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Parliamentary Questions


Question Without Notice No. 848 asked in the Legislative Council on 27 October 2021 by Hon Dr Steve Thomas

Parliament: 41 Session: 1

NATIVE FOREST — LOGGING — CARBON SEQUESTRATION

848. Hon Dr STEVE THOMAS to the minister representing the Minister for Forestry:

I refer to the government's announcement of 8 September 2021 about the ending of most native timber harvesting in Western Australia and the budgeting of $350 million to plant 33 000 hectares of softwood plantations, which will result in up to 50 million pine trees being planted, ''sequestering between 7.9 and 9.5 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent''.

(1) Will the 50 million pine trees be harvested in the future?

(2) If yes to (1), will any of the carbon sequestered in the harvested pine trees still be sequestered after harvest?

(3) If yes to (2), how much of the 7.9 to 9.5 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent will remain sequestered after harvest?

(4) If pine trees can be grown and harvested for carbon sequestration, why can native hardwood not also be harvested for carbon sequestration?

(5) Why does the government have different rules for different tree species?

Hon ALANNAH MacTIERNAN replied:

I will give the member a lesson in carbon sequestration! I thank the member for the question. The following information has been provided by the Minister for Forestry.

(1)–(2) Yes.

(3) The exact amount of carbon that will remain in harvested wood products and also how long it will remain sequestered depends on the product produced and the end use of the timber. I note that this is basically for construction.

(4) Existing trees in a landscape do not meet the ''additionality'' criteria under the commonwealth harvest methodologies to generate Australian carbon credit units.

(5) The same additionality rules apply for all species under the commonwealth's harvest methodologies.