Larissa Waters (Queensland, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I move amendment (2) on sheet 7705:

(1) Schedule 1, Part 1, page 3 (line 2) to page 4 (line 3), to be opposed.

(2) Schedule 1, Part 4, page 13 (line 1), to page 15 (line 2), omit the Part, substitute:

Part 4—Wood waste

Renewable Energy (Electricity) Act 2000

47 Subsection 5(1)

  Insert:

  biomass means organic matter other than fossilised biomass.

Note: Examples of fossilised biomass include coal and lignite.

  native forest means an indigenous plant community that:

  (a) is dominated by trees that are located within their natural range; and

  (b) contains throughout its growth a complement of native species and habitats normally associated with those trees, or has the potential to develop those characteristics; and

  (c) is not:

     (i) a plantation of native species; or

     (ii) a previously logged native forest that has been regenerated with non-endemic native species.

It is immaterial whether any of the trees or native species have been re-established or regenerated with human assistance following:

  (d) flood;

  (e) bushfire;

  (f) drought;

  (g) pest attack;

  (h) disease.

  wood waste means:

  (a) biomass:

     (i) produced from non-native environmental weed species; and

     (ii) harvested for the control or eradication of the species, from a harvesting operation that is approved under relevant Commonwealth, State or Territory planning and approval processes; and

  (b) a manufactured wood product or a by-product from a manufacturing process, other than a product or a by-product that is derived from biomass from a native forest; and

  (c) waste products from the construction of buildings or furniture, including timber off-cuts and timber from demolished buildings; and

  (d) sawmill residue, other than sawmill residue derived from biomass from a native forest.

Renewable Energy (Electricity) Regulations 2001

48 Subregulation 3(1) (definition of native forest )

  Repeal the definition.

49 Regulation 8

  Repeal the regulation.

(3) Schedule 1, page 15 (after line 2), at the end of the Schedule, add:

Part 5—Concurrent operation of State or Territory laws

Renewable Energy (Electricity) Act 2000

53 Section 7C

  Repeal the section, substitute:

7C Concurrent operation intended

(1) This Act is not intended to exclude or limit the concurrent operation of any law of a State or Territory.

(2) This section does not apply to a law of a State or Territory if there is direct inconsistency between that law and this Act.

This similarly relates to the burning of native-forest logging and would move the prohibition on native-forest logging and burning for RET out of the regulations and into the act. The minister has infinitely more power to wantonly change these sorts of rules. What we would have liked to have been a prohibition—but we lost that fight—belongs in the act rather than the regulations. I do not need to speak at length on this. It is a procedural amendment but an important one and it goes to the importance and significance of the fact that we should not be burning native forests and throwing a lifeline to the native-forest logging industry.