New South Wales Premier Chris Minns
Australia’s forestry and timber industry breathed a collective sigh of relief after the decision of the Australian Federal Court to reject a challenge to the validity of the Intergovernmental North East Regional Forestry Agreement (NERFA). The Court examined the agreements that were made in 2000 and extended for 20 years in 2018. Source: Timberbiz
The Court confirmed that the technical requirements for extending the RFA were met.
The case was brought by the North East Forest Alliance (NEFA) against the Commonwealth of Australia and the State of NSW with its lawyers arguing that the RFA should not have been renewed without assessment and approval under federal environment laws.
The decision handed down by Federal Court Justice Melissa Perry was that the technical requirements for extending the RFA were met but the Court was unable to assess the evidence of the impact caused by native forest logging and that such matters were wholly political.
The Environmental Defenders Office (EDO) argued the Commonwealth was required to assess environmental values and principles of ecologically sustainable management when it was renewed but failed to do so.
The EDO stated that these included impacts on endangered species, climate change and old growth forests.
“A regional forest agreement provides an alternative mechanism by which the objects of the (federal) Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act can be achieved by way of an intergovernmental agreement,” Justice Perry said.
“As such, the question of whether or not to enter into or vary an intergovernmental agreement of this nature is essentially a political one, the most of which are matters for the government parties and not the courts to determine.”
Therefore the agreement handed the responsibility for matters of national environment significance to NSW.
NSW’s native hardwood forestry industry is worth $1.8 billion to the economy and employs 9,000 people, more than half of them in the state’s north-east in communities built on the sector.
For generations they have provided a sustainable industry which selectively harvests forests for timber and fibre and manufactures the resource into high grade construction timber, decking, furniture and other products.
Of the 20 million hectares of NSW forests less than one third of 1% is harvested every year. The three million hectares of public forest on the north coast supplies three quarters of the State’s hardwood.
Following the decision NSW Premier Chris Minns said that the forestry industry in NSW had a future, but he also noted that his government planned to explore the next steps for the industry in conjunction with stakeholders.
Timber NSW chair Andrew Hurford said that this Federal Court decision paved the way for those serious about ecological sustainable forest management and a sustainable timber industry.
