Senate Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport Legislation Committee, , 7:20:38 to 7:25:00
Examination of the expiry of Regional Forest Agreement exemptions under the EPBC Act and ongoing negotiations with states regarding replacement bilateral agreements and environmental standards.
Topics: Forestry, EPBC Act, Land management
Speakers: Matt Lowe, Hon Matthew Canavan, Speaker 16, Guy Bursle, Unknown Speaker, Interjection
>> Okay. All right. Uh moving on. Uh just wanted to quickly ask about regional forest agreements. I'm sure you're aware that other changes to the EBBC act see that the exemption for those RFAS end next year. What engagement have you had with state forestry agencies about this
expiry? So we've been engaging um we've been engaging closely uh almost uh well and constantly um both with our counterparts in DQ who are leading this work um with um RFA states um who are subject to this um to this change. Um but we have also been engaging directly with um state counterparts um in New South Wales um Tasmania and WA.
>> Have the national environmental standards been finalized?
>> Uh a number of national environmental standards have been finalized. Senator, I'm just going to try and find my notes as to which ones have the matters. Oh,
you jump in. Um, so, uh, the first four new standards were made on the 19th of August. So, that was matters of national environmental significance, environmental offsets, community engagement, data and information. Um, and the National Environmental Center for First Nations Engagement is still under development.
>> So, has any state agreed to replacement of the RFA arrangements yet?
So Tasmania's um on the path towards um a bilateral agreement which would um um supersede um the the current arrangements. Um New South Wales is on the path towards a strategic assessment landscape um style approval to supersede the RFA arrangements and similarly WA is
too. So with those changed arrangements, is there any work being done on to what extent this has an impact on the forestry industry? Will it increase compliance costs, risks to their profitability, etc.?
>> Um, ultimately that will be um uh I guess a matter that um kind of is a consequence of ultimately what the final approval looks like, Senator. So, it's hard for us to kind of make a a prediction of of that until those final regulatory approvals are in place and the relative relevant changes or or or not um to the regulatory regimes in in the state um have have happened.
>> How much of the $300 million forestry growth fund has been committed or paid
Um I'll defer to colleagues but um we've only just started we've only we only just kind of announced those programs and the first program that will be um from the 150 um million of the forestry growth fund that we're responsible for administering is the support plantation establishment scheme and that program will open in November.
>> Yeah, that's right. Sorry. There'll be decisions made in November on
>> it will open the round.
>> So to date, no one's applied for funding as such.
>> No,
>> hasn't opened.
>> That's right. Although I will just um clarify as well that relates to the 150 million that um is for our um grants under the program. The other 150 million is um for uh concessional finance under the national concessional finance under the national reconstruction
>> right
>> um fund. And so um so that's right. And so there there there's a separate process by which um uh uh industry can apply for concessional financing.
>> Is that already open?
>> That's open. Yeah, that opened in April.
>> Okay. And how many how many applications have has have been received for that funding?
>> Uh my my understanding from the National Reconstruction Fund Corporation is that uh as of earlier this month, 11 applications um are with the NRFC.
Uh okay. Did you were you consulted on the um the development of the improved native forest management methodology for carbon credits?
>> We had very minimal engagement on that Senator.
>> Yeah, that's been a disaster too. Just up there last week. Uh very sad. All right, chair. I'll um might leave it. Um