New South Wales - RFA Reviews and Annual Reports

​​​​Five–yearly Review of NSW’s RFAs

An important element of each of the NSW RFAs is the requir​ement for a five–yearly review of the performance of the RFAs. Clauses 38, 39, 40 and 41 of the Eden RFA, Clauses 40, 41, 42 and 43 of the North East RFA, and Clauses 38, 39, 40 and 41 of the Southern RFA require the five–yearly reviews to provide an assessment of progress made against the RFAs, and include:

  • the extent to which milestones and obligations have been met, including the management of the National Estate
  • the results of monitoring of sustainability indicators
  • invited public comment on the performance of the Agreements.

A review of progress with the implementation of the three NSW RFAs formally commenced in February 2008 upon signing of the First Review of Progress with Implementation of the NSW Regional Forest Agreements - Scoping AgreementPDF icon PDF [2.3 MB] for the review by the Australian and NSW Governments.

The Scoping Agreement provides that the three NSW RFAs will be reviewed simultaneously. The review covers the first period from the date the RFAs were signed for the ensuing five years i.e. 1999-2004 for the Eden RFA, 2000-2005 for the North East RFA and 2001-2006 for the Southern RFA and will satisfy the requirement to undertake a review of the performance of the RFAs for the first five year period.

Further details on the process for the reviews are available on the New South Wales Government website.

The public submissions period in which members of the community had an opportunity to comment on A Draft Report on Progress with Implementation of the New South Wales Regional Forest Agreements (RFAs) North East RFA, Eden RFA, Southern RFA (May 2009) PDF icon PDF [1 MB] commenced on Tuesday 23 June 2009 with a joint press release from the Australian and NSW Government ministers followed by public notices in Sydney and regional newspapers in the first week in July 2009.

The submission period closed on Monday 7 September 2009. Information on the public submissions is provided in the next section.

An Independent Assessor was appointed to review the Draft Report on Progress with Implementation of the New South Wales Regional Forest Agreements (RFAs) as well as all of the public submissions. The Independent Assessor has provided to the Governments a Final Report on Progress with Implementation of NSW Regional Forest Agreements: Report of Independent AssessorPDF icon PDF [444 KB]Word icon Word [733 KB] in November 2009. The Independent Assessor examined all 32 public submissions that were made as part of the review.

The Independent Assessor’s report was tabled in the Australian Parliament on 15 March 2010. The four attachments to that report are provided at the end of this section.

As a consequence of the review, the Independent Assessor provided 18 recommendations for the Australian and NSW Governments to consider in the ongoing implementation of the three RFAs.

The Joint Australian and New South Wales Government Response to the Final Report on Progress with Implementation of the NSW Regional Forest Agreements: Report of the Independent Assessor PDF icon PDF [2.3 MB]Word icon Word [496 KB]​ was tabled in the House of Representatives of the Australian Parliament on 30 October 2014.

Attachments to the Independent Assessor’s final report:

Publicly Available Submissions

During the review process, 32 submissions were received commenting on the Draft Report on Progress with Implementation of the New South Wales Regional Forest Agreements (RFAs). Eighteen of the submitters have granted permission to have their submissions made publicly available on this website. A summary of issues raised in all public submissions was published within the Independent Assessor’s Final Report.

To promote equitable access to the public submissions, they may have been re–formatted to allow screen readers to view them. This may have resulted in changes in the appearance of some submissions. Original submissions received by the governments were provided to the Independent Assessor.

Annual Reports​

All RFAs required an annual report for each of the first five years of the RFA. The annual reports for each of the three NSW RFA regions are provided below.

Eden Region

North East Region

Southern Region

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