{"id":33018,"date":"2026-03-02T20:54:53","date_gmt":"2026-03-02T10:54:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/woodcentral.com.au\/?p=33018"},"modified":"2026-03-02T20:54:55","modified_gmt":"2026-03-02T10:54:55","slug":"nothing-to-replace-rfas-forestry-braces-for-legal-no-mans-land","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/woodcentral.com.au\/nothing-to-replace-rfas-forestry-braces-for-legal-no-mans-land\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;Nothing to Replace RFAs&#8217;: Forestry Braces for Legal No Man&#8217;s Land"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Now is not the time for landowners and operators in forests to be alarmist and fearful of changes to Australia\u2019s environmental laws. That is, according to Senator Murray Watt, the Federal Environment Minister, who on Friday spoke of the reforms to the EPBC Act, the first major reform of its laws in decades.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIt will take the government a bit of time to properly explain the changes,\u201d Senator Watt told the Week in Cattle podcast. \u201cWhat these changes do is bring agriculture (and forestry) in line with all other industries. This is a change, but it doesn\u2019t mean the end.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Wood Central understands that the Commonwealth is working on three separate pathways for businesses that operate under RFAs to continue working in forests after the exemptions sunset on 1 July 2027. However, according to Stuart Coppock, one of the few legal practitioners with a deep working knowledge of how the RFA framework operates, there has been no material evidence of progress in these pathways.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe clock is ticking much faster than the bureaucrats realise. It\u2019s crucial that we hear from the state governments on these pathways as they are a joint signature to any future arrangements.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Appearing before the Senate Environment and Communications Legislation Committee, Coppock said the newly minted changes to the EPBC Act have opened a constitutional fault line between state and federal jurisdiction that nobody has resolved \u2014 and nobody appears to be resolving.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cNone of these pathways seems to be operational at the moment,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd with less than 16 months until the exemption expires, not one has been finalised for any of the ten RFAs across New South Wales, Victoria, Western Australia and Tasmania\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cAs soon as the legislation kicks in, the RFAs will go, and there is nothing left to replace them,\u201d according to Coppock, in response to Senator Susan McDonald, who asked whether the bill alters the practical operation of the NSW and other state RFAs. \u201cWe are heading into a maelstrom of legal nonsense \u2026 literally no man\u2019s land.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<div class=\"youtube-embed\" data-video_id=\"Csf-CZRdxA8\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Senate Environment and Communications Legislation Committee | 27\/02\/2026\" width=\"696\" height=\"392\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Csf-CZRdxA8?start=216&#038;feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><em>Stuart Coppock appeared before the Senate Environment and Communications Legislation Committee on Friday, where he gave evidence on the Environment Protection Reform Bill. Speaking on behalf of Timber NSW, Coppock warns the committee that the cessation of Regional Forest Agreements will create &#8220;a maelstrom of legal nonsense&#8221; and leave forestry operators in &#8220;no man&#8217;s land.&#8221;<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h6 class=\"wp-block-heading\">\u2018The state controls the land\u2019<\/h6>\n\n\n\n<p>Coppock laid out the constitutional problem in terms that cut through the legalese. \u201cThe state controls the land. All the Commonwealth have is protected species,\u201d he said. \u201cThere is a mismatch.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And that mismatch goes to the heart of what happens when the RFA exemption disappears. The agreements were designed precisely to resolve the tension between state land management powers and Commonwealth environmental protections \u2014 a framework painstakingly negotiated over a decade from 1990 through to the early 2000s across four states and ten separate agreements. Remove them, and the question of who has authority becomes legally unclear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-pullquote\"><blockquote><p>\u201cWill the Commonwealth laws override the state\u2019s? We don\u2019t know if the federal legislation will take precedence over the state legislation,\u201d Coppock said.<\/p><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>He told Senators the existing system is legally robust and has been tested at the highest levels of the court system. \u201cThere is in place a very good system under the RFAs. They weren\u2019t invented yesterday; they\u2019ve been around for a very long time. The Full Federal Court has a very solid judgment which sets out the precedent on why they work,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe only comment you might make is that they only cover select areas and not all areas.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h6 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Contestable science and inevitable lawfare<\/h6>\n\n\n\n<p>But it was Coppock\u2019s analysis of the decision-making framework \u2014 or lack of one \u2014 that may prove the most consequential warning for the industry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The way the legislation is drafted, he explained, the process is built around decision-making: start with legislation, then work to standards. But it does not deal with the commercial and economic realities of forestry. And in the area of timber, the environmental science that underpins those decisions is highly contestable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWhat is data and information in terms of environmental legislation? It\u2019s about science,\u201d Coppock said, speaking on behalf of Timber NSW. \u201cAnd where you land in the area of timber is in a highly contestable area of science. And that\u2019s where you end up in lawfare \u2014 where you have arguments over scientific papers.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>In other words, the reforms risk turning every harvesting decision into a courtroom battle.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Coppock pointed the committee to established legislative models that could offer a way through \u2014 frameworks already proven in Australian law. The first was work health and safety legislation, which uses the concept of \u201creasonably practicable\u201d to set a compliance threshold. The second was the business judgment rule in corporate law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Both provide a defence structure and a compliance standard that allows a decision-maker to demonstrate they worked diligently through the material before them. \u201cIf you do the best job you can in front of you, at least you can say you did the best you can,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The sweet spot, he said, lies in embedding a high-performance compliance standard within the decision-making framework. It would give operators a defensible pathway through the regulatory thicket \u2014 something, in his view, the current legislation simply fails to provide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Protecting our environment. Speeding up approvals for housing and renewables. <br><br>Our historic new environmental protection laws have officially passed Parliament. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/HfPbyWP3wk\">pic.twitter.com\/HfPbyWP3wk<\/a><\/p>&mdash; Anthony Albanese (@AlboMP) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/AlboMP\/status\/1994278487989833972?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">November 28, 2025<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h6 class=\"wp-block-heading\">\u2018An act of vandalism\u2019<\/h6>\n\n\n\n<p>Coppock\u2019s testimony comes mere days after Rob de F\u00e9gely AM \u2014 the former Chair of the advisory committee that counselled multiple Agriculture Ministers on forestry matters \u2014 slammed the review used to justify the EPBC reforms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/woodcentral.com.au\/wheres-the-data-de-fegely-slams-samuel-review-for-weak-case-against-rfas\/\">Speaking to Wood Central last week<\/a>, de F\u00e9gely described the 2020 Samuel Review of the EPBC Act as \u201cdeficient and underwhelming,\u201d challenged the government\u2019s ability to measure \u201cnet gain\u201d without baseline data from national parks and reserves, and invited the Prime Minister to visit Tasmania to see sustainable forest management in action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Today, de F\u00e9gely went further, arguing that the Samuel Review&#8217;s consultation process excluded the very people who manage forests \u2014 the practitioners of the RFAs \u2014 and that, without their input, Professor Samuel could not have understood the depth of planning, expertise, and biodiversity knowledge embedded within forest management agencies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-pullquote\"><blockquote><p>\u201cThe report does not in my opinion justify the cessation of RFAs in 2027 and as a result has created massive uncertainty for literally thousands of people who not only work in forests or process wood \u2014 the world&#8217;s most renewable product \u2014 but all the contractors, businesses and communities that rely on forests and the businesses and values they support,\u201d de F\u00e9gely said.<\/p><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cRFAs can be improved, but abolishing them not only destroys 35 years of dedicated work \u2014 it is an act of social, environmental and economic vandalism, simply because the Commonwealth government does not have a better system to replace them with.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Where de F\u00e9gely has attacked the quality of the review and the absence of practitioner input, Coppock has now laid bare the legal consequence: a framework that is constitutionally uncertain, operationally unworkable and, in the contested world of forest science, a guaranteed pipeline to the courts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h6 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What comes next?<\/h6>\n\n\n\n<p>Wood Central understands that the Environment and Communications Legislation Committee is due to hand down its report on the Environment Protection Reform Bill by 24 March. The existing exemption for RFA forestry activities will formally end on 1 July 2027, at which point forestry operations with a potential significant impact on matters of national environmental significance will require EPBC assessment, approval and compliance with National Environmental Standards that are yet to be finalised.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>To find out more about the EPBC Act and its implications for Australia\u2019s forests and forest products value chain, click here for Wood Central\u2019s special feature.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Now is not the time for landowners and operators in forests to be alarmist and fearful of changes to Australia\u2019s environmental laws. That is, according to Senator Murray Watt, the Federal Environment Minister, who on Friday spoke of the reforms to the EPBC Act, the first major reform of its laws in decades. \u201cIt will [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":33021,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_wpscppro_dont_share_socialmedia":false,"_wpscppro_custom_social_share_image":0,"_facebook_share_type":"default","_twitter_share_type":"default","_linkedin_share_type":"default","_pinterest_share_type":"default","_linkedin_share_type_page":"default","_instagram_share_type":"default","_medium_share_type":"default","_threads_share_type":"default","_google_business_share_type":"default","_selected_social_profile":[],"_wpsp_enable_custom_social_template":false,"_wpsp_social_scheduling":{"enabled":false,"datetime":null,"platforms":[],"status":"template_only","dateOption":"today","timeOption":"now","customDays":"","customHours":"","customDate":"","customTime":"","schedulingType":"absolute"},"_wpsp_active_default_template":true},"categories":[50,33,2,32,46,45,44,31],"tags":[],"ppma_author":[70],"class_list":{"0":"post-33018","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-australia","8":"category-editors-picks","9":"category-featured","10":"category-global-news","11":"category-industry","12":"category-sustainability","13":"category-sustainable-forest-management","14":"category-top-stories"},"authors":[{"term_id":70,"user_id":2,"is_guest":0,"slug":"jason","display_name":"Jason Ross","avatar_url":{"url":"https:\/\/woodcentral.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/J-Ross-headshot.jpeg","url2x":"https:\/\/woodcentral.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/J-Ross-headshot.jpeg"},"0":null,"1":"","2":"","3":"","4":"","5":"","6":"","7":"","8":""}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodcentral.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33018","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodcentral.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodcentral.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodcentral.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodcentral.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33018"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/woodcentral.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33018\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33022,"href":"https:\/\/woodcentral.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33018\/revisions\/33022"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodcentral.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33021"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodcentral.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33018"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodcentral.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33018"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodcentral.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33018"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodcentral.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=33018"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}