Ms BURNET (Clark) – Deputy Speaker, I thank Mrs Beswick for bringing this motion to the House. It sounds like we are in furious agreement that the Tasmanian Freight Equalisation Scheme (TFES) is very important to Tasmania.
While the Greens support an increase in the Tasmanian Freight Equalisation Scheme, this should not be an excuse to plunder our native forests. I beg to differ with the minister: the export of whole logs from Tasmanian native forest to mills in Victoria is scandalous and yet another subsidy for a mendicant industry. Between 2019 and 2023, the federal government provided more than $20 million in subsidies to forestry contractors for exporting native forest and plantation logs through the Tasmanian Freight Equalisation Scheme. Things changed in 2023 when there was a sharp increase in the money subsidising transport of native forest products. Federal subsidies for transporting native forest products between Tasmania and Victoria doubled, with the federal government supplying upwards of $10 million in subsidies to a declining native forest industry in 2024. This is evident at the Devonport wharf where log trucks line up to be transported to the mainland carrying logs from Tasmania’s native forests for processing.
It is particularly egregious to be taking up precious space on the Spirits of Tasmania with multiple logging trucks a day at a time when tourists are being turned away. That erodes the Tasmanian economy, especially the tourism economy, especially up in the north-west.
There is also the double dipping. Some of the companies that receive subsidies under the TFES also receive substantial Commonwealth and state funding under the Tasmania Forest Agreement exit packages. Private companies such as Western Junction Sawmill have received as much as $5 million a year from the taxpayer. Almost 70 per cent of Australians do not support native forest logging, and do not want to see the ongoing destruction of Tasmania’s forests, and yet their tax dollars are being spent subsidising this unprofitable and unsustainable industry. There are concerns that the use of the TFES this way is undermining Victoria’s transition away from native forest logging and that native Tasmanian timbers are being milled and sold from Victorian mills.
I will draw on the same inquiry that Senator Tyrrell held in Hobart on 13 November last year and point out the Australian Greens position in that:
The Australian Greens recommend that there is a statutory review of the threshold levels and payment cap under the Tasmanian Freight Equalisation Scheme, to be conducted every three years to ensure consideration of an alignment with changes in sea and road freight costs. The Greens recognise the importance and equity of the TFES to Tasmania’s economy, including its many small and agricultural businesses.
Again, we are in furious agreement. The only exception is the recommendations of the report in regard to how wood products and woodchips, or particles, are considered under the TFES, in particular the eligibility of sawlogs and other products sourced from Tasmania’s native forests.
A number of environmental non‑government organisations appeared before that inquiry. That included the Wilderness Society, the Bob Brown Foundation and Environmental Justice Australia (EJA). Environmental Justice Australia stated their concerns in relation to the Tasmanian Freight Equalisation Scheme – that it was limited to its application to the timber industry and subsidisation of native forest wood to the extent it is shipped from Tasmanian forests to mainland Australia. This is a concern shared by the Greens and particularly the Greens senator Nick McKim. At the hearing, the EJA further submitted that:
The Australian Government has committed to halting and reversing deforestation, forest degradation and biodiversity loss in Australia by 2030. We consider that this review is an opportunity for the federal government to ensure that the scheme aligns with the government’s broader commitments, policies and international obligations, including its no new extinctions policy –
A very interesting policy, that.
– and discontinue its subsidisation of the native forest logging industry.
These broader commitments, policies and obligations include the Convention of the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals of 1979, the Montreal Process for the Conservation and Sustainable Management of Temperate and Boreal Forests 1994, and Australia’s renewed commitment at the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP 26) to halt and reverse forest lost by 2030 and to prevent further extinctions as part of the Glasgow Leaders Declaration on Forests and Land Use. As submitted by the EJA, Tasmania’s native forests are:
… critical habitat for iconic threatened wildlife, including the swift parrot and Tasmanian devil, both of which are facing extinction if more is not done now to ensure their survival.
I would like to end my contribution on this matter with a statement provided to the Senate TFES Inquiry from Tasmanian Aboriginal Elder Uncle Jimmy Everett/Puralia Meenamatta, who said:
First Nations’ law is in Country, and we are obligated to defend our law because we are Country and Country is us. The profit‑driven and huge taxpayer costs to maintain the forest industry and the costs in terms of destroying natural ecosystems and the life therein is a serious issue at this time of climate change, and it has to stop immediately. As Aboriginal people, we have a saying, ‘We are Country and Country is us’. We are obligated to protect these forests.
Finally, the TFES is very important to Tasmania but so too is our natural heritage. We should be protecting that and not squandering it.
