Disastrous bill for our forests

In an extraordinary late night sitting, the Liberal and Labor parties 
combined to pass the Regional Forests Agreement (RFA) Bill through the 
Senate. Passed at 1.30 am, the Bill hands Commonwealth control over forest 
logging back to the States; potentially a boon for big business, but with 
disastrous consequences for workers and the environment.

This structure of this Bill may allow for unended subsidisation and 
compensation to forestry and mining companies when they lose their access 
to state forests.

But, the two big parties voted down a key amendment introduced by the 
Greens that would have provided for compulsory compensation to workers in 
the same circumstances.

Labor even submitted to the Liberals their own amendment, to restrict the 
open-ended nature of corporate compensation.

Like much of the Coalition's reprehensible legislation, this Bill has been 
passed in the name of "creating jobs".

"This Bill... will do nothing to stop the job shedding", said Green Senator 
Bob Brown. He pointed out that 460 forestry jobs in Tasmania had already 
been lost since the Bill's introduction to Parliament.

He pointed out that as a direct result of Labor's cave-in, not one of those 
workers would now receive compensation.

Other components of the RFA Bill include:

* no Commonwealth environmental assessment requirement on forest logging 
for the next 20 years;

* compensation provisions for corporations are binding on the Commonwealth 
but requirements for environmental protection are not binding on the 
States; and

* no Commonwealth controls on woodchip exports, which have rocketed in 
recent years form three million tonnes per annum to seven million tonnes.

The Regional Forest Agreement also promotes logging in native forests but 
provides for no encouragement of our plantation timber sources — which now 
provide 75 per cent of the wood used in Australia, and could reach 100 per 
cent with correct government management.

The Federal Government does intend to provide tax breaks for companies 
investing in plantation timber in his new Tax Laws Amendment Bill, 
currently before Parliament.

But this seemingly genuine effort is perhaps thoughtlessly directed.

Senator Brown argued, "The tax-driven scramble to invest in plantations 
will cause thousand of hectares of native vegetation to be cleared and have 
disastrous impact on people and communities affected by extensive land 
acquisition for plantations".

Apart from the seven million tonnes of woodchips, Australia exports a 
further one million tonnes of unprocessed sawlogs every year.

Rather than creating new plantations to either increase the amount of wood 
exported, or increase the percentage of plantation wood, Australia could 
direct that investment into exporting processed rather than unprocessed 
timber.

With proper management, Australia could expand its industrial base, 
transfer the jobs lost in forestry into production, and protect our 
extremely fragile environment.