The decision to put an ex-forestry minister in charge of environmental protection shows that industry still comes first for this Government. Sue Arnold reports.
IN APPOINTING Murray Watt as Federal Minister for the Environment, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has essentially given "the bird" to the scientific community, environmental organisations and a deeply concerned public.
The Bob Brown Foundation summed up the collective disgust.
Founder and environmentalist Bob Brown said:
“It’s a kick in the guts for every nature-loving Australian ... Watt backs native forest logging, salmon cage pollution, woodland clearance of two million hectares in five years and koala killing, as well as more global heating and coral bleaching.”
In contrast, the timber industry hailed the appointment of an ex-forestry minister to establish a new environmental watchdog.
According to WoodCentral publisher Jason Ross, anonymous insiders from the Labor Party described Watt's appointment to the crucial ministry as "sensible".
PM Albanese has made clear the watchdog is rooting for industry first, with no room for environmental concerns.
Regarding a future federal authority, the Prime Minister said:
“I want a federal EPA [Environment Protection Australia] that supports industry but also supports sustainability.”
Underlining his message, Albanese said:
And I say this message to the Senate and to members of the House of Representatives that, you know, we have a clear mandate to build more housing. The key is supply.
You know, get out of the way and let the private sector build it. That is going to be one of my priorities.
"Supply" being a code word for timber, means we can expect to see more native forest industrial logging on the Albanese agenda. There has been no mention of climate change impacts, biodiversity losses or ecosystem losses.
It’s worth repeating Murray Watt’s definition of sustainability as Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry. In an address to the Australian Farm Institute Roundtable in 2022, Watt focused on training courses for corporate sustainability and compliance.
He said:
On sustainability, I want to be the Minister that works with industry, workers and rural communities to tackle climate change, to reduce emissions, to build resilience, to adapt practices, to develop new income streams, to ensure Australia’s long-term agricultural productivity and food and fibre security.
Why this interest in sustainability? In short, because it’s key to the industry’s future. Sustainability to me involves sustaining and maximising returns from the natural resources that underpin primary production.
In his capacity as Minister for Forestry, Watt announced the launch of the Albanese Government’s $100 million Australian Forest and Wood Innovations (AFWI) program.
In his announcement, Watt said:
Establishing AFWI was an election commitment, which we are proud to deliver and forms part of our record $300 million investment in the Australian forestry and forest product sector.
This program will support sustainable forestry, while also helping to deliver a future made in Australia. It’s an exciting time for forestry research as we work towards unlocking the full potential of wood as the ultimate renewable material and growing our forests and forestry industry.
The three research centres will undertake research to enhance our production forests and the wood products sourced from them – managing and sustainably expanding our Australian forestry resources, transforming wood residues into renewable products and energy solutions – all while helping to address the threat of climate change.”
The three research centres are the AFWI headquarters at the University of Tasmania, with future centres planned for the University of Sunshine Coast and the University of Melbourne.
AFWI's website indicates the advisory committee’s role is to ensure that “all research by AFWI is supported by industry.”
In March 2025, a media release announced the Albanese Government was investing $300 million in the future of the forestry industry. The research advisory committee does not include any independent scientists or NGOs, but is heavily dominated by the timber industry.
WoodCentral publisher Jason Ross reported:
“[Albanese] vowed to roll out the country’s most significant reforms to environmental regulations in decades.”
On the side of reality, evidence from the Wilderness Society Australia indicates Australia has one of the highest rates of deforestation in the world. Over 7.7 million hectares of forest and bushland, an area the size of Ireland, were destroyed by land clearing between 2000 and 2017.
It states:
“Research shows that in 2012, just 50 per cent of Australia’s forests remained intact compared with pre-colonisation. Since then, millions more hectares of forests found nowhere else on Earth have been logged, cleared and burnt.
Deforestation is putting wildlife on the fast-track to extinction”
Australian research academic and scientist Professor David Lindenmayer, a world-leading expert on biodiversity conservation and natural resource management, doesn’t mince words on deforestation.
In February, he wrote:
The science is clear — logging fragments ecosystems, removes critical nesting sites, and pushes species towards extinction.
It is also critical to understand that recent studies show that the recovery of biodiversity following wildfires is severely impaired when forests have been subject to repeated previous disturbances, including past logging.
Further:
The economic case for native forest logging is weak. Time and again, financial analyses have shown that native forest logging operates at a major loss when subsidies and environmental costs are accounted for.
Public funds continue to prop up a native forest logging industry that degrades water supplies, biodiversity, and carbon stores — all of which economic accounting studies have shown have significantly higher long-term value than native forest logging.
Of even greater concern is the growing evidence of Labor governments at the state and federal level ignoring public and scientific concern over the catastrophic loss of biodiversity.
Biodiversity losses were never mentioned by either major party in the recent federal election campaign.
As koalas and greater gliders are driven on the extinction path, the refusal of Labor to address the critical environmental crises Australia faces smacks of Trump-like administrations. Supporting an exponentially expanding native forestry industry amounts to gross environmental irresponsibility.
Labor promises are empty. The NSW Great Koala National Park remains a Labor fantasy as industrial logging wipes out koala habitats rendering the park potential status irrelevant.
In Victoria, the Labor Government approved the helicopter shooting of over 1000 koalas setting an horrific precedent.
The Liberal Government in Queensland demonstrates total synchronicity with Labor's policies of extinction as koala habitats are destroyed for massive urbanisation projects.
With the re-election of Albanese and the Labor Party, Australia’s environment and iconic, unique species have never been at greater risk.
Nor has Australia’s democracy.
Sue Arnold is an IA columnist and freelance investigative journalist. You can follow Sue on Twitter @koalacrisis.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Australia License
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