Labor facing test of green credentials in fight over native logging

A political clash over native forest logging is looming for the federal government following its commitment to an international treaty to boost protections for nature, with key crossbench senators declaring Australia must now end the union-backed industry.

Federal Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek represented Australia at a United Nations environment summit in Montreal, where 196 countries committed to protect 30 per cent of the world’s land and water – in line with Australia’s existing policy – to safeguard biodiversity and halt extinctions of wildlife by 2050.

Independent senator David Pocock says the government should act now to end native forest logging.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

Greens Senator Sarah Hanson Young and independent Senator David Pocock both welcomed Australia’s commitment to the deal, but singled out native forest logging as a key environmental threat that must be addressed if Australia is to hold up its end of the global agreement.

Logging is a key risk to the survival of endangered species such as koalas, greater gliders and Leadbeater’s possum.

“The protection of native forests will be crucial for Australia to meet our global commitments. That means stopping logging in native forests and also stopping mining in places like the Tarkine (in Tasmania),” Hanson-Young said.

“The spotlight will now be on Australia to protect koala habitat. That means the protection of our native forests, that’s going to be front and centre.”

Pocock said the government’s reform agenda would take time but it should act now to end native forest logging, including the development of plans to help workers transition to new industries.

“Environmental laws should be updated now to remove any exemption to their application to Regional Forest Agreements,” he said.

Earlier this month the federal government released its response to the Samuel Review of the Commonwealth Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act.

New environmental standards to be introduced by Tanya Plibersek could be applied to Regional Forestry Agreements.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

The review said the laws were failing nature and called for sweeping reforms including the removal of exemptions for the logging industry from the EPBC Act, which are created under Regional Forestry Agreements between state and federal governments.

Australia leads the world in mammal extinctions and since European settlement about 100 unique species have been wiped off the planet. The rate of loss is as bad here as anywhere in the world and has not slowed over the past 200 years.

Plibersek said on Monday the deal was a “big step towards achieving a nature positive planet” and Australia could be proud of its role in forming the treaty.

“We didn’t get everything we wanted. Others didn’t either. But with a bit of cooperation, compromise and common sense, we have achieved a lot for the world.”

She’s aiming to introduce legislation by the end of next year, including new national environmental standards, which the government has said could be applied to the Regional Forestry Agreements. But the standards have not been finalised and it remains to be seen how native logging is affected.

Michael O’Connor, national secretary of the Construction, Forestry, Maritime, Mining and Energy Union, said he expected the government to support native forest logging into the future.

“We have an assurance from the prime minister that he supports the industry and timber workers’ jobs, and we know the PM is a person who keeps his word,” O’Connor said.

“If you want to protect biodiversity you need a more complex and nuanced position and David Pocock might want to talk to unions and workers in the industry before he makes his mind up. We invite him to come and see forestry operations first hand.”

Victorian Labor Senator Raff Ciccone, a prominent backer of forest industries, said the native forest logging was sustainable and “good for jobs, sovereign capability and climate change”.

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