Forest Products Industry

Western Australia’s Housing Minister John Carey will open WoodSolutions Built Evolution, hosted by Timber Insight, on the state’s housing delivery transition, before a panel spanning lending, apartment advocacy, off-site manufacture, and the housing industry takes the same stage. Source: Timberbiz Mr Carey MLA will open the day at Crown Perth on 16 September, with conference organiser Craig Oatway, CEO of Timber Insight, moderating the panel that follows, titled “The Role of MMC in Affordable Housing.” The panel will sit one session after the minister. Minister Carey awarded $49 million to 15 local manufacturers in May, and the builders and manufacturers who received will be in the audience. Mr Oatway counts almost half of that funding as directed to timber-based operations, with matched private investment putting more than $40 million into bio-based building systems. This conference forms part of WoodSolutions, Forest and Wood Products Australia’s program for the built environment, which works to drive greater demand for timber across the construction sector. Delivered in partnership with Timber Insight, the event is one of a series of initiatives in Western Australia aimed at increasing industry confidence, specification, and adoption of timber and modern construction systems. The Built Evolution event brings together speakers and practitioners from across the built environment to showcase timber structures in multi-residential, commercial and single-dwelling projects. Designed as a learning-focused conference, the event highlights timber construction and modern methods of construction (MMC), offering practical, project-based insights from industry experts. For suppliers, manufacturers and service providers to the timber and construction sector, Built Evolution offers a rare opportunity: a full day with a concentrated audience of the people who specify, design, approve and build, all gathered specifically to learn how to deliver more projects using sustainable timber-based systems. Speaking ahead of the conference, Mr Oatway said the case for modern construction in affordable housing runs on speed, prefabrication, off-site manufacture, and quality control across the public and private sector, leaving the state with “a really great asset base of social housing that’s going to be around for generations”. The panel at Built Evolution runs across the delivery chain, Michael McGowan will bring the Housing Industry Association’s market outlook from the previous session, and Keystart’s Liam Loan-Lack will bring the state-backed lender that funds first-homeowners. Mr Oatway added that Sam Reece of Australian Apartment Advocacy will complete the panel and she will be talking to that need for density, “Affordable housing won’t be solved by talking about innovation; it will be solved by adopting it,” said Norm Roberts, Chief Executive Officer of OFFSITE. “Developers are embracing panelised timber and offsite construction because they deliver greater certainty, faster build times and reduced reliance on constrained labour markets. “The question is no longer whether MMC works. The market has already answered that.” For more information on the event https://events.humanitix.com/built-evolution-transitioning-to-timber-and-mmc

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Forest & Wood Communities Australia (FWCA) is urging senators to closely examine an apparent 85-year liability gap in the Improved Native Forest Management (INFM) carbon method before deciding whether to disallow it. Source: Timberbiz The call follows the Nature Conservation Council-led statement urging the Greens to save the INFM method and claiming that, over 100 years, only around 10% of the carbon benefit would be converted into carbon credits, leaving around 90% as an additional emissions reduction. FWCA Executive Officer Steve Dobbyns said such claims make it even more important that Senators understand exactly how the method’s 100-year promise works. “A modelled carbon benefit over 100 years is not the same thing as a guaranteed carbon benefit over 100 years,” he said. “Before Senators rely on claims that 90% of the benefit will remain in the atmosphere as additional abatement, they need to know who carries the liability if the assumptions about leakage, permanence or fire prove wrong.” The 85-year question The INFM has a 15-year crediting period but a 100-year permanence period. Section 18 is intended to account for increased harvesting and leakage during years 16–100. But its specific obligation to cancel ACCUs applies to: “A project proponent that is a State or the government of a State…” At the same time, section 15 expressly contemplates a project proponent that is not the State or State Government. “The wording therefore appears to allow a non-State entity, potentially including a private investment entity, to become the approved project proponent without being captured by section 18’s specific 85-year cancellation obligation,” Mr Dobbyns said. “This is not a minor drafting issue. Section 18 deals with increased harvesting elsewhere in public and private native forests – precisely the leakage that could undermine the claimed climate benefit.” The issue is more concerning because the exposure draft did not contain the same apparent gap. It restricted proponents to State Governments or designated State authorities and applied the post-crediting obligation to “the project proponent”. The final method opened the door to non-State proponents while expressly framing section 18 around State-government proponents. The Australian Climate and Biodiversity Foundation (ACBF) has publicly acknowledged its involvement in developing and promoting the INFM concept, including work with the INFM’s lead developer Professor Andrew Macintosh at ANU. The Chair, former Treasury Secretary Ken Henry, continues to publicly champion INFM as a means of replacing native forest harvesting with carbon revenue. FWCA is also aware of major institutional-investor interest in monetising forest carbon. “We are not alleging that ACBF, an investor or any individual caused this drafting change,” Mr Dobbyns said. “But when private investment in forest carbon is clearly contemplated, Parliament is entitled to ask whether opening the method to private proponents while limiting the specific 85-year liability to State proponents was deliberate.” “If it was accidental, fix it. If it was deliberate, explain it before the Senate votes.” ERAC’s own advice raises the same question The Emissions Reduction Assurance Committee relied on the years 16-100 safeguard when finding that the method met the Conservative Offsets Integrity Standard. Its published advice says that if harvesting increases elsewhere in the State: “the proponent must cancel” the appropriate ACCUs. But final section 18 does not say simply, “the proponent”. It expressly refers to a proponent “that is a State or the government of a State”. FWCA says Senators should ask whether ERAC assessed the final method on the understanding that the 85-year safeguard applied to every permissible project proponent. FWCA said today’s claim of a 100-year carbon benefit also raises a separate permanence question. “Protected from timber harvesting for 100 years is not the same thing as protected from bushfire for 100 years.” Under the broader ACCU Scheme, a significant natural disturbance such as bushfire must be reported. But previously issued ACCUs are not automatically cancelled simply because a forest burns. Depending on the circumstances, the Clean Energy Regulator may require lost carbon stores to be restored or ACCUs to be relinquished. The scheme also applies a 5 per cent risk-of-reversal buffer. “So, Senators should ask: if a major or repeated bushfire reverses carbon used to justify the project, who bears the cost of restoring that carbon and under exactly what circumstances are previously issued credits returned?” Mr Dobbyns asked. “The NCC is asking Senators to rely on a claimed 100-year climate benefit. Senators are entitled to understand the risks and liabilities sitting behind that claim.” Senators should not vote blind FWCA is asking Senators to obtain clear answers before voting: Can a private entity become an INFM project proponent? Does section 18’s specific 85-year cancellation liability apply to it? If not, what equivalent mechanism accounts for State-wide leakage? Why were the proponent and section 18 provisions changed after consultation? Who sought or proposed those changes? Did ERAC assess the final wording knowing about the distinction? What happens to the claimed 100-year carbon benefit following major or repeated bushfire, and who ultimately carries that financial risk?   “The INFM is already contentious over additionality, leakage, baselines and carbon accounting. This apparent 85-year gap further undermines confidence in the methodology.” “We are not asking Senators to accept FWCA’s interpretation without scrutiny. We are asking them not to vote blind,” Mr Dobbyns said. “Individual projects could generate hundreds of millions of dollars in carbon credits while claiming climate benefits lasting a century. The legal and financial responsibility for delivering that promise must be absolutely clear before the Senate votes.”

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Independent Member for Wagga Wagga Dr Joe McGirr has thrown his support behind a Softwoods Working Group (SWG) push for major investment in roads and other infrastructure supporting the Southwest Slopes timber industry. Source: Tumut & Adelong Times Dr McGirr has written to the NSW ministers for Natural Resources and Regional Transport backing SWG’s five-point roadmap ahead of the 2027 state election. At the centre of the plan is a call for an immediate $18 million investment in regional road upgrades, including works on Batlow Road, Bombowlee Creek Road and Wagga-Tumbarumba Road. SWG executive officer Carlie Porteous said road funding was one of the group’s most pressing priorities, with the region moving up to 5.7 million tonnes of product each year. “In order to do this safely and more efficiently, we would encourage the NSW government and candidates to the upcoming election to look at the need for better regional road funding,” Ms Porteous said. She said SWG also wanted consideration given to a Regional Local Government preparedness program aimed at helping smaller McGirr goes to bat for forestry investment push regional councils access funding for critical infrastructure upgrades. The $18 million package includes proposed upgrades to Blue Cut Bridge, Jacksons Bridge and Glenroy Bridge, which SWG says are too narrow and have limited visibility on approach. “There are a number of bridges that we have had independently assessed for safety and volume of traffic and are considered as ‘urgent’,” Ms Porteous said. “We have real concerns about the safety of all users of these bridges.” The SWG roadmap also proposes overtaking lanes on sections of Batlow Road and other road improvements aimed at increasing safety and freight efficiency. Dr McGirr said the scale of the timber industry made the requested investment important to the region’s economic future. “These numbers illustrate the massive importance of the industry to our region and demonstrate why the SWG’s relatively modest requests are essential to our social and economic future,” he said. The SWG says the South West Slopes softwood plantation and timber processing sector supports more than 5500 regional jobs and contributes almost $2.3 billion annually to the regional economy. Dr McGirr has also backed the group’s proposal for funding to help smaller councils make infrastructure projects “shovel ready”, as well as the establishment of a Strategic Plantation Economic Zone. The proposed zone would identify suitable areas for plantation development and coordinate planning, infrastructure, regulation and government investment in areas including roads, bushfire risk and weed management. He said the NSW government’s draft Strategic Integrated Regional Transport Plan had also acknowledged concerns about Blue Cut Bridge, which carries about 500,000 tonnes of timber freight each year. “The inclusion of the bridge in the SRITP provides an important framework to advocate for improvements not only to the bridge itself but also to the entire transport infrastructure that supports our softwoods supply chain,” Dr McGirr said. Ms Porteous said SWG planned to take its roadmap to all sides of politics and as many candidates as possible before next year’s election. “The SWG values its ongoing relationship with the NSW government and will happily work closely with the next NSW government on practical and solutions-based outcomes,” she said. Dr McGirr said he would continue pressing the current government for action rather than waiting for the March election. “The SWG’s plan is aimed largely at new governments following the election next March, but I think it’s important to continually remind the current government of the need for this investment and I look forward to further advancing the case in parliamentary sittings later this year,” he said.

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