Illegal Logging Prohibition Amendment (Strengthening Measures to Prevent Illegal Timber Trade) Bill 2024

The majority voted against a second reading amendment introduced by Tasmanian Senator Nick McKim (Greens), which means it failed. The amendment would have added the words below to the usual second reading motion, which is "that the bill be read a second time" (parliamentary jargon for agreeing with the main idea of the bill).

Amendment text

At the end of the motion, add ", but the Senate notes that:

(a) each year around 300,000 hectares of Australia's native forests and woodlands are lost to logging and land clearing,

(b) Australia's native forests are among the most carbon-dense in the world,

(c) if Australia ceased all logging of native forests, the avoided emissions alone would be close to what is needed annually (15.5 Mt CO2) to achieve our national target of a 43% reduction on 2005 levels of emissions by 2030; and

(d) the Ending Native Forest Logging Bill 2023, which will repeal the Regional Forest Agreements Act 2002 and amend the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 to remove any and all exemptions they provide for native forest logging, should be brought on and passed".