Government promises stronger protection for native forests if Greens back environment reforms

The government has offered a concession to the Greens on native forest logging as it steps up its effort to win support for an overhaul of environment laws ahead of the final week of parliament for the year.

Labor needs the support of either the Coalition or the Greens for the legislation, which it wants passed in the coming days.

In the latest offer to the Greens, the ABC has been told the government is willing to amend its legislation to ensure native forestry must comply with proposed new National Environmental Standards within three years.

Managed through state-based regulations, Regional Forestry Agreements (RFAs) are exempt from the federal Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act.

While some states have banned the practice, native forest logging is still allowed under RFAs in New South Wales and Tasmania and under separate arrangements in Queensland.

Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young told ABC Insiders at “first blush”, a timeline of three years to protect native forests still fell short. 

“I don’t think this in any way deals with the urgency of protecting our native forests now,” she said.

She said, however, the concession was a “good sign” that the government was starting to listen, and said her party room would consider the proposal.

“We will kick the tyres on this, and we will look at it,” she said.

“But there are plenty of other things in this bill that need fixing.”

Environment Minister Murray Watt confirmed the offer on Sunday afternoon, saying he continued to negotiate with both the Greens and the Coalition and would pass the bill with either.

“Enough is enough, this week is the week to start making these changes and to pass these reforms,” he said, warning the Greens not to “make the perfect the enemy of the good”.

Senator Watt said he had discussed the changes with the forestry industry.

Greens demand complete ban

The Greens, who have been demanding a complete ban on native forest logging, want to end the exemption of RFAs from the EPBC Act immediately.

While the government has not gone that far, a spokesperson for Senator Watt has told the ABC the government “is preparing amendments to its proposed environmental laws that would make native forestry subject to its new National Environmental Standards”.

The spokesperson says the move by the government “indicates it is willing to address one of the Greens’ key concerns in order to secure their support to pass the laws”.

It is the second olive branch extended to the Greens, after an offer to guarantee fossil-fuel projects will not be approved under a new “national interest” mechanism in the law. 

This mechanism would give the environment minister special powers to green light certain projects, including critical minerals or defence facilities.

The independent review of the EPBC Act, conducted by Graeme Samuel in 2020, described the exemption for RFAs from federal environment laws as an untenable “loophole”.

Earlier this month during an interview on Insiders, Senator Watt flagged his willingness to move on the exemption.

The legislation, however, made no mention of removing the exemption, suggesting this was withheld as part of a potential negotiating tactic.

Under the new amendment, RFAs would be required to meet National Environmental Standards “over a transition period of three years”, according to the government spokesperson, “with the environment minister able to sunset the exemption after that time if they fail to do so”.

Under the legislation, new National Environmental Standards will set out Matters of National Environmental Significance that must be protected, including threatened species.

RFA’s could continue “but they would need to meet a higher level of environmental protection than is currently required”, according to the minister’s spokesperson.

They would also be subjected to the “net environmental gain” provision of the legislation.

That means any native forest logging would need to be offset by improvements to nature elsewhere, such as restoring degraded farmland.

Coalition push for laundry list of changes

Senator Watt has held further talks with Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young and the Coalition’s environment spokesperson Angie Bell over the past two days.

The Coalition has identified seven areas in the legislation where it wants the government to compromise, including watering down the powers of the proposed new Environment Protection Authority and removing climate reporting obligations for proponents of new projects.

While Labor is willing to give some ground, it has indicated the Coalition will not get all it wants.

“There’s an opportunity for the Coalition for just one week to focus on something other than themselves,” Senator Watt said.

“In the end, we will pass these reforms this week with whichever of the Coalition and the Greens is willing to work with us”.