Reviews and consultations

The Sunsetting review of the Illegal Logging Prohibition Regulation 2012: Regulation Impact Statement (RIS) is now publicly available. The RIS was informed by a public consultation process and analyses potential reforms for Australia’s Illegal Logging Prohibition Act 2012 and the associated Regulation, as well as other legislative options.
In late 2022, the Minister considered the RIS and agreed to the recommended option to implement proposed legislative reforms, which include:

• Enabling us to receive key due diligence information, such as the timber species and harvest location from regulated entities ahead of importation or 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

Visit the Have your say website to see a summary of stakeholder feedback. Here you can also access the RIS and read more about the reforms being progressed.

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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.

We decided to give industry members an extended period of regulatory certainty, during which they could focus on ensuring they only trade in legally sourced wood products.

The 2021 review will 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 (DOCument.

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.