MS TIERNEY (Western Victoria—Minister for Training and Skills, Minister for Higher Education) (17:46): I move:
That the second-reading speech be incorporated into Hansard.
Motion agreed to.
Ms TIERNEY: I move:
That the bill be now read a second time.
Incorporated speech as follows:
Introduction
The management of Victoria’s 7.8 million hectares of public native forests and parks is important to all Victorians. Victoria has approximately 3.1 million hectares of State forests on public land. Forests provide vital ecosystem services, support biodiversity and create a diverse range of jobs and economic, recreational and social opportunities for all Victorians. The connection that Victoria’s Traditional Owners and Aboriginal communities have with Country—including Victoria’s forests—is core to their culture and wellbeing. Effective regulatory frameworks are essential to ensure that we balance the range of values and uses of our forests. This Bill will enable us to provide much clearer direction on what is required to protect our forests—particularly in the wake of natural disasters, such as fires, that change the context for management—to ensure continued use and enjoyment of our forests well into the future.
Implementing the Code of Practice for Timber Production 2014
Where timber harvesting operations in State forests are permitted in Victoria, they must be undertaken in accordance with the legislative framework for timber harvesting. Key to this is the Code of Practice for Timber Production 2014 and the Management Standards and Procedures for timber harvesting operations in Victoria’s State forests 2021. These legislative instruments contain specific rules that protect threatened species and other forest values – including the precautionary principle.
The precautionary principle is a foundation principle in environmental law, adopted by the 1992 Rio Declaration of the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development. Victoria’s Code of Practice for Timber Production 2014 includes a mandatory action to apply the precautionary principle to timber harvesting activities.
The precautionary principle provides that, if there are threats of serious or irreversible environmental damage, lack of full scientific certainty should not be used as a reason for postponing measures to prevent environmental degradation. That is, if there are threats of severe or irreversible damage, but the science is not yet settled, the precautionary principle requires us to put in place protective measures to ensure we don’t have regrets in the future.
Most recently, the precautionary principle was triggered by the 2019/20 Victorian bushfires, which dramatically impacted forest ecosystems, threatened the survival of endangered species and limited timber production, particularly in Gippsland and East Gippsland. There remains scientific uncertainty about the ability of species to recover from these impacts and therefore consideration needed to be given to what additional protective actions would be required in timber harvesting operations. The precautionary principle is important because it means our framework for protecting our forests can be adaptable and responsive to changing circumstances or environmental shocks such as major fires. However, its broad application and requirement for expert evaluative judgement means there are opportunities to provide greater certainty for all in ensuring the timber industry is meeting its obligations.
These reforms will enable practical guidance to be given to timber harvesters on the actions they will need to take to meet the requirements of the precautionary principle, particularly in the event of natural disasters that rapidly change the context for management of our forests.
Greater clarity for timber harvesting through the Bill
This Bill will:
a) enable a Code of Practice to apply, adopt or incorporate any matter contained in any document, standard, rule, specification or method as amended from time to time.
b) Enable a Code to confer a discretionary authority on the Minister or the Secretary, and leave any matter or thing to be from time to time, approved, determined, dispensed with or regulated by the Minister or the Secretary.
This Bill provides these heads of power within the Conservation, Forests and Lands Act 1987 (CFL Act), which will apply to all Codes of Practice.
Importantly, these powers will enable a ‘compliance standards’ framework to be established under the Code of Practice for Timber Production 2014, to provide alternative mechanisms for satisfying general obligations or duties in the Code that would otherwise be open to interpretation or dispute, such as the precautionary principle.
A Code may already incorporate matters from other documents. The Bill enables the Code to incorporate matters from other documents as they are amended from time to time. It is intended, for example, to enable the Code to incorporate ‘compliance standards’, as published and maintained by the Minister or the Secretary. The Code may provide that complying with measures from the compliance standards will discharge a particular duty or obligation in the Code such as, for example, to apply the precautionary principle. Being able to amend the document from time to time enables the standards to be kept up to date with changing circumstances.
Similarly, providing a clearer power, in express and broad terms, to enable a Code to specify matters that will be left to the discretion of the Minister or the Secretary will enable the Code to authorise discretionary approvals as a means of establishing greater regulatory certainty. The Code may provide, for example, that the Secretary may approve certain measures or plans, compliance with which will be sufficient to discharge the duty or obligation in the Code to apply the precautionary principle, in the particular circumstances to which those measures apply.
These reforms are not about changing any obligations that regulated entities have to comply with. Obligations to comply with a Code are fixed by or under other relevant laws, which are not amended by this Bill.
These reforms are instead to enable the Code to provide greater regulatory certainty about how generally described obligations or duties in the Code can be satisfied, whether generally or in a particular case. Enabling clear and specific guidance that can respond to events that change the context of forest management is absolutely critical to ensuring certainty for the timber industry while maintaining the high standards of conservation we must continue to provide our native forests.
Maintaining Parliamentary oversight of threatened species protections
The Code currently includes an incorporated document, which is the Management standards and procedures for timber harvesting operations in Victoria’s State Forests 2021 (the MSPs). The MSPs contain many of the Code’s prescriptive environmental protections. I want to be clear that I am not proposing increased flexibility for changes to the MSPs.
It is critical that this reform enables incorporated documents to be amended from time to time to allow the new compliance standard guidance for meeting Code clauses to be responsive. However, I do not consider it suitable for the MSPs to be subject to such flexibility—both the timber industry and community environment groups need to be involved in any changes to these rules.
It is my intent to move the MSPs into the Code so that they are part of the Code itself and no longer an incorporated document. If the proposed amendment is adopted, future changes to the MSPs will be subject to the same process as amendments to the Code itself, which involves a statutory consultation period and is open to parliamentary disallowance.
Conclusion
The Bill will improve timber harvesting regulation in Victoria by enabling the regulator to clarify the intended operation of the Code, providing greater certainty to the Victorian timber industry while maintaining environmental standards. A clear and enforceable regulatory framework is vital for our environment, Victoria’s timber industry and forestry workers as we transition away from native timber harvesting by 2030.
I commend the Bill to the house.
