Labor’s internal green lobby is calling on Agriculture Minister Murray Watt to use the Productivity Commission for a major nationwide review of the forestry industry after the party resolved to rethink its three-decade-old stance on native logging.

The push comes after ALP powerbrokers defused a potentially damaging rift over forestry at the party conference in Brisbane two weeks ago by quashing a motion from the Labor Environmental Action Network (LEAN) to ban logging of native forests.