It is a requirement of each Victorian Regional Forest Agreement (RFA) that its performance is reviewed every five years to provide an assessment of progress made against the RFAs, and includes:
- the extent to which milestones and obligations have been met, including the management of the National Estate
- the results of monitoring the sustainability indicators; and
- inviting public comments on the performance of the RFAs.
The Victorian Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning provides further information on the process for the RFA reviews.
Scoping Agreement
The combined five and ten-yearly reviews of the Victorian RFAs formally commenced in August 2009 with the signing of the Scoping Agreement. The Scoping Agreement set out the arrangements agreed by the Victorian and Australian governments for undertaking the review:
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The Scoping Agreement provides that the five Victorian RFAs will be reviewed simultaneously. The review covers two periods: the first from the date the RFAs were signed until 30 June 2004, and the second from 1 July 2004 to 30 June 2009.
Report on Progress and public consultation period
In accordance with the Scoping Agreement, a report on progress in implementing the five Victorian RFAs was prepared by the Victorian and Australian governments. Members of the public had an opportunity to comment on:
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The public submission period closed on Sunday 28 February 2010.
Publically available submissions
During the review process, 30 submissions were received commenting on the Draft Report on Progress with Implementation of the Victorian Regional Forest Agreements (RFAs). Twenty three of the submitters granted permission to have their submissions made publicly available on this website.
These submissions were not prepared by the department and may not meet Australian Government accessibility guidelines. If you require an accessible version of a submission, please contact its author.
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| Document | Pages | File size |
|---|---|---|
| Anonymous 1 - Author requested content to be removed | ||
Anonymous 2 PDF  |
3 | 24 KB |
| Anonymous 3 PDF |
2 | 26 KB |
| David Lewis PDF |
1 | 8 KB |
| Dean Haywood PDF |
13 | 104 KB |
| Environment East Gippsland Inc PDF |
8 | 224 KB |
| Friends of the Koalas PDF |
1 | 15 KB |
| Jennifer Parker PDF |
3 | 29 KB |
| John Fraser PDF |
1 | 22 KB |
| Kim Devenish & Julie Constable PDF |
8 | 103 KB |
| Lawyers for forests PDF |
1 | 13 KB |
| Maria I E Reidl PDF |
44 | 1.7 MB |
| Mount Eliza Association for Environmental Care) PDF |
1 | 9 KB |
| MyEnvironment Inc PDF |
37 | 13.6 MB |
| Nick Mitchell PDF |
1 | 8 KB |
| Otway Ranges Environment Network and Melbourne Water Catchment Network PDF |
67 | 5.2 MB |
| Pat Liffman PDF |
5 | 24 KB |
| Portland's Field Naturalists Inc PDF |
3 | 15 KB |
| The Institute of Foresters of Australia (IFA) PDF |
5 | 52 KB |
| Timber Communities Australia PDF |
3 | 32 KB |
| Timber Towns Victoria PDF |
10 | 228 KB |
| Victorian Association of Forest Industries PDF |
19 | 257 KB |
| Wilderness Society PDF |
11 | 234 KB |
Independent Reviewer’s report
Importantly, the review process involved an assessment by an independent third party (Independent Reviewer). The Independent Reviewer considered the Draft Report on Progress with Implementation of the Victorian Regional Forest Agreements (December 2009) and all public submissions that were received during the public consultation period. The Independent Reviewer produced a report which was presented to the Victorian and Australian governments and tabled in the Australian Parliament on 28 September 2010:
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As a consequence of the review, the Independent Reviewer provided 28 recommendations for the Australian and Victorian governments to consider in the ongoing implementation of the five Victorian RFAs. There were two forms of recommendations:
- ‘R’ recommendations for improvements to be made to content of the Draft Report on Progress with Implementation of the Victorian Regional Forest Agreements, in preparing the Final Report, and
- ‘C’ recommendations to the Australian and Victorian governments about the ongoing implementation of the Victorian RFAs.
On 28 September 2010, Senator the Hon Joe Ludwig and the Hon Joe Helper MP released a joint media release announcing the tabling of the report: ‘Australian and Victorian Governments committed to a strong forest future’.
Joint Government response
The Australian and Victorian governments responded to the 28 recommendations in a report tabled in the Australian Parliament on 16 April 2015.
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The governments have also released a Final Report on Progress with Implementation of the Victorian Regional Forest Agreements (RFAs) which addresses the relevant ‘R’ recommendations in the Independent Reviewer’s report. This report is available from the Victorian Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning.
This formally concludes the review process.