North East Forest Alliance (NEFA) is heading to the Federal Court to challenge the New South Wales North East Regional Forest Agreement

 

"The North East Forest Alliance was formed in 1989 as an alliance of groups and individuals from throughout north-east NSW, with the principal aims of protecting rainforest, oldgrowth, wilderness and threatened species. NEFA has pursued these goals through forest blockades, rallies, court cases, submissions, lobbying, and protracted negotiations" [https://www.nefa.org.au/about_nefa]

On 30 July 2021 the North East Forest Alliance (NEFA) lodged its latest case in the Federal Court against the Commonwealth and NSW Governments.

If you live anywhere on the NSW North Coast, want to preserve our unique, biodiverse forests for future generations and are considering making a donation, go to: 

 https://chuffed.org/project/nefa-is-taking-government-to-court.

 https://youtu.be/XM-N1bnzhvk

Environmental Defenders Office (EDO), Latest News, 4 August 2021:

NSW Forest Logging Agreement Faces Legal Challenge over Climate, Biodiversity

In a legal first, Environmental Defenders Office (EDO) is heading to the Federal Court to challenge a New South Wales Regional Forest Agreement (RFA).

The North East RFA covers logging in the coastal area between Sydney and the Queensland border. It exempts logging in native forests from federal biodiversity law.

Originally signed between the Commonwealth and New South Wales in 2000, it was renewed in 2018 for another 20 years with rolling extensions that could continue indefinitely.

In the summer of 2019-20, devastating bushfires ripped through native forests in the RFA region, including areas of the World Heritage-listed Gondwana Rainforests of Australia.

On behalf of client the North East Forest Alliance (NEFA), EDO will argue that when the North East RFA was renewed, the Commonwealth did not have regard to endangered species, the state of old growth forests or the impacts of climate change, as the EDO will argue it was required to do.

NEFA is asking the Federal Court to declare that the North East RFA does not validly exempt native forest logging from federal biodiversity assessment and approval requirements (EPBC Act).

NEFA is acting to protect native forests, which provide critical habitat for vulnerable and endangered species such as koalas and greater gliders and to ensure that the laws that regulate logging in these forests are up-to-date and fit for purpose. It is the first legal challenge to an RFA in New South Wales.

Senior Solicitor Emily Long has carriage of this case under the supervision of Andrew Kwan.

EDO is grateful for the assistance of Jeremy Kirk SC and James Johnson and Claire Roberts of counsel who are briefed to appear in this matter.

EDO Chief Executive Officer David Morris said:

“We are challenging the Federal Government over its failure to assess how another 20-plus years of logging, against a background of a changing climate, will impact our forest ecosystems, endangered species and old growth forests.

“The Commonwealth didn’t want to incur the costs of conducting a proper assessment, waving through a 20-year extension of native forest logging without proper scrutiny.

“Under the current system, if a population of koalas is being threatened by a new development, the project needs to be assessed at the Federal level. But if the same population of koalas is being threatened by a logging project, it’s been rubber stamped on the basis of 20-year-old environmental assessments.

“We have known for years that as the climate changes, fires will follow. And yet the North East RFA was renewed without an assessment of how climate change will impact the health and resilience of our native forest ecosystems. Less than 12 months later, fires began ravaging native forests across the region.

“This RFA is a powerful instrument that allows the forestry industry to bypass Federal biodiversity assessments. To be robust, these agreements must be founded on the latest scientific knowledge on climate and the state of our forest ecosystems.”

20-year Extension of Native Forest Logging

Myrtle State Forest Courtesy of NEFA

Regional Forest Agreements are signed between the Commonwealth and the states, allowing forestry operations to be exempt from assessment and approval under the federal Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (Cth) (EPBC ACT).

There are ten RFAs in force around Australia. The North East RFA is one of three in New South Wales, the others are the Eden RFA and Southern RFA.

Image: NSW Environment Protection Authority

The North East RFA encompasses a huge area spanning from NSW’s Central Coast to Queensland’s Gold Coast. It encompasses critically endangered ecosystems such as Central Hunter Valley eucalypt forest, New England Peppermint Grassy Woodlands, as well as Lowland and Littoral rainforests.

The ecosystems under the agreement include vital habitat for vulnerable and endangered species such as the grey-headed flying fox, the greater glider, the spot-tailed quoll.

In order for an RFA to exempt native forest logging from the usual federal biodiversity assessment and approval requirements, when the Commonwealth enters into an RFA it is legally required to have regard to assessments of environmental values – including endangered species and old growth – and the principles of ecologically sustainable management. EDO will argue for NEFA that when the North East RFA was renewed in 2018, the Commonwealth was required to, but did not assess climate change, endangered species or old growth forests.

In the subsequent 2019-20 bushfire season, the Black Summer bushfires devastated these ecosystems and the species that call them home, changing native forests in these regions beyond recognition.

According to the Natural Resources Commission 2020 report, 2019-2020 Bushfires: Extent of impact on old growth forest2, 28% of the Upper North East section of the North East RFA was fire affected, with over 65% of the forest canopy in that area being either totally or partially burnt. 23% of the Lower North East section of the North East RFA was fire affected, with 52% of the forest canopy in that area being either totally or partially burnt. 

On behalf of NEFA, EDO will argue that the lack of crucial assessments before the 2018 renewal means the decision to extend the North East RFA was not made in accordance with the relevant legislation. As a consequence, the Federal Court should find the North East RFA does not lawfully exempt logging in the north east RFA region from federal biodiversity assessment and approval requirements.

Deputy Premier John Barilaro and the National Party continue laying waste to regional New South Wales

 

NSW Deputy Premier, leader of the 18 member parliamentary National Party and Minister for Regional New South Wales, John Barilaro, sits atop a portfolio which holds in its departmental domain an est. 40 per cent of all NSW residents, in around 99 local government areas which produce approximately one-third of the total NSW gross state product.

Barilaro has gathered his own party members as minsters with responsibilities within the department - Nationals MLA for Northern Tablelands and Minister for Agriculture and Western New South Wales Adam Marshall and Nationals MLC and Minister for Mental Health, Regional Youth and Women Bronnie Taylor.

There does not seem to be a NSW Liberal Party politician within cooee of the relatively new 'purpose built' regional department.

The only function NSW Premier and Leader of the much larger parliamentary Liberal Party, Gladys Berejiklian, appears to now have with regard to those regional areas of the state is to act as a rubber stamp of approval for Barilaro's wishes - apparently out of fear he may still follow through on his threats to destabilise the state government.

There is little doubt that Berejiklian was weakened by the barely disguised guerrilla war Barilaro conducted (after losing the battle to amend the Land Services Act) using mainstream media as his weapon.

This is the current state of play à la Barilaro when it comes to forests and biodiversity in regional NSW.....

Michael West Media, 19 February 2021:

More than 62% of harvestable native forests were damaged in the catastrophic 2019-20 bushfires, according to the NSW government’s own records. Up to 10% of native hardwood forests were lost. Nearly 3 billion animals were killed or displaced, with about 8,000 koalas incinerated on the mid north coast of NSW alone. Some 113 animal species were identified as the highest priorities for urgent management intervention.

Despite this unprecedented damage to forests and wildlife, Deputy Premier John Barilaro is determined that industrial-scale logging will continue in NSW’s burnt and unburnt forests.

When the Environment Protection Authority sought a voluntary halt to logging in a number of state forests in March last year, after intervention by John Barilaro, the NSW Forestry Corporation rejected the request. Barilaro also holds the portfolio of Regional New South Wales, Industry and Trade, which covers the timber industry.

The EPA report says logging continued “because John Barilaro asked the [Forestry Corporation] to deliver on contractual obligations”.

Moreover, in the latest round of bushfire recovery pork barrelling announced by Barilaro, he awarded more than $38 million of the $177 million to timber/forestry projects.

These grants came on top of some $46 million that Barilaro’s Department, Regional NSW, awarded to the Forestry Corporation under bushfire recovery measures for urgent infrastructure repairs, nursery expansions and replanting the forest.

Barilaro’s Department of Regional NSW claims that forestry and related industries are responsible for more than 22,300 jobs.

Yet a 2016 report by The Australia Institute estimated that just 600 people were directly employed in the industry. The TAI report also put the economic losses of the native forest industry in NSW at $79 million over the past seven years, meaning that not only are taxpayers propping up an unviable industry, they are also propping up an industry that is adding to environmental destruction.

The Forestry Corporation also rejected a plea from the EPA for extra site-specific conditions to protect koalas.

Environment Protection Authority review

Four months ago, in September 2020, the EPA published a review it had commissioned from Dr Andrew Smith, an acknowledged expert in forest planning and management.

His review was the result of a consultation between the EPA and the Forestry Corporation to develop a suite of site-specific operating conditions to manage environmental risks associated with timber harvesting in burnt landscapes – a result of a “critical shortage of timber” after the bushfires.

Dr Smith’s findings were concerning. In particular Dr Smith noted:

• Recovery times are likely to be up to 45 years for the koala and 20-120 years for the Greater Glider and Yellow-bellied Glider.

• Fauna populations are at risk of elimination by timber harvesting under the normal Coastal Integrated Forestry Operations Approvals and cause catastrophic population decline in species such as the Koala, Greater Glider and Yellow-bellied Glider.

• There should be a halt to logging of all unburnt and lightly burnt forests within the net harvest area for 12 months.

But the Forestry Corporation rejected his recommendations and advised the EPA that it intended to return to harvesting in September 2020 as it is “legally obliged to do so in order to meet supply commitments”.

Scientists, conservation organisations, and local communities are appalled by ongoing logging of burnt forests at a time when NSW native forests and wildlife need time to recover. Indigenous rights of native title holders whose land includes forests are also  ignored.

Vulnerable and endangered species

The Forestry Corporation also approves its own harvest plans and is responsible for reporting non compliance.

An analysis of the harvest plans on the Forestry Corporation’s website demonstrates that almost every wildlife species included in logging plans for the north-east forests is either listed on the schedules of the Biodiversity Conservation Act or the Commonwealth EPBC list as vulnerable and endangered species.

Recommended recovery plans have not been developed as required and a significant number of affected species are under consideration for upgrading to endangered status by the Federal Threatened Species Scientific Committee.

NSW shuts down opposition

The Berejiklian government has also gone to great lengths to ensure no legal challenges can be mounted to prevent this industrial scale logging of NSW forests and the loss of biodiversity. The Premier’s actions strike at the heart of democracy…..

Read the full article here.

Great Koala Park study released this month and predictably the NSW timber industry is crying 'the sky is falling!'

The proposed Great Koala National Park will add 175,000 hectares of native state forests to existing protected areas. IMAGE University of Newcastle, Australia

2NUR FM Radio, 2 February 2021:

The University of Newcastle has conducted a study looking at the benefits of what would be Australia’s first large national park dedicated to protecting koala habitat.

The Great Koala National Park (GKNP) would add 175,000 hectares of native state forests to existing protected areas to establish a 315,000- hectare reserve on the NSW Mid North Coast.

The proposed Park stretches across five local government areas – Coffs Harbour, Clarence Valley, Bellingen, Nambucca, and Kempsey, which contain up to 4,550 koalas, or approximately 20% of the NSW koala population.

Findings from the University of Newcastle study showed over 15 years the park would generate $1.2 billion in regional economic output of which $531 million will flow into the region’s economy including $330 million in additional wages.

The research also found the region would benefit from –

• the creation of 9,800+ additional full-time equivalent jobs

• investment in the region of $145 million in capital expenditure over 15 years (mapping, tenure changes and habitat restoration plus construction of visitor centre, visitor infrastructure and tracks and trails)

• investment in the region of $128 million in operating expenditure over 15 years (ongoing construction, habitat management and operation of park-based activities)

• a boost to the visitor economy of 1 million visitors to the region who will spend $412 million.

They found that a total of 675 direct and related forestry full-time equivalent jobs would be phased out over a 10-year state forest native logging industry transition period.

This estimate is based on 2016 census data indicating that there are 180 direct state forest native logging jobs in the five local government areas.

The report notes that, given the significant decline in the koala population as a result of the recent drought and bushfire season, the environmental value of each individual koala is now significantly higher than a decade ago.

“It’s estimated by the NSW bush fire inquiry that about a quarter of the North Coast koalas were lost in the fires,” Professor Roberta Ryan says.

“It’s an extremely important area in terms of koala preservation, its the sort of big move that needs to occur if we’re not going to be in a situation where our government presides over the loss of an iconic species in the wild.”

The full Great Koala Park final report can be found here.

As it has for the better part of the last 75 years the NSW timber industry is up in arms about its ability to access native trees for milling and fights all attempts to save forests or the biodiversity and unique native species they contain. Apparently it believes that a plan for a new national park ‘grossly underestimates’ impact on North Coast timber industry.

One of the looming threats to NSW forests in 2021

Hunter Energy Limited, formerly Hunter Energy Pty Ltd, was registered on 6 March 2018.

Its current spokespersons appear to believe that cutting down native forest to supply a power plant with biomass is a “closed loop” with no cilmate or environmental consequences.

However, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration; “although the CO2 released from biofuel or bioenergy combustion is assumed to be fully accounted for by the uptake of carbon during the growth of the feedstock used to produce the biofuels or bioenergy…..analysts have debated whether the increased use of biomass energy may result in a loss of terrestrial carbon stocks and foregone future sequestration by natural vegetation. The initial loss of carbon stocks in natural vegetation cleared to grow biomass feedstocks and the foregone future removal of CO2 are not captured in energy sector emissions.”

Dependent on species, it would probably take 25 years for a single tree to store est. 400 to 544 kilograms of carbon dioxide. Eucalypts reaching 8 meters in height might store up to 1 tonne of carbon

So when one is cut down after 25 years and burnt that’s basically how much initial greenhouse gas emissions are released back into the atmosphere from the tree itself – where emissions will remain until 25 years later when hopefully another tree has survived long enough to store a similar amount of carbon.

Multiple that first tree by the up to 1.8 to 3 billion 25 year-old trees estimated to be annually required to feed Hunter Energy’s proposed Redbank Power Station fuelled by biomass and, one begins to see that biomass-generated power is not a closed system at all – it is simply one predicated on at best naked hope and at worst a complete denial of climate change realities regarding Australian native forest tree growth.

Nevertheless, the Berejiklian Coalition Government under blackmail threat by Deputy-Premier and Nationals MLA for Monaro John Barilaro, will push ahead with legislation which allows biomass logging in north east New South Wales.

Logging which would lead inevitably to the destruction of our remaining closed-cover mature native forests.

In this Barilaro will be aided and abetted by NSW Nationals MLA Chris Gulaptis and Nationals Federal MP for Page Kevin Hogan.

BACKGROUND

According to Wikipedia:

On 5 October 2013, Redbank Energy’s wholly owned subsidiary Redbank Project Pty Ltd (Redbank Project) was notified by its secured lenders of the appointment of receivers to Redbank Project, Redbank Construction Pty Ltd and the shares in Redbank Project held by Redbank Project Holdco Pty Ltd,[5] with debts of $192 million.[6]

In Oct 2014, receivers KordaMentha announced immediate closure of the Plant with its remaining assets including the turbine, generator and plant and equipment to be sold.[7]

On 17 September 2015 Redbank Energy (REL) announced that its wholly owned subsidiary, Biogreen Energy Pty Limited (Biogreen), had purchased the land, plant and equipment and water rights owned by Redbank Project for $5 million, but that it intended "to commence the work to raise the funds necessary to recommence the operation of the Redbank Power Station".[8][9]

On 25 August 2016 Redbank Energy issued the following statement to shareholders via the ASX. "In response to shareholder enquiries, Redbank Energy Limited (ASX: AEJ) (REL) wishes to provide the following market update. Unfortunately, REL will be removed from the ASX official list on 29 August 2016. The immediate catalyst for delisting will be the non-payment of the 2016/17 ASX annual listing fee, which falls due on 27 August 2016. The reason for REL not paying the 2016/17 ASX listing fee is because REL will automatically be suspended on 9 October 2016 due to continual suspension." Redbank was subsequently delisted from the close of trading on Monday, 29 August 2016 pursuant to Listing rule 17.15.[10]

On 10 April 2018, Fairfax Media announced that the power plant could be restarted in Q1 2019 to provide cheap off-the-grid power for blockchain mining applications.[11]

Financial Review, 26 May 2020:

The Redbank Power Station in NSW, formerly owned by ASX-listed Redbank Energy and its predecessors Alinta Energy and Babcock & Brown Power, is set for a comeback to the ASX-boards.

This time Redbank will be housed in a new company called Hunter Energy, which was set up by a bunch of former Australian Power & Gas execs, and acquired Redbank in 2018. (It is run by Richard Poole, a former investment banker and Cascade Coal director).

Hunter Energy has turned the dormant Redbank into a "green energy power plant", according to marketing materials in front of potential investors, able to produce enough energy to power 200,000 to 250,000 homes using waste biomass for fuel.

Hunter Energy wants to switch the plant on by the end of this year to provide what it says would be around the clock and reliable baseload power with zero net emissions….

Financial Review, 26 May 2020:

The Redbank Power Station in NSW, formerly owned by ASX-listed Redbank Energy and its predecessors Alinta Energy and Babcock & Brown Power, is set for a comeback to the ASX-boards.

This time Redbank will be housed in a new company called Hunter Energy, which was set up by a bunch of former Australian Power & Gas execs, and acquired Redbank in 2018. (It is run by Richard Poole, a former investment banker and Cascade Coal director).

Hunter Energy has turned the dormant Redbank into a "green energy power plant", according to marketing materials in front of potential investors, able to produce enough energy to power 200,000 to 250,000 homes using waste biomass for fuel.

Hunter Energy wants to switch the plant on by the end of this year to provide what it says would be around the clock and reliable baseload power with zero net emissions….

Echo NetDaily, 26 November 2020:

As glaciers, ice sheets, and the poles continue to melt due to the human impacts on the environment it is bordering on criminal for the Australian and NSW governments to be supporting the increase of CO2 in the atmosphere, let alone clearing and burning trees for biomass energy production.

According to studies being done on the East Antarctic Ice Sheet reported in phys.org it is becoming clear ‘that increasingly warming climate, as expected for the near future, the East Antarctic Ice Sheet could be less stable than previously thought’.

‘The future melting of polar ice sheets and the associated rise in global sea level as a consequence of climate change will have a substantial impact on low-elevation coastal areas.’

Yet the Federal government is promoting a gas led COVID-19 recovery, the NSW government has facilitated the approval of the Narrabri Gas Project, and the biomass Redbank Power Station near Singleton appears to be planning a reboot.

‘The imminent rebooting of the mothballed Redbank Power Station (near Singleton) with north-east NSW’s forests will make it Australia’s most polluting power station and an existential threat to the future of our children and wildlife,’ according to the North East Forest Alliance (NEFA).

According to NEFA Hunter Energy is currently seeking expressions of interest for timber from across north-east NSW to fuel their Redbank Power Station, with plans to restart the facility in mid-2021 fed by native forests to make it one of world’s ten biggest biomass power plants.

‘The claims are that it will power 200,000 homes, which was identified in 2017 North Coast Residues Report as requiring one million tonnes of biomass to be taken from north-east NSW’s forests and plantations each year, with 60 per cent of this coming from private forests,’ said NEFA spokesperson Dailan Pugh.

‘This is sheer madness as burning this volume will release some 1.8 million tonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere each year to fuel climate heating, increased droughts, heatwaves, and more intense bushfires, while increasing forest degradation and hastening species extinctions.

‘The community needs to urgently speak up to stop the NSW and Commonwealth Governments from allowing this environmental disaster,’ Mr Pugh said.

NEFA have said that biomass is even more polluting than coal and releases up to 50 per cent more CO2 to generate the equivalent amounts of energy.

‘Then there’s all the CO2 released by machines during logging and in hauling the wood from across north-east NSW to Singleton,’ said Susie Russel from NEFA.

‘It will be a nightmare for rural communities with thousands of extra trucks plying narrow rural roads, crossing small deteriorating bridges, passing through peaceful villages and then roaring down the Pacific Highway to Redbank.

‘This will be subsidized by taxpayers under the pretense that burning trees is renewable energy as the trees will regrow and decades or centuries later take up the carbon released by burning them.

‘We are in a climate emergency and cannot afford to spew millions of tonnes of additional carbon into the atmosphere at a time when we need to be urgently reducing atmospheric carbon, and we need to leave our trees alive to do it as they are the only viable means of carbon capture and storage,’ Ms Russell said.

Mr Pugh continued, ‘Our suffering forest wildlife will be impacted most severely as forest degradation skyrockets with all those previously uneconomic trees taken……

NEFA have said that biomass is even more polluting than coal and releases up to 50 per cent more CO2 to generate the equivalent amounts of energy. [my yellow highlighting]

Hunter Energy, retrieved 28 December 2020:

Upon re-start, Redbank will be one of the largest green baseload renewable energy providers in NSW and the ONLY existing facility capable of providing urgently required green 24/7 baseload power, adding to grid stability.