Federal Government Appears to Capitulate to Unviable Logging Industry as RFA 2.0 Process Begins

The Wilderness Society condemns the announcement made by the Commonwealth and Tasmanian Governments to draft a Bilateral Agreement that will devolve regulatory environmental protection powers from the Federal Government to the State Government for the forestry sector in Lutruwita / Tasmania.

Federal Environment Minister Murray Watt has given the Tasmanian Government the reins to undertake a landscape scale assessment of its own logging practices. The assessment is an early step in the process to gain approvals under the EPBC Act for ongoing logging of Lutruwita / Tasmania's unique and iconic native forests. 

A joint press release from Minister Watt, Tasmanian Resources Minister Felix Ellis, and Federal Forestry Minister Julie Collins has outlined a plan to deliver accreditation to Tasmania’s highly controversial forest practices system. Bedazzled with buzzwords like ‘sustainable’, the release celebrates a continued pouring of taxpayer money into propping up the native forest logging industry, which has repeatedly been found to be economically and environmentally unviable. 

The Wilderness Society holds grave concerns that this action will falsely empower the State Government to pre-maturely sign new long-term logging contracts, leading to either enormous taxpayer payouts or a continuation of destructive logging practices. 

The agreement comes before the finalisation of a suite of ‘National Environment Standards’ that the forestry industry will need to comply with. Those draft standards which have been released have been heavily criticized as a tick-a-box approach that will fail nature.

The negotiations with the logging industry and State Government also come before any input from First Nations communities, scientists, conservation interests, or local communities. 

Whilst the announcement is alarming for forests, they should give no certainty to Forestry Tasmania to lock in new long-term contracts between the State and sawmillers, which are currently being negotiated. These contracts will endorse the sale of controversial wood products from iconic native forests across Lutruwita / Tasmania - which may yet be protected should the Federal Government have the courage to do so. 

The Wilderness Society is calling for an immediate end to native forest logging in Lutruwita / Tasmania, land back, and for desperately needed landscape-scale restoration to begin.  

Hughie Nicklason, Forest Campaigner for The Wilderness Society Tasmania said, “Watch what happens next - this is intended to give the Tasmanian Government cover to lock in new long-term logging contracts. Either this will lead to enormous payouts to a beggar native forest logging industry, or absolutely nothing will change and unsustainable destructive logging will continue. Whatever the outcome, public trust will be undermined yet again and even further eroded.”

“Instead of continuing to back a terminal native forest logging industry, the Australian Government should work up the courage to protect what remains of Lutruwita / Tasmania’s iconic and unique landscapes.

“Tasmania’s logging practices are amongst the worst in the world. Tasmania currently logs old growth forests, rainforests, water supply catchments, steep slopes, engages in clearfelling practices, and is destroying some of the last habitat for a number of threatened species. Globally, only 3 per cent  of the Earth’s ecosystems are fully intact - and here in Tasmania we are actively destroying some of the last few tracts of what remains. 

“Future generations will look back on these decisions with anger and shame. We once again implore the Federal Labor Government to have some courage to stand up to the lobbyists and industry tyrants.

“This government has shown time and time again that they will fold to commercial interests over the aspirations and wishes of the people, and the ongoing existence of lands and ecosystems we rely on and call home.

“Let's be clear about who's paying for this. Hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars will be spent to prop up the same failed system that has presided over decades of forest destruction. Tasmanians are being asked to bankroll the accreditation of an industry that should be winding down, not being locked in for another generation.”