Macdonald’s forestry agreements under scrutiny
Image: Janet Cavanaugh and David Shoebridge in Doubleduke State Forest
The NSW Greens have called for a review of 16 wood supply agreements signed off between 2004 and 2007 by former NSW Minister for Primary Industries Ian Macdonald, who is currently under investigation by the ICAC.
The Greens claim 16 supply agreements for northeast NSW, the south coast and western NSW – all signed off by Mr Macdonald – were unsustainable. Greens Member of the NSW Legislative Council, David Shoebridge said Forestry NSW made incorrect assessments.
“A 2004 internal government review highlighted deficiencies in just about every aspect of the process Forests NSW used to estimate the merchantable volume of timber available for harvesting,” he said.
“Documents produced in 2012 also show that the agreements Mr Macdonald signed off on allowed companies to access wood at levels that have never before been allowed.”
Mr Shoebridge said the yields of wood allowed by those agreements were excessive to the point of unsustainable. The NSW Government makes the final determination as to what is a sustainable yield in consultation with Forestry NSW, a body that manages NSW forests.
Forestry NSW denied the Mr Shoebridge’s claims. A spokesperson for the organisation said the agreements signed by Mr Macdonald at the time were all based on sustainable yields.
“All wood supply agreements entered into by the then Forestry Commission were based on a proper assessment of sustainable yields,” the spokesperson said.
The spokesperson cited a review of wood supply agreements by the auditor-general in 2009 that showed the agreements allocated sustainable amounts of wood.
Also opposing the Greens’ claims were NSW Forests Products Association (NSWFPA), the representative body for the forest products industry. A NSWFPA spokesperson said the organisation has no contribution to calculating a sustainable yield. The organisation believes Mr Macdonald followed sustainability guidelines at the time.
“A full resource review was done in 2002 which the then NSW Government followed and there were no sustainability issues in my view,” said the spokesperson.
Should it be found Mr Macdonald did facilitate unsustainable yields based on incorrect advice from his Department and Forests NSW, large compensation claims could arise.
“Compensation clauses in these wood supply agreements could cost NSW taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars,” said Mr Shoebridge.
A spokesperson for NSWFPA said: “There is absolutely no doubt that if the calculations of yields were wrong under Mr Macdonald or his predecessor Mr Knowles, there will be huge compensation claims against the NSW Government.”
