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Illegal logging – Regulation Impact Statement – Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry

On 23 November 2011, the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry announced that the Australian Government will introduce legislation prohibiting the importation and sale of illegally logged timber in Australia which has been estimated to cost $60 billion each year in environmental and social costs internationally. An initial Regulation Impact Statement (RIS) was assessed as adequate by the Office of Best Practice Regulation (OBPR) in May 2010 and published by the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (DAFF) in December 2010.  Following examination of the Bill and public inquiry by the Senate Standing Committee on Rural Affairs and Transport in mid 2011, the RIS was revised in November 2011. The addendum to the RIS took into account regulatory recommendations from the Senate inquiry and the Government response. The revisions related mainly to the exclusion of codes of conduct and timber industry certifiers but the preferred regulatory option did not change. The addendum RIS concluded that the costs and benefits of implementing the legislation would be of a similar size. The addendum RIS was approved by the OBPR in early November 2011. The Illegal Logging Prohibition Bill 2011 was introduced into Parliament on 23 November 2011. The Explanatory Memoranda to this Bill included the addendum to the RIS. The initial RIS, prepared by DAFF and assessed as adequate by the OBPR, commenced under the Government’s previous best practice regulation guidelines (before June 2010). Those guidelines did not require the OBPR to publish RIS. However, DAFF has agreed to allow the OBPR to publish the Addendum RIS on its website, consistent with current best practice regulation requirements.