Anthony Chisholm (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister for Education) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I table a revised explanatory memorandum relating to the Illegal Logging Prohibition Amendment (Strengthening Measures to Prevent Illegal Timber Trade) Bill 2024 and I move:

That these bills be now read a second time.

I seek leave to have the second reading speeches incorporated in Hansard.

Leave granted.

The speeches read as follows—

ILLEGAL LOGGING PROHIBITION AMENDMENT (STRENGTHENING MEASURES TO PREVENT ILLEGAL TIMBER TRADE) BILL 2024

Illegal logging has wide-reaching and devastating impacts on climate, nature, and people. As the world's most profitable environmental crime, this complex problem is linked to corruption, organised crime, civil war, exploitation, and violations of human rights.

Illegal logging can destroy forest ecosystems, reduces biodiversity, and contributes to species extinction. It deprives local communities of opportunities to improve their quality of life and undermines the rights and practices of Indigenous Peoples that care for country. And it costs governments and primary industries billions of dollars every year in lost revenue.

Australia is not immune to these impacts. Trade in low-priced, illegally sourced timber undermines the prices that can be obtained for local, sustainably produced products. This has negative effects on supply chains, business decisions, industry profitability, investment, and jobs in the Australian economy.

Given the scale and reach of these environmental, social, and economic impacts, global action is necessary to effectively combat illegal logging. The Australian Government is committed to playing its part and working with the international community to address illegal logging.

In 2012, Australia introduced world-leading illegal logging prohibition laws that were among the first of their kind internationally.

The Illegal Logging Prohibition Act 2012 seeks to reduce the harmful impacts of illegal logging by restricting the importation and sale of illegally logged timber and timber products in Australia, and the processing of domestically grown raw logs that have been illegally harvested. This includes a requirement for timber importer's and processor's of raw logs to conduct a risk assessment process known as 'due diligence' to minimise the risk of importing or processing illegally sourced timber or timber products.

As global awareness of deforestation and consumer demand for sustainable timber products has increased, Australia has welcomed regulatory approaches introduced by many other countries to combat illegal timber harvesting and associated trade. This wider action globally has helped produce new approaches that Australia can adopt to augment our own laws.

This Bill seeks to do this, implementing the improvements identified through both the Statutory Review of the Act and the Sunsetting Review of the Illegal Logging Prohibition Regulation.

Measures in the Bill will modernise and strengthen the Act, to better protect the Australian market from illegally harvested timber and timber products and support sustainable and legal timber trade into the future.

In particular, new and emerging timber identification technologies hold great potential to enhance existing compliance and due diligence efforts. The Australian Government is currently delivering a $4.4 million trial of timber identification methods. This trial will inform effective implementation of timber testing under a reformed Act. It aims to ensure the supporting reference databases, systems and access to testing tools are in place to do so that Australian can readily identify products entering its market.

Timber testing offers compliance officers a means to verify whether claims made about harvest origin and species of regulated products are accurate and assess whether importer's and processor's due diligence efforts are up to scratch. Timber testing can also confirm whether products are in fact illegally logged through closely pinpointing the harvest location and has supported prosecutions overseas relating to illegally logged timber.

We know that the Australian timber producers and environmental groups alike support these developments and want to see these tools and techniques used effectively in Australia. The Bill will allow for the taking of samples and testing of timber products at the border and beyond for compliance purposes.

This will be complemented by a new requirement for importers and processors to give notice before importing or processing regulated timber products. This will enable the government to target testing and other regulatory efforts through having more information on what is entering Australia's market in advance.

The Amendment Bill will also provide more flexible enforcement options and expanded monitoring and investigation powers. This includes the addition of strict liability offences, injunctions, and enforceable undertakings to the Act.

Amendments will also enable audits to be carried out to determine compliance with the due diligence requirements and extend the timeframe for issuing infringement notices to 24 months to afford more time for audits and other compliance actions to first take place.

Finally, further amendments will permit the publication of details of contraventions of the Act on the Department's website, which provides a further deterrent for non-compliance, and allows the Regulation to be remade as Rules, enabling more flexibility in updating key guidance on sourcing legally harvested timber that is incorporated by reference.

Together, these amendments to the laws will help make Australia an even less attractive destination for illegally sourced timber and further protect Australia's reputation in international markets as a supplier of sustainable and legally sourced timber products.

Strengthened illegal logging laws will complement other key Australian Government priorities, such as supporting global action to mitigate climate change and protect biodiversity, combatting organised crime, and alleviating the costs of corruption in developing countries.

As a leader in international efforts to combat illegal logging, we know the eyes of the world are watching us. Other countries look to Australia to lead the way on timber legality laws.

This Bill will both uphold our reputation as a global leader through adopting further best-practice regulatory approaches, and help address the environmental, social, and economic harms of illegal logging and associated trade.

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I commend the bill to the Senate.

NATIONAL HEALTH AMENDMENT (SUPPORTING PATIENT ACCESS TO CHEAPER MEDICINES AND OTHER MEASURES) BILL 2024

The National Health Amendment (Supporting Patient Access to Cheaper Medicines and Other Measures) Bill 2024 will support a strong pharmacy sector, deliver cheaper medicines and boost pharmacy services across the country.

The Albanese Government has already saved Australians more than $370 million on the cost of their medicines.

This Bill supports implementation of the Eighth Community Pharmacy Agreement (8CPA) reached between the Australian Government and the Pharmacy Guild.

Negotiations for the 8CPA began in August 2023, and the agreement has been developed following over 100 meetings with more than 20 stakeholder organisations with an interest in better health for Australians through cheaper medicines.

The 8CPA supports the objectives of the National Medicines Policy—equitable, timely, safe and reliable access to medicines and related services, at a cost that individuals and the community can afford.

It will provide pharmacies with predictable remuneration to support a sustainable, efficient, and effective network of community pharmacies across Australia.

This Bill delivers key elements of the 8CPA, including establishing an Additional Community Supply Support (ACSS) payment for eligible supplies of pharmaceutical benefits made by approved pharmacists.

The new ACSS payment will be paid to approved pharmacists separate to the existing Commonwealth price based mechanism for payments on dispensing pharmaceutical benefits.

This will provide a means through which the Commonwealth is able to provide the necessary level of financial support to community pharmacies for the dispensing of Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) medicines, without increasing the costs of medicines for some patients.

The Government is also replacing the optional $1 discount with a $1 reduction in the PBS co-payment for all patients.

The optional $1 discount was failing to drive competition and make medicines cheaper for most prescriptions at most pharmacies. It was particularly failing for patients outside of the inner cities.

The vast majority of people did not get the existing optional $1 discount—around 4 in 5 subsidised prescriptions were not discounted in 2023.

Of the scripts that were discounted, 76% went to patients in the inner cities.

Outside of the inner cities, only 1 in 7 subsidised prescriptions had the $1 discount applied.

Patients cannot take advantage of the $1 discount if there is just one pharmacy in town and no price competition.

The independent Review of Pharmacy Remuneration and Regulation in 2017 recommended the former government abolish the $1 discount for this very reason: it worsens inequities, it does not address them.

The former government ignored this recommendation and allowed these inequities to continue.

The independent Review said this: "if the government considers that lower copayments are desirable, they should lower them for all consumers, with appropriate remuneration provided to pharmacies for dispensing."

That is exactly what we are doing: we will make medicines cheaper on every script at every pharmacy and in every community, as we phase out the measure that only benefits some.

This will be achieved by freezing indexation of patient co-payments. There will be a one year freeze in indexation of the PBS general patient maximum co-payment and a five year freeze in indexation of the PBS concessional patient co-payment.

This will mean that the cost of PBS medicines will stay lower for longer, instead of rising with inflation. This will help Australians with cost of living pressures, and help people to keep taking their necessary medicines.

Going forward, all patients will have more equitable access to cheaper medicines, particularly those in rural and remote areas whose access to pharmacies offering the optional $1 discount has been limited.

We are committed to ensuring that all Australians are able to access high quality health care. This includes timely, reliable and affordable access to necessary medicines through the PBS, supported by the reforms in this Bill.

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I commend the bill to the Senate.

Debate adjourned.

Ordered that the bills be listed on the Notice Paper as separate orders of the day.