Independent MPs and a crossbench senator are trying to increase the pressure on the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, to remove Howard-era exemptions that allow native forest logging to operate outside national environment laws.
The government has been negotiating over reforms to the laws in the Senate, where Greens and crossbenchers David Pocock and Lidia Thorpe have been pushing for an end to the exemptions for logging covered by regional forest agreements.
The independent MP for Mackellar in New South Wales, Dr Sophie Scamps, wrote to Albanese on Thursday urging him to remove the exemptions, saying without that step it would be “difficult to credibly say that your government has kept your promise” to fix broken environment laws.
Co-signatories to the letter, seen by Guardian Australia, were Allegra Spender, Zali Steggall, Zoe Daniel, Monique Ryan, Kylea Tink, Kate Chaney and Thorpe.
Two years ago the environment minister, Tanya Plibersek, said it was “time to change” laws that did not protect the environment and said new legislation could be introduced in 2023.
The government has since ruled out introducing the new laws in this term of government, but is trying to bring in legislation to create an independent environment agency. The powers and role of the agency are under negotiation in the Senate.
Scamps said: “It’s a critical time in these negotiations and we have been putting pressure on from the House and have moved amendments to have these RFAs abolished and we continue to apply pressure.”
She said the RFAs were signed by John Howard, adding: “The problem is we have a completely different context nearly 25 years later. We’re facing a climate crisis, an extinction crisis and an environment crisis. This needs to be addressed.”
Logging under the agreements is not assessed under environment laws geared to protect threatened species such as the koala and greater glider.
Scamps said forests were being logged for low-level products such as palettes and garden stakes while damaging critical habitat for threatened species.
In NSW, the state’s land court this year said the Forestry Corporation of NSW had a “pattern of environmental offending” with a “significant history of unlawfully carrying out forestry operations”.
Victoria and Western Australia ended native forest logging in January. Native forest logging will end across 70,000 hectares of state forest in south-east Queensland at the end of this year.
Questions to Albanese’s office were sent to the office of Plibersek, who said in a statement the government was “doing more than ever to protect our country’s natural treasures and iconic native plants and animals”.
She did not comment on the forestry agreements but encouraged the crossbench to support the government’s legislation before the Senate.
She said this would establish an independent environment protection agency that could “issue ‘stop-work’ orders to prevent serious environmental damage and proactively audit business to ensure they’re doing the right thing”.
