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

I thank Senator Rhiannon for her question. Regional forestry agreements are the primary mechanism for ensuring sustainable management which seeks to balance outcomes covering economic and social matters and the environment, including biodiversity and heritage issues. They are 20-year agreements between the Australian government and the states. They exist in New South Wales and Victoria. In Victoria they sought to ensure there was an independent reviewer's report, which was tabled on 28 September 2010. So they are going through that process of ensuring that the regional forestry agreements do what they set out to achieve—that is, economic, social and environment outcomes. They do continue to be reviewed to make sure that they maintain their continued responsiveness to those issues and, of course, that they meet the requirements of the first and second five-yearly reviews of the five Victorian regional forestry agreements. (Time expired)