Senator TROETH (12:12 PM) —As Senator Forshaw has remarked, this amendment attempts to qualify exemptions provided to RFA forestry operations under the World Heritage Properties Conservation Act 1983, and it does so by incorporating qualifications contained in the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999.

The government does not agree that this proposed amendment is necessary. The EPBC Act implements key elements of the 1997 COAG agreement by dealing with environmental assessment and approvals processes. It provides a framework for a more effective national approach to environmental management, ensuring that resources are focused on delivering better environmental outcomes at all levels of government.

The RFA provisions in that act remove the application of new environmental assessment and approval requirements under that bill while an RFA is in force. Transitional and savings provisions contained in the Environmental Reform (Consequential Provisions) Act 1999 provide for the continuation of relevant existing environmental legislation which would otherwise be replaced by the EPBC Act for the purposes of developing and finalising RFAs for specified reasons, and this is consistent with the COAG agreement in relation to forestry matters, which requires any arrangements entered into as part of an RFA to not be affected by these new environmental processes.

The RFA Bill provides support for RFA forestry operations by exempting such operations from existing environmental and heritage legislation. The EPBC Act complements the RFA Bill by ensuring that environmental assessment and approval requirements relating to RFA forestry operations which are satisfied under the RFA process are not revisited under the new environmental legislation while an RFA is in force. So we will not be supporting this amendment.