Christine Milne (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

Chair, I indicate for the benefit of my colleagues who are going to be dealing with the amendments—I am the only one with amendments and I am doing this informally now, but I will move amendments each time in a formal sense, so this is just to let people know—that it is my intention to deal with amendment (1) and then amendment (4) and then with (3), (9) and (18) together, (2), (5), (7), (8) and (19) together, (20) on its own, (21), (22), (23) and (6) together, and then (24) on its own. So I let you know that is how I would like to proceed to try and expedite things as quickly as I can. I move Australian Greens amendment (1):

(1) Page 2 (after line 7), after clause 2, insert:

2A Objects of this Act

     The objects of this Act are:

  (a) to prevent the trade of timber products derived from illegal logging; and

  (b) to help reduce illegal logging in Australia's region and globally; and

  (c) to encourage the sourcing of timber products produced using sustainable practices; and

  (d) to help Australia to become a country that trades only in sustainable timber products; and

  (e) to assist in the implementation of Australia's international obligations in relation to the eradication of corruption, including under:

     (i) the Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International Business Transactions done at Paris on 17 December 1997 ([1999] ATS 21); and

     (ii) the Convention against Corruption done at New York on 31 October 2003 ([2006] ATS 2); and

     (iii) the Convention against Transnational Organised Crime done at New York on 15 November 2000 ([2004] ATS 12); and

  (f) to assist in the implementation of Australia's international obligations in relation to the environment, including under:

     (i) the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora done at Washington on 3 March 1973 ([1976] ATS 29); and

     (ii) the Convention on Biological Diversity done at Rio de Janeiro on 5 June 1992 ([1993] ATS 32); and

  (g) contribute to the implementation of Australia's commitment to the environment under the Montréal Process, and the Santiago Declaration of Criteria and Indicators for the Conservation and Sustainable Management of Temperate and Boreal Forests made at Santiago on 3 February 1995.

Note:   In 2012, the text of an international agreement in the Australian Treaty Series was accessible through the Australian Treaties Library on the AustLII website (www.austlii.edu.au).

This amendment goes to the objects of this proposed act. The Greens want to include 'sustainability' in the objects clause of the proposed act. In the lead-up to the 2007 election the government announced its policy to bring in a ban on illegal timber imports with the heading 'Ensuring sustainable timber imports'. That has not appeared in the objects of the proposed act as currently before us. So the Greens believe that this is an important addition. In December 2009, the then Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, Minister Burke, signed off on changes to the objective of the government’s policy, which remains current. It ‘provides the basis for addressing all five components of the government’s illegal logging election commitment’. It states that the policy objective is ‘the Australian government will combat illegal logging and its associated trade by establishing systems that will promote trade in legally logged timber and wood products and, in the long term, trade in timber and wood products from sustainably managed forests’. I add, for emphasis, that it says 'sustainably managed forests'.

The explanatory memorandum recognises that this is existing government policy, and flags on several occasions the possibility of a shift from legality to sustainability in the legislation. It says:

Review elements of the policy necessary to meet the government’s policy objective would include consideration of the range of timber products that are covered and the possible timing of a shift from a legality requirement to one based on sustainability.

That is on page 49. It goes on to say:

At some future time it would be possible to consider whether the legality verification requirement could be replaced with due diligence applied to the sustainability of the products covered by the regulatory elements of the policy; (c) the economic impacts of the due diligence compliance requirements; (d) potential for increasing the legislative requirement from ‘legality’ to ‘sustainability’ of timber products (to meet the long-term objective of the policy); and (e) the effectiveness of the arrangements in reducing illegal logging in producer countries.

It is clear that the government recognises the five-year review is an opportunity to begin to examine this possible shift to sustainability. However, nothing in the bill as it is currently written reflects this. So we have a proposed objects clause which I think gives effect to what the government has said is its intention to move towards sustainability in timber trade and practice. It does so in a way that is cautious and non-prescriptive, and allows the five-year review—which is a review of the legislation, not the policy—to consider the shift from legality to sustainability. That is the basis of the amendment.