Janet Rice (Victoria, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

Australia's native forests are unique and beautiful. They are the home of so many of our iconic and our threatened species, like the koala and the walert, the Leadbeater's possum. They are country for traditional owners and they're a source of inspiration and solace for a multitude of people. Protecting our native forests is also one of the most effective ways to tackle the climate crisis. A study published in the journal Nature last year found that old-growth forests, among other ecosystems, are absolutely critical stores of carbon and that, if we disturb them, if we log them, if we clear them, it could jeopardise any effort to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius. And in that study were Australian forests, front and centre, that the study showed needed to be protected.

There was a recent study in Tasmania by the Tree Projects that revealed that protecting native forests could provide $2.6 billion worth of carbon sequestration by 2050. Just by not logging our native forests, we could make massive inroads into sequestering carbon and helping tackle the climate crisis. This study also showed up the problems with our current carbon accounting and how it's failing us—that, basically, our carbon measurements with regard to native forests are failing. We don't provide public data that shows how much carbon our forests are actually soaking up. The data only gives net values, so it's subtracting the amount of carbon that is lost by logging and deforestation. I've written to Ministers Plibersek and Watt, calling on them to measure and to publish the data that really shows how much protecting our native forests from logging would contribute to tackling the climate crisis.

The evidence is clear. We must protective our native forests or we are contributing to a climate catastrophe. Yet native forest logging continues to recklessly destroy these wonderful carbon sinks which are also wildlife homes, water suppliers and places of amazing inspiration and beauty.

And it's not as if this destruction is occurring by some dodgy, underhand practice undertaken by shady outfits. No, it's completely planned, managed—or should I say mismanaged—and subsidised by state and federal governments. Native forest logging will never be sustainable. It destroys First Nations country and totem species. It wrecks habitat and it robs future generations of their right to enjoy the beauty of our incredible old forests.

Under our logging laws, the regional forest agreements—which are agreements between the state and federal governments—logging operations are given a special exemption from Australia's national environment protection law, a law that's supposed to protect threatened species and the places we love. What that means is that the regulation and the protection of our forests is left to state governments, and that, even if they break the law and destroy the forest habitats of threatened species, as recent court cases have, sadly, revealed, logging is permitted to continue. Our totally inadequate logging laws mean—the courts have shown—that this logging is still legal, even if we're destroying absolutely threatened species, like Leadbeater's possums and greater gliders, which have recently been uplisted to 'endangered'.

Concerned citizens, scientists and community groups have shown that in Victoria, VicForests, the Victorian government owned logging company, has been responsible for widespread illegal harvesting, destruction of habitats and alleged spying on conservationists, and that company is currently involved in almost a dozen legal proceedings regarding its activities. The system is broken and our native forests are being left unprotected. Yet the Victorian government is attempting to pass legislation that infringes upon forest defenders', traditional owners' and the community's ability to protest and their ability to access and defend our forests. If passed, this bill would mean that people defending Victoria's forests from this destruction could be imprisoned for up to a year or receive up to $21,000 in fines.

Similar anti-protest laws have been introduced in Tasmania's and New South Wales's parliaments. These laws will prevent traditional owners from protecting their country and their totems, which rely on the forest to survive. The laws will restrict the work of wildlife carers and citizen scientists, who are critical to understanding and caring for our native flora and fauna. The penalties imposed by these anti-protest laws are extraordinarily harsh for these peaceful and nonviolent protesters, who just want to protect our forests.