Joe Ludwig (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Manager of Government Business in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

I table the exposure draft and explanatory memorandum of the Illegal Logging Prohibition Bill 2011 and seek leave to move a motion to refer the document to a committee. Additionally, I seek leave to incorporate in Hansard a statement setting out the reasons.

Leave granted.

I move:

That the exposure draft and explanatory memorandum of the Illegal Logging Prohibition Bill 2011 be referred to the Rural Affairs and Transport Legislation Committee for inquiry and report by 10 May 2011.

Question agreed to.

The statement read as follows—

Exposure Draft - Illegal Logging Prohibition Bill 2011

I am pleased to table a draft of legislation and a draft explanatory memorandum for the Illegal Logging Prohibition Bill 2011.

I refer the draft materials to the Senate Standing Committee on Rural Affairs and Transport and ask them to hold a public inquiry and report back to the Senate by 29 April.

Thic draft hill delivers nn a commitment the I ahnr Party made in 7007 and reiterated in 2010. By referring the drafts, I am also fulfilling an undertaking that I made in December 2010 to introduce the legislation after public consultation.

The government has already consulted widely with forest industry stakeholders, manufacturers and retailers of wood products, and with conservation interests on this matter.

The legislation benefits from substantial research commissioned by the government including a proposed framework for assessing and managing the risk of sourcing illegally logged timber products, a generic code of conduct and regulatory and small business impact statements.

The committee may wish to note this research is all available on my department's website.

The legislation prohibits the importation of illegally logged timber. It provides a framework for a co regulatory approach which will be implemented by subordinate legislation.

The legislation supports international efforts to combat the trade in legally logged timber products which poses unfair competition between illegal and legal timber suppliers.

This is an appropriate matter for the Parliament to consider in the United Nations International Year of Forests 2011.