Nick McKim (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I ask the leave of the Senate to return to consideration of documents. Just by explanation, Deputy President, the reason for this is that I did wish to make a short speech, as did my colleague, Senator Rice, of no more than five minutes on document 12, which is the Regional Forest Agreement between the Commonwealth and Tasmania. That's the reason I'm seeking leave.

Gavin Marshall (Victoria, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

You are seeking leave to go back to documents and you want to do five minutes each. Is leave granted? There being no objection, leave is granted. We will set the clock for five minutes.

Nick McKim (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the document.

Can I thank the Senate and my colleagues in the Senate for their concurrence and their granting of leave. This document is a death warrant for some of the most spectacular, unique, carbon-rich, biodiverse forests in the world. We have seen Regional Forest Agreements which have delivered environmental disaster after environmental disaster in this country. But they haven't just been ecological disasters; they've been social disasters and economic disasters as well.

The changes to the Tasmanian RFA that have been tabled today are so extensive that, in fact, they amount to a rewrite of the entire RFA—not a variation of the RFA, as they have been described by the government. Let's make no mistake about what this document does. It effectively gives native forest logging in Tasmania a perpetual exemption from federal environment laws—a perpetual exemption to cause environmental harm—and prevents people from seeking remedy against that environmental harm through federal environmental laws such as the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act. This document sanctions logging in thousands of hectares of regional and conservation reserves in Tasmania that are supposedly part of the CAR reserve system—the so-called comprehensive, adequate and representative reserve system in Tasmania.

But let's be clear about what this government does. It doesn't just give a leave pass in regards to Commonwealth environmental laws. It doesn't just lock in massive emissions of carbon. What it actually does is sign a death warrant for many threatened species in Tasmania. This will push critically endangered, threatened species closer to or over the brink of extinction—beautiful, iconic creatures like the Tasmanian devil, the swift parrot, the wedge-tailed eagle, the masked owl and the giant freshwater crayfish. Those creatures and many more are now firmly in the firing line of the loggers and of the Liberal governments in Tasmania and Canberra.

The failure of RFAs is there to see for anyone who cares to look. Mr Turnbull and Mr Hodgman are locking in those failures in Tasmania. They're failing our threatened species. They're failing our tourism sector, Tasmania's largest economic sector. They're failing all of the magnificent ecosystems contained within Tasmania's globally unique forests. They're failing our climate, because of course logging these forests will emit massive amounts of carbon, which will contribute to dangerous climate change. And they are destroying the capacity of these forests—the trees, the shrubs and the soils—to embed and sequester carbon.

Tasmania's recent history shows full well what happens when governments try to destroy forests and try to destroy the environment in my home state. What happens is that the Tasmanian people fight back. And the Tasmanian people will fight back against this regional forest agreement; mark my words. Liberal governments in Canberra and Hobart have decided to restart the forest wars. Well, we will accommodate them in Tasmania, because we are passionate about defending our globally significant, magnificent forests—rich in carbon, home to so many beautiful and threatened species. These governments—the Liberal governments in Canberra and Hobart—will be fought at every step by the Greens, by the conservation movement and by the millions of Australians who want to see these forests protected.

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

The re-signing of the Regional Forest Agreements between the Commonwealth government and the Tasmanian government marks a very sad day in environmental legislation and environment protection in Australia. Twenty years ago, when the Regional Forest Agreements were first negotiated, they were set up to, in theory, do two things: to protect the timber industry and jobs in the timber industry and to protect our forest environments. They have failed on both—failed absolutely, failed unequivocally to do both. In the 20 years since the Regional Forest Agreements were first declared, we have seen employment in the native forest timber industry decline exponentially. We have seen an increase in employment and the importance of the plantation industry for producing wood products for Australia. That is the direction that the timber industry has headed in those 20 years. That is the direction that has the potential to be ecologically sustainable. Yet this incredibly destructive, last-century industry has got hold of the government and is still driving the destruction of our native forests.

The Regional Forest Agreements, or the logging laws, that have just been signed off between the Tasmanian and the federal government are going to mean ongoing destruction, ongoing disaster, for the forests in Tasmania. They are also heralding ongoing destruction, ongoing disaster, for our forests and everything that our forests support across the country, because the government has been very clear that this is what they intend to do, and not just to forests in Tasmania. They also intend to rollover these logging laws in Victoria, in New South Wales and in Western Australia. We have seen the consequences—what these logging laws have meant over the last 20 years. They have meant ongoing destructive clear-felling. They have meant the destruction of magnificent forests which have such potential and are such a wonderful asset for recreation and tourism. They have seen the destruction of our forests, which are so important for our water supplies and as carbon stores. The most carbon-dense forests in the world are still being destroyed. Critically, they have seen the destruction of habitat for an amazing array of threatened species. The ongoing industrial-scale clear-felling logging of these forests is sending those animals to the brink of extinction. In Tasmania, we have swift parrots, Tasmanian devils and the giant fresh water crayfish, for all of which the prime threatening process is clear-fell logging, yet these logging laws that have just been rolled over are continuing those threatening processes.

Why? Because these logging laws say that the protections of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act don't apply. These logging laws exempt logging operations from our environment protections. All that they do is declare for themselves that the forest operations that are occurring there are ecologically sustainable. In fact, in this legislation they say in regard to the protection of the environment and heritage values that they agree that the reserve system and the application of the forest management system protects environment and heritage values—full stop; no argument—whereas for every other threatening process for our threatened species you have to show that our species are being protected. But, no, the timber industry has this special pass to continue to destroy some of the most precious forests in the country.

The community doesn't accept this. When the community sees what goes on in our forests, when they see the destructive clear-fell logging, they say, 'I thought that ended years ago, I didn't know that's occurring.' They want to see it protected. That's why, in response to the government's plans to be rolling over these logging laws, I will be introducing a private senator's bill this coming Thursday, very notably on Threatened Species Day. I will be introducing a private senator's bill to scrap these logging laws, because that's what needs to happen to them. They need to be put in the bin. They are last century. We need to move forward for the sustainable management of our forests for us all.

Anne Ruston (SA, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for Agriculture and Water Resources) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the same subject as we have just heard Senator Rice go on about. I would like to put on the record that the extension of the RFA in Tasmania is cause for great celebration for the Australian forestry sector and for regional communities. It fulfils an election promise of 2013 by our government but, more importantly, it actually protects the regions in which forestry occurs in Tasmania, and we are hoping that we will continue to roll these forward in other places around Australia that support strong forestry commitments.

In 2015 and 2016, forestry directly employed more than 64,000 people and contributed more than $23 billion to the national economy. We believe the RFAs provide a balanced approach between the economic, environmental and social outcomes for all Australians through the management of our native forest. It's also worth mentioning that 58 per cent, or 1,778,000 million hectares, of Australia's forests are now protected in reserves, including the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area. The RFAs are an adaptive management tool and we concede that in the rollover of the new Tasmanian RFAs there has been a series of improvements from lessons learnt over the 20 years the RFAs have been in place to date. But, most importantly, I would like to put on the record that no species in Australia has become extinct as a result of forestry. That is a direct quote from the Threatened Species Commissioner.

Question agreed to.