Legislation reviews and consultation

The Sunsetting Review of the Illegal Logging Regulation led to the development of the Illegal Logging Prohibition Amendment (Strengthening Measures to Prevent Illegal Timber Trade) Bill 2024 (the Bill). This was passed by the Australian Parliament and received Royal Assent on 17 September 2024.

As part of the parliamentary process, the Bill was referred to the Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport Legislation Committee for inquiry and report in May 2024.

You can read more about this inquiry, including public submissions received by the Committee, on the Parliament of Australia’s website.

Please note the current Act and Regulation are still in force. Regulated entities must continue to meet their due diligence obligations under existing illegal logging laws until changeover arrangements are determined. We anticipate this to be before the Regulation’s sunsetting date of 1 April 2025 and will provide updates accordingly.

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In July 2021 we released a consultation paper and summary of the paper seeking stakeholder feedback on potential reforms to the Illegal Logging Prohibition Regulation 2012 (the Regulation) and the associated Illegal Logging Prohibition Act 2012 (the Act).

In August 2021, we held a webinar to provide the regulated community and other interested stakeholders with information on the Sunsetting Review process and potential reforms. Links to the webinar recording are below.

Feedback was sought to ensure the laws:

• remain effective in protecting the Australian market from illegally logged timber
• achieve their purpose of promoting trade in sustainable, legally harvested timber.

Stakeholders provided valuable feedback on a wide range of potential reforms to the Act and the Regulation. We used this feedback to develop the Illegal Logging Prohibition Regulation 2012: Regulation Impact Statement (RIS) that explores the costs and benefits of proposed reforms and other legislative options.

The Minister considered the RIS and in December 2022 agreed to pursue the recommended option of reforming the legislation. This option was selected over the alternate options to either remake the Regulation as is or let it lapse - or ‘sunset’ - on its original sunsetting date of 1 April 2023. The sunsetting date has since been deferred to 1 April 2025. The sunsetting date has since been deferred to 1 April 2025. These reforms require changes to both the Act and the Regulation.

Key reforms agreed to by the Minister to pursue include:

• enabling us to receive due diligence information, such as the timber species and harvest location from regulated entities upfront prior to import/processing
• adding powers to sample, seize and hold regulated timber products
• adding injunction and enforceable undertaking powers
• adding powers to publish compliance findings and instances of non-compliance
• streamlining due diligence for low-risk pathways
• reducing due diligence for identical repeat pathways
• adding and improving definitions

At this stage, the following reforms will not be progressed as they either lacked support, have proved technically unfeasible, or require further consultation to arrive at a decision:

• optimising the regulatory burden for low frequency importers
• implementing licencing or third-party audits for high frequency importers
• optimising the products regulated including broadening exemptions and reducing due diligence burden for low-risk products
• prohibiting imports of logs from countries with existing log export bans.

Details of proposed reforms are outlined in the RIS (Option 3, page 20).

The review and consultation led to the development of the Illegal Logging Prohibition Amendment (Strengthening Measures to Prevent Illegal Timber Trade) Bill 2024 (the Bill), which is before the Senate for debate as of September 2024.

Get updates

Stay updated on upcoming events and the legislative reform process by subscribing to our illegal logging mailing list.

In January 2019 we published a report examining the first 5 years of Australia’s illegal logging laws in January 2019. The ‘Statutory review of the Illegal Logging Prohibition Act 2012’:

• assessed the extent that the Illegal Logging Prohibition Act 2012 and associated Illegal Logging Prohibition Regulation 2012 met our illegal logging policy objectives
• highlighted operational issues encountered during the Act’s first 5 years of operation
• identified potential options for improving the Act’s operation.

In October 2019, the government decided not to make significant changes to the Illegal Logging Prohibition Act 2012. This decision was based on advice from the Forest Industry Advisory Council (FIAC) on the review’s outcomes.

Industry members were given an extended period of regulatory certainty, during which they could focus on ensuring they only trade in legally sourced wood products.

The 2021 review (detailed above) consider future changes to the Act.

In October 2017, we published the Reforming Australia’s illegal logging regulations - Regulation Impact Statement (RIS). The RIS built on the findings of the earlier KPMG Independent review

The RIS looked at options for reducing costs associated with complying with the due diligence requirements. It examined 6 potential regulatory options:

• Continue with the 'status quo'
• Change the consignment value threshold
• Remove personal imports
• Establish a deemed to comply arrangement for timber legality frameworks
• Establish a deemed to comply arrangement for Country or State Specific Guidelines
• Establish a deemed to comply arrangement for low-risk countries

The RIS was informed by a public consultation process undertaken in late 2016. A full list of the submissions made to the review can be found at the back of the RIS.

The RIS resulted in a series of proposed regulatory amendments being tabled in Parliament in October 2017. These were intended to streamline and clarify the due diligence requirements. The key proposed reform was the establishment of a new 'deemed to comply' arrangement for products certified under the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) and Programme for Endorsement Certification (PEFC) schemes.

On 8 February 2018, the proposed ‘deemed to comply’ arrangement was debated in the Australian Senate and the associated regulatory amendments were disallowed. Other minor technical amendments that were progressed in the same package were not affected by the disallowance.

In December 2014, we commissioned KPMG to conduct an independent review of the illegal logging laws. The review examined whether the due diligence requirements struck an appropriate balance between:

• the costs of compliance for small businesses, and
• reducing the risk of illegally logged timber entering the Australian market

The review found there was an opportunity to amend the Regulation to strike a better balance between the two objectives.

Our response released in February 2016 provided in-principle support for the review’s findings. It committed to progressing a package of reforms. This included the consideration of regulatory reforms through a further RIS process .

In 2011, we published the “Australian Government policy on illegally logged timber” Regulation Impact Statement (RIS). This was part of the development of Australia’s illegal logging laws. This original RIS assessed the potential costs and benefits for business, individuals and the Australian economy of regulatory options to restrict the importation of illegally logged timber into Australia.

This statement categorises the structure and nature of small businesses operating within the Australian forest products industry. It also assesses how the illegal logging policy will affect those businesses.