place of extreme privilege. The Teals and the Greens, in total area of electoral representation in this parliament, actually represent 1,100 square kilometres in total. The Liberals and Nationals represent 5½ million square kilometres. We've had a gutful in country Victoria and regional Australia more broadly of being told which jobs we can and can't have by people who have no intention of living alongside us—who lived in their privileged suburbs. For example: in the leafy suburb of Glen Iris, the average household income is $2,409 a week. And the member for Kooyong, Monique Ryan, is spearheading the charge to destroy the timber industry across the nation. The Greens leader, Adam Bandt, has Docklands in his seat. It has an average weekly income of $957, and in Caulfield, held by Labor's Josh Burnes, the average is $2,143. All three of those members actively campaigned to end the hardwood timber industry in my community. In Orbost, the town most impacted by the timber industry closure, the average household income is $785. The most privileged people in this country and the most privileged people in this building are telling some of the poorest Australians what jobs they can and can't have.

So in making my comments here today I want to highlight that Australia has a highly developed system of reserves and national parks already in place which can never be harvested. The plantation sector, while part of the solution, is not capable of meeting the demand in the foreseeable future. We need to stand up and fight to make sure we can secure the future of a sustainable native hardwood timber industry in this country and protect the jobs of the people who have worked so hard to care for their families in those communities.

Sitting suspended from 12:57 to 15:59

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

Forests provide a range of vital environmental services, including carbon sequestration, biodiversity preservation, temperature regulation, soil conservation and water regulation and conservation. Illegal logging destroys homes, endangers our water supply, endangers species and affects culture. Despite its active plantation timber industry Australia has in recent years imported increasing amounts of timber, to the value of approximately $6.9 billion in 2022-23. We import timber from 135 countries, the top five being China, New Zealand, Indonesia, Germany and Malaysia. The Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry recently noted that as much as 10 per cent of our annual timber and wood based imports could be illegally logged timber. That trade in illegal imports globally reduces the price of legal timber, such as in our own plantation stock, by as much as seven to 16 per cent.

We already have a regulatory framework aimed at reducing the harmful environmental, social and economic impacts of illegal logging. The Illegal Logging Prohibition Act 2012 and its regulations apply to both the import into this country of raw and processed timber products and the processing of domestically grown raw logs. They require importers and processors to conduct a structured risk assessment process before importing a regulated timber product or processing domestically grown raw logs.

Several reviews of Australia's Timber Legality Framework have been conducted over the last decade, and this bill, the Illegal Logging Prohibition Amendment (Strengthening Measures to Prevent Illegal Timber Trade) Bill 2024, will implement improvements identified as needed in two of those: the Statutory review of the Illegal Logging Prohibition Act 2012 and the Sunsetting review of the Illegal Logging Prohibition Regulation 2012. I note the statutory review conducted by the then Department of Agriculture and Water Resources found that 'determining the extent to which the act has achieved the government's policy objectives remains challenging'. This was because 'there was limited concrete data available to measure the impact of the act'. In fact, that review relied largely on internal departmental data—including the compliance assessments—on trade data, on information obtained in previous reviews and even on anecdotal evidence.

The subsequent sunsetting review of the regulation found that as much as 40 per cent of imported timber is misrepresented in terms of both its species and its origin and that the department's reliance on desktop audits for compliance action is both inefficient and ineffective. It found that the legislative framework does not allow for emerging technical solutions and that our Timber Legality Framework lags behind best practice developments in other jurisdictions. The sunsetting of those regulations has now been deferred until 1 April 2025, and we don't as yet have a draft of the proposed replacement regulations.

Those matters are of concern but my interest in this bill relates primarily to section 15, which relates to the processing of domestically grown but illegally logged raw logs. The sad fact is while there are clearly significant issues with illegal logging internationally this issue is a big problem domestically too, and there is a reason why there are fewer swift parrots in this world than orangutans.

In my home state of Victoria, logging is theoretically regulated by the Code of Practice for Timber Production 2014. However, between 2009 and 2017 more than 300 breaches of this code were submitted to the forest regulator within the Victorian Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning, and not a single breach was prosecuted. In 2019 an independent report into DELWP's failure to monitor or regulate logging found that it had neither the capacity nor the capability to achieve its objectives. Those violations of the law led to numerous court cases in which local community groups have prosecuted the Victorian government's logging agency, VicForests, for illegal logging. The Victorian government's shameful and quixotic response has been to repeatedly change the timber production code to make it harder for communities to take legal action against VicForests. Further, in response to local communities surveying for threatened species, and for illegal logging within native forests, and for their protests within logging coupes, the Victorian government has enacted laws that threaten community members with a $21,000 fine or 12 months in jail.

Communities keep fighting back. In October 2022, Warburton Environment Inc. won a landmark Supreme Court Case against VicForests over the agency's failure to protect tree geebungs from logging. Also in 2022, the Victorian Supreme Court found that VicForests broke the law in failing to protect endangered gliders when logging in Gippsland and in central Victoria. In late 2023 the Victorian Supreme Court ordered VicForests to halt salvage logging in the Wombat State Forest after a community group alleged that VicForests had failed to survey appropriately for threatened species. VicForests had used a computer program with habitat distribution models. It had used a computer program to survey for threatened species. It argued in court that a desktop analysis should suffice in determining the presence or absence of endangered species in forests. In this, as in other matters, VicForests has misled the public.

Just yesterday, The Age reported on the death of an endangered greater glider on a Victorian Department of Environment tree-felling site in the Yarra Ranges National Park. Forest Fire Management Victoria has been removing what it claims are hazardous trees in that national park to maintain a strategic fuel break. On 6 May, Matt Ruchel, the Executive Director of the Victorian National Parks Association, warned the fire management agency. He warned the department's secretary, and the federal and state ministers' offices, about sightings of greater gliders and Leadbeater's possums in trees identified for removal.

The Victorian state government, through its agent, VicForests, is acting in active contravention of the Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act. That act requires the referral, assessment and approval of all operations likely to have significant impacts on listed threatened species. Yesterday, in that coupe, an endangered greater glider was found dead as a direct result of the neglect of VicForests. I call today on the federal Minister for the Environment and Water to act immediately to halt the illegal actions of VicForests and to hold the Victorian Minister for Environment to account for these activities.

The Victorian government officially ended harvesting of our state forests on 1 January 2024. This announcement was welcome, but it was quite misleading. While logging operations which were part of the state's timber release plan have come to an end, this did not apply to logging operations under the timber utilisation plan. That plan relates to logging coupes in the western defined forest area, most of which expire in June 2024, but there is as yet no clarity for what happens to those areas after June. Despite the fact that native forest logging has officially ceased during the first half of this year, VicForests has continued to remove large logs from the Wombat State Forest under the guise of debris cleanup or salvage logging, and it has allegedly continued to sell those logs via its vehicle, Forest Fire Management Victoria.

How the Victorian state government plans to manage forests after VicForests ceases to exist on 1 June is unclear. The plan for the employees of VicForests is unknown. It is utterly unclear how we are going to continue to monitor for illegal monitoring in our native forests after that date. What we should do, what we could do, is clear: we should ban the sale of all timber cut as part of salvaged logging or debris cleanup in native forests. There should be no market for wood obtained in the process of logging for fire breaks and other so-called fire protection measures. Only by abolishing those markets altogether can we stop the exploitation and abuse of the existing rules around timber.

In 2021 the Victorian state government pledged a commitment to establish three new national parks which would legally protect the central-west areas of Victoria from future natural resource exploitation. Those parks are not due to be legalised until 2030. They include the Wombat-Lerderderg National Park, the Pyrenees and the Mount Buangor National Park. Until those parks are legalised, logging of those state forests can continue.

I call on the state government to immediately enact the Victorian forest plan for industry transition, which includes diverting a proportion of commercial timber plantations from export to support our local industry, thereby ensuring the sustainable local production of high-grade timber products. There will be many retraining and other work opportunities and replanting programs for logged areas. These should include programs to address soil erosion, protect our water catchments and monitor the health of our forests. We could improve our plantation wood production so that, instead of exporting 97 per cent of our plantation eucalypt pulp logs, we process them on country, creating Australian jobs.

The Australian government also needs to work with the Victorian state government to establish the proposed Great Forest National Park, thereby protecting and expanding the habitat of many endangered species and linking isolated forest reserves. The governments should collectively bring forward and prioritise the formation of those three new national parks.

At the same time, it makes sense to better fund and promote tourism, education, cultural awareness and management programs relating to Victoria's magnificent native forests, including funding for jobs in environmental protection and forest restoration in collaboration with First Nations people. Those programs could support positive alternatives, such a small-scale farm industry and sustainable social enterprises like the CERES Fair Wood scheme.

This act previously required that a statutory review be undertaken after five years of the legislation. This was in a section that will be repealed by this bill but hasn't been replaced with any further requirements for regular statutory reviews of the act's operation and effectiveness. Rather, the bill suggests that the secretary could, at his or her discretion, publish reports about the operation of this act—or could not, as the case might be.

This contrasts pretty starkly with the frameworks for the control of illegal logging in other jurisdictions. In the EU, timber regulation is subject to six-yearly reviews and requires the publication of a biannual report on the application of the regulation based on information provided by the member states. In Canada, an annual report on infrastructure administration of the relevant act and a yearly review of enforcement provisions have to be tabled in parliament.

The EIA and CIEL have also recommended that the government publish an annual report of compliance activities, due diligence checks and any other relevant enforcement actions, including fines, court cases and audits, as well as the publication of substantiated third-party concerns. Given particularly that the statutory report we've already seen identified high levels of noncompliance with the previous iteration of this legislation, and given the notable, frequent and egregious violations of this legislation domestically, the legislation has to be accompanied by regular monitoring and by transparent reporting of its effectiveness.

Victorians deserve clarity about the state and federal government's plans for the management of native forests in our state. We need to know and deserve to know that the regulatory framework around domestic timber is such that illegally logged timber will be identified and that persons removing timber illegally from protected areas will be dealt with appropriately. We need to know that this legislation will be subjected to appropriate statutory review sufficient to provide reassurance regarding compliance, due diligence and responses to concerns of interested third parties.

I will be moving an amendment to this bill during its consideration in detail stage in order to push the government further on action in this area, with an aim of appropriate review of this legislation at reasonable periods. I signal to the government my commitment to further action in this area.

David Gillespie (Lyne, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This bill, the Illegal Logging Prohibition Amendment (Strengthening Measures to Prevent Illegal Timber Trade) Bill 2024, is an important one, but I would like to highlight that this is a process that the former government started when we were in the government benches. At the last election, the Labor Party agreed to and carbon copied the coalition's forestry policies. We don't mind plagiarism, but we want that to be on the record. All the things that have been said and done since the election are what have me concerned about illegal logging.

We all know about orangutans. We all know about palm oil plantations in tropical parts of the world with remnant tropical vegetation. We've all heard stories about Brazil and other countries in South America; about our near neighbours to the north of us, Papua New Guinea and Indonesia; and other places. There are international standards for sustainable timber, but unfortunately most of what I would class as illegal is, technically, not illegal. Currently in Queensland they're given a leave pass to destroy native remnant vegetation, all with the aim of trying to save the world by building 600,000 hectares of haulage roads and 110 renewable energy projects down the Great Dividing Range. This is adjacent to and disrupting what the last speaker mentioned: linking up national parks so there are continuous areas. Well, guess what? The wind industry and the solar farm industry have bought a lot of that.

There is a regulation that says you can just go to the local council if it's a renewable energy project. You don't even have to put it before the council. Under that regulation, a project can get approved by the CEO of a council. There is no environmental impact study required. It's strange and outrageous. Yes, I can hear you all shouting. That's because it is outrageous.

If you want to put new pasture in your paddocks to grow protein, crops or anything like that, you can be taken to court under the environmental laws in New South Wales and in many states. Yet there is a leave pass being given to the environmental vandals who are carpetbagging the country and who are getting paid huge, upfront, large generation certificates and renewable energy certificates. Then they get a leave pass to ignore the environmental guidelines that the whole country has to deal with. It's outrageous, and it's been happening for too long.

What is happening in Queensland is outrageous. All 110 of these projects have been recorded visually and cartographically by a trained cartographer, Steven Nowakowski, who was a one-time Greens candidate and is an avid environmentalist. The environmental footprint of the renewable rollout is actually destroying way more than any illegal logging in Australia is. To put things in perspective: in native forestry in Australia there are around 132 million hectares of native forest area, and only 0.06 per cent of this area—the equivalent of six trees out of every 10,000 trees—is harvested annually from native forests. In my own state, New South Wales has 9.5 million hectares of native forest. Only 20,000 hectares of that 9.5 million hectares of native forest is harvested. That's 0.2 per cent. There are three hectares of national park for every one hectare of state forest.

The tragedy is that we are importing timber from these tropical countries that don't have a regulated forestry industry that is sustainable. In forestry in Australia it isn't deforestation. Foresters plant trees. A lot of the native forest that is cleared has so much seed burden in the soil that, when they selectively harvest, the soil movement leads to spontaneous regeneration. I have lived amongst native forest. I have cycled through native forest in my own area. The first time I saw a coupe being cleared, about 1½ kilometres from my home, I was shocked because I hadn't been in a forestry area—I'm talking about 33 or more years ago. I was absolutely shocked. I thought: 'Oh, my God! Now I know what the Greens are going on about! I'm going to sign up.' But I went into the state forestry department, and they sat me down and taught me all about—

Hon. Members:

Honourable members interjecting—

David Gillespie (Lyne, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Obviously I didn't join the Greens. I came to my senses! It was a brief microsecond. I had a cup of tea, a Bex and good lie down and I got over it. But I also was informed about the facts.

Historically, the deal with these trees was that one hectare in 50 was selectively harvested every year. The native seed burden in the soil led to regeneration. We have a series of regional forest agreements around the country so that there are areas set aside for forestry that are the best areas for forestry, not for houses and not for farming. The north-east of New South Wales has a $2 billion native forest industry that is entirely sustainable. It is $2 billion worth of economic activity. The trees that are harvested are replaced many times over by new trees that sprout. I have lived it. The same areas that I cycled through on my mountain bike when I first moved to Wauchope, known as timber town—back in the heyday, there were 22 timber mills in Hastings Valley. There are now a couple. It is sustainable now. About three years after the conversation with the Wauchope forestry office, it was exactly like they said: I was cycling through there and there were small trees; now there are large trees 25 years later. It all grows back. When these activists who have lived in concrete and tarmac cities and feel guilty see forestry, they see deforestation.

In some countries there is deforestation in forestry, there are underhanded deals, they aren't sustainably managed and they don't get certification, but—hey presto—some of it is in our building products in Australia. We now have to import $5.5 billion worth of timber from overseas, yet we are shutting down our timber industry. Guess what? The paper my notes are printed on is probably a remnant store from before Australia's last paper mill closed. We make cardboard in this country, but all of our paper is now imported—I kid you not. Dan Andrews closed the last paper mill in Victoria because they didn't have security of supply.

The other thing is that everyone says there is a disaster looming: that koalas are going to go extinct. I don't know if I can table a document—this is something that everyone can look up—but on Monday Dr Brad Law published an article on the broadscale acoustic monitoring of koala populations. Dr Law is a principal research scientist at the New South Wales Department of Primary Industries. He was supported by other scientists, Leroy Gonsalves, Traecey Brassil and Isobel Kerr; the Forestry Corporation; and the Port Macquarie Koala Hospital. They were all involved in this study going over seven or more years. They started in 2015, and it was just published. This monitoring indicates that there are no endangered koalas.

The biggest threat to koala populations was not logging, because logging in Australia is harvesting, like corn. You harvest corn and you harvest wheat. Being harvested doesn't mean that corn and wheat go extinct. Another crop grows. It's just that, with forestry, the crops only get harvested between 30 and 50 years in a native forest. They all grow back. The areas that I've cycled through have been cleared at least five times. Some of my constituents are 95-year-old timber cutters who know the forests. They say there's no shortage of koalas and that the places the koalas go to most are areas that have been managed and partially cleared. That's because—hey presto!—koalas aren't like chimpanzees; they can't swing from tree to tree. They have to go down, across the forest floor and then climb up another tree. In a locked-up national park that hasn't had a fire through it—which is another natural process that we keep suppressing—there can be tonnes of debris on the forest floor and koalas can't get through it, so they go into lightly forested areas. This study has confirmed that. The people who have worked in the timber industry for years have always said that, as have my local Indigenous people. They believe in firestick farming and regular burning, which they did for 60,000 years—because they didn't have Toyota HiLuxes and Land Cruisers to get out of the way of a fire. That was their habitat; that's where their food was. They managed the forests by regular burning, not by burning once in every 30 years so it turns into a megafire, like we let happen because we haven't done what the Indigenous people have done for generations.

This study, which is totally scientific—GPS tracking and monitoring of numbers using acoustic techniques and visually, it appears—suggests the megafires that we had in our area in 2019 were a risk but, two years later, koalas are back in there and the forests are returning. People were in tears. People died in our fires. The member for Cowper had equally big fires in his area. It was months before the ones on the south coast, but we had more areas burnt. Fortunately, we had fewer deaths. That's because there was more support available, as it was the only area burning. When it really kicked off in Eden-Monaro it was everywhere all at the same time, and forces were stretched. But, hey presto, the koalas are back.

In South Australia there's an island called Kangaroo Island, and everyone was really sad to see all those poor koalas burnt in the bushfires down there. But, hey presto, if you just google 'koala plague in Kangaroo Island' you'll find they were culling koalas, because their numbers were out of control, a year or 18 months before that.

It's reassuring that we have well-managed forestry. Logging is not a risk. The greatest risk from this study is—wait for it—infrastructure, which means housing and roads. It's not forested areas that are managed well, like they are in New South Wales and used to be in Victoria. Locking up more and more native forests and not having anything done to them is a recipe for 'woodification' of the forests. You lose all the floral diversity. A lot of the small flora need a bushfire, a low-intensity burn, regularly so all the seeds get a chance and you get a much richer forest. That's how Australian forests have evolved.

The only illegal logging I can see going on is the wanton destruction where people think they're going to save the world by building wind farms and solar farms. Solar farms work, on average, only 24 per cent of the time, and, depending on which wind area you're in, wind farms work none of the time or up to, at best, 45 per cent of the time. They give us unstable electricity grids, expensive electricity and environmental destruction on a scale not seen before— (Time expired)

Tania Lawrence (Hasluck, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Illegal logging is an evil for many reasons. It occurs on a small scale within Australia and on a larger, organised scale in a number of other countries. Illegal logging occurs without the regulatory environment that guides logging in most cases. It leads to deforestation at a time when, more than ever, we need to value and preserve our forests. That habitat loss risks species loss, especially where there is a lack of regulation.

Safety and other conditions of work will largely be absent in illegal operations which, unsurprisingly, are often conducted by entities involved in organised crime in other markets. The illegally sourced product, once in the market, will have the effect of reducing the price of comparable timber and timber products through market forces, putting pressure on our own domestic industries. The Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry's website records that the United Nations and Interpol estimate that illegal logging costs the global community up to $240 billion a year, making it the largest environmental crime, by value, in the world. It is salient that when the 2012 legislation was put to the parliament, 12 years ago, Dr Mike Kelly, the then member for Eden-Monaro, upon introducing the bill, estimated of the cost of illegal logging at $60 billion. That is four times less than the current estimate.

In the Beelu forests where I live in Mundaring, we are constantly vigilant for illegal activity. On a regular basis—every few weeks or so—we do see the signs of illegal harvesting of wood, and on a commercial scale. These criminals leave complete devastation in the forest area, because they don't choose trees selectively. This is not an operation that's done with science in mind; they just clear fell everything that's within easy reach, which means there aren't sufficient seeds from other trees to enable regeneration and growth in that forest area. We just end up with leaf litter loss, and it exposes the very hard, gravel soil which is hard for anything else to grow in. We lose the moisture and we lose the habitat for our little tiny species and soil microbes, as well as, obviously, birdlife and other flora and fauna.

Enforcement is primarily a matter for the state and local authorities, but the amendments in this bill, which direct a greater responsibility for traders and retailers, are also going to help. Forestry practice has, from time to time, failed to comply strictly with its legislation, in a number of cases making it easily arguable whether illegal logging has occurred. Those local issues, though, pale into insignificance when we consider the industrial scale of illegal operations in some countries. For example, a report in 2017 described illegal logging in national parks in Cambodia which saw logs transported to Vietnam before being processed there for sale and export. That was in a year when Australia imported $300 million worth of wood from Vietnam. It's important to realise the multinational nature of this problem. If wood is sourced illegally in one country then it may be sold to a third country for processing and even to a manufacturer of furniture and other end products before importation into Australia. We import over a billion dollars worth of wooden or partly-wooden furniture from China each year—some of it, apparently, designed in Sweden.

East Asia has some of the highest deforestation rates in the world, and a number of countries have been identified of being at particular risk for illegal logging. Members may be surprised to learn that New Guinea is the largest exporter of wood in the Pacific, with 3.3 million tonnes exported in 2019, and that New Guinea and the Solomons provide China with virtually all its tropical timber products. The report titled Calculated risk: Australia's exposure to illegal logging by the Washington and Geneva based Environmental Investigation Agency notes that Chinese-produced plywood is inherently at risk of containing illegal timber and that such risks are greatly increased when plywood is produced from tropical timber.

Deforestation has a significant impact on wildfire risk in tropical forests by increasing susceptibility of forests to fire by decreasing precipitation and causing fragmentation in forest coverage. This allows for increased ventilation, sunlight and drying. It also brings warmer temperatures and then the growth of vegetation susceptible to fire. Fire is often used as a deforestation tool, further creating risk, and tropical forests are not well adapted to fire. This can lead to significant biodiversity loss or, as we saw in Hawaii, devastation at a scale that I don't think we have seen for quite some time.

There are also serious problems with illegal logging and deforestation in some countries in Africa and South America. So our laws need to be sufficiently robust to deal with the realities of this trade. In parallel, we need to ensure that regulations made under free trade agreements do not hamper our efforts, or the efforts of other countries, to stamp out the illegal trade.

In Australia, we have been active for over a decade in combating illegal logging and promoting sustainable forestry, both domestically and internationally. One of the key measures in this regard is the Illegal Logging Prohibition Act 2012. This legislation aims to prevent illegally logged timber and timber products from being imported into Australia. It requires Australian importers of timber products to undertake due diligence to ensure that the timber that they are importing has in fact been legally harvested. This due diligence involves gathering information about the timber's origin, species and compliance with relevant laws and regulations, and, of course, importers must also keep records of their due diligence processes. The act applies to a wide range of timber products, including sawn timber, wood panels, pulp and paper. It covers both raw timber and processed products. Importers who fail to comply with the requirements of the act do face penalties.

In addition to having the Illegal Logging Prohibition Act 2012, Australia is also involved in international efforts to combat illegal logging. For example, Australia is a member of the Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade initiative, which aims to address illegal logging through measures such as improved forest governance and the implementation of timber legality assurance schemes.

The prohibition act has had a positive effect on Australia's timber industry and its efforts to combat illegal logging. The act has also raised awareness among Australian importers and consumers about the issues of illegal logging and the importance of sourcing timber products from legal and sustainable sources. Importers are now more aware of their responsibilities to ensure that the timber they import complies with the law. This has led to improved due diligence practices within the timber industry, with importers implementing procedures to gather information about the origin and legality of the timber that they are importing. Some countries, too, have regulations in place that require importers to attest to the legality of the timber products from any country that does not have illegal logging laws in place. Australia avoids these extra processes and costs as a result of our legislative regime, and our products enjoy a strong, positive reputation worldwide.

When the current act was brought into being in 2012, Australia was one of the few countries taking action in this field. The review of the act by the department in 2018 noted that the 2012 act had been used as a legislative model for other jurisdictions and that it contributed to the global effort to eradicate illegal logging. We have nevertheless since been overtaken in our legislation by the many countries that have followed suit. For example, in 2021 the UK government passed their environment act, which required businesses to be able to demonstrate that they have not merely due diligence but a due diligence system in place, which is what this bill does. The five-year statutory review of the act in 2018 identified opportunities to strengthen the act. These included providing clarity on the types of activities captured, increasing the reach of the laws by broadening the conduct and the products regulated under the act, providing the department with more tools and greater flexibility in undertaking compliance activities, and facilitating the department's efficient administration of the act. This bill covers those suggestions and brings our legislation more into line with international best practice.

Importers are aware that they have responsibilities in this trade. Last year, in March, the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry fined 14 furniture importers just over $13,000 each for failures to minimise the risk of importing illegally imported timber.

A division having been called in the House of Representatives—

Sitting suspended from 16:38 to 17:02

As I was saying, I commend officers of the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry for their important and sometimes difficult work in enforcement action. The head of the Compliance and Enforcement Division, Peter Timson, is quoted as stating that still, in 2023, up to 10 per cent of timber products entering Australia could be illegally sourced. He emphasised that timber products coming from one country were sometimes manufactured with illegal timber sourced from a third country. In some cases where we're talking about a large company or turnover, I can imagine that a fine of that size would not be much of a disincentive. Two things that this bill does, though, is to increase the range of offences and that quantum of fines. It also allows the department to name and shame individuals or companies that fail to observe the law. The seriousness of the issue must be matched by the seriousness of our legislative response.

Over time, this bill will see importers much less willing to run foul of the intent of the law. The review of the regulations in 2022 noted that a pilot testing program by the department in 2020 found that up to 40 per cent of products in Australia which were made from imported timber might be misrepresented as to species and origin. Science will be used increasingly to assist in determining whether wood or wood products have originated from illegal operations, and whether the due diligence systems of importers are sturdy and robust. Chloroplast DNA and simple sequence repeat databases are now starting to be used as tracking tools to determine the more exact origin of timber species. For example, the Forest Research Institute Malaysia has comprehensive DNA profile databases for at least five of their important timber species.

In truth, we have enough of a threat to our forests with climate change, and we cannot allow further threats to continue when they can be quelled. The south-west of this country, where Hasluck lies, is experiencing decades of drying due to global warming. The effects of this on our forests near Perth and in the south-west corner are already evident. They're extremely evident on my own property, as even trees that are close to water bodies are simply struggling to survive. I live in the forest and I see these changes. I have beehives, so I can see the micro-effects of what's happening among our forests. The impact of any further deforestation will be compelling. The Bureau of Meteorology statistics confirm the bad news. Our forests are one of the bulwarks we depend upon against even greater ravages of climate change than that which is already inevitable, and we cannot allow them to deteriorate or fail.

This bill is a necessary step. Whether it will be sufficient will be a matter for further serious review, taken seriously, and I hope to be here to help undertake that on behalf of Hasluck. I hear sometimes a refrain that we should not unduly burden business. The department predicts savings in regulatory costs in these changes. In any event, here we face criminal activity and environmental degradation in a climate crisis. We cannot benefit from those activities and cannot look away as legislators. This bill updates the offence and penalty regime, creates additional compliance and enforcement mechanisms, requires a due-diligence system to be in place, and allows for injunctions and enforceable undertakings, and by so doing, implements recommendations of the statutory review from 2018 and the review of the regulations, completed in 2022.

I know that some previous members on the other side of the House were somewhat lukewarm towards this legislation when it was first enacted in 2012. I hope to see more support for ending illegal logging and protecting our forests from those opposite after the passing of 12 further years. I commend the bill and congratulate the minister on his work.

Pat Conaghan (Cowper, National Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Social Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It's nice to speak on a bill where I think every member in the House agrees with the intent to prevent detrimental illegal logging impacts, whether overseas or here. We've all seen those devastating photographs of the Amazon in places in Southeast Asia and Asia. This is not something that I think anyone in this House would condone or support in any way. I know that back in 2021 the coalition government commenced considerable work in review of the sunsetting of the illegal-logging regulations. We on this side of the floor were pleased to see many of the policies proposed by the coalition government continued in 2022, when Labor took the reins. To their credit, Labor pledged $4.4 million to strengthen Australia's fight against illegal logging and to stop illegal timber imports from undercutting Australian producers.

Given the strength of the industry in my own electorate of Cowper in New South Wales, I'm particularly grateful for the acknowledgement of our local producers. In fact, the north-coast forestry industry employs an estimated 5,000 people and contributes $184 million to the local economy just in my electorate alone. Unlike those profiteering from illegal timber, our timber industry members pride themselves on the highest ethical and environmental practices. I've seen it firsthand. Matt and Kristy Parker in Dorrigo took me out for a day and showed me their sustainable, world-class logging practices on their property. We know that the New South Wales native hardwood forest industry is worth $1.8 billion to the economy and employees over 9,000 people—more than half of whom are in the north-east in communities just like mine. For generations, they provided a sustainable industry which selectively harvested forests for timber and fibre, and manufactured the resource into high-grade construction such as timber decking, furniture and other products. I also have to acknowledge Hayden Timbers in Rollands Plains, who at the moment employ, I think, more than 50 people at the yard. They are a generational business and have proved that the native hardwood industry is a sustainable one, using sustainable practices.

Our timber providers are critical not just for my electorate of Cowper but also for Australia as a whole. It's no secret that building material costs have been on the rise for some time and there is a critical need to secure and grow our local timber stock—more now than ever. We need to see our sovereignty protected, and to do this we need those jobs protected and to see our sustainable timber stock as well maintained and utilised as possible. We need to provide protection and support to an industry that literally keeps roofs over our heads. I acknowledge this bill goes some way to do that and I support the principles here to support and protect our industry.

My passionate colleague the member for Gippsland, unfortunately in his state of Victoria has seen the decimation—

A division having been called in the House of Representatives—

Sitting suspended from 17:10 to 17:37