Forestry Corporation failing to comply with the law: Auditor General report into the regulation of public native forestry
A new report published by the Auditor general today has been critical of the Forestry Corporation’s processes and assessments for non-compliance during logging operations across our public native forest estate. The report has also identified that the Environment Protection Authority needs to increase the resources and training provided to compliance officers to ensure they are able to complete their job regulating the logging of our native forests.
Greens MP Sue Higginson and spokesperson for the Environment said “This report is confirmation that the NSW Forestry Corporation is failing in their legal and compliance obligations. Unfortunately, this does not come as a surprise. Not a whole lot has changed in the past decade since a Judge of the Land and Environment Court found the Forestry Corporation has a culture of non-compliance.
“Native forest logging costs NSW tens of millions just in the harvesting and haulage, if we add the expenses of the EPA having to monitor all of the non-compliant operations, then the bill blows out even more. Recent cases where the EPA has prosecuted the Forestry Corporation have resulted in hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines and court costs. It is unreasonable that a government agency has to sue a State-Owned Corporation at a cost to NSW residents to enforce compliance of the law while damaging our forests.
“The lack of risk-based assessments for logging sites and for quality assurance is a red flag that Forestry Corporation is playing fast and loose with their responsibilities. It is exceptionally concerning that the Corporation is not even measuring whether they are tracking towards their zero-non-compliance goal.
“The Environment Protection Authority should be the first line of defence against unlawful forestry operations, but they currently aren’t, they need training and equipment that allows them to conduct this vital work and a whole lot more money. It would be an absolute absurdity to have to go down this path now. The case to end logging the public forest estate has been made. It is costing taxpayers millions of dollars in losses and subsidies every year to prop up the industry and cause further harm and destruction to our precious forests including koala habitat. The NSW Government needs to look to VIC and WA and hasten the inevitable.
“With this new evidence about the non-compliance of native forest logging in NSW, it is untenable for the Government to allow native forest operations to continue, especially in vulnerable areas - and particularly in the proposed Great Koala National Park.
“There are serious concerns that the Forestry Corporation is conducting a grab and run in our native forests. The industry is on its last legs, and they are smashing our very valuable public native forests before they go.”
