❓ Hon Giz Watson questions the Forest Products Commission (FPC) regarding compliance with the Australian Forestry Standard (AFS) based on a 2009 audit. The Minister responds, outlining steps taken to address identified areas for improvement and tables the audit report.
AnsweredQoN 822Legislative Council
QuestionView source ↗
FOREST PRODUCTS COMMISSION — AUSTRALIAN FORESTRY
STANDARD AUDIT
822. Hon GIZ WATSON to the minister representing the
Minister for Forestry:
I refer to the Forest Products
Commission website and the ''Australian Forestry Standard, audit scope
and summary—March 2009—performed by NCS International'',
which states at pages 2 and 3 that ''environment policy does not fully
meet all requirements of a forest management policy'' and that ''objectives
and targets are not measureable in south west forests'', and which
refers also to ''damage to habitat trees in south west forests''
and ''safety issues identified in south west forests harvesting
operations''.
(1) What steps
has the Forest Products Commission taken to redress these failures to comply
with the standard?
(2) Is the
original Australian forestry standard audit performed by NCS International
publicly available?
(3) If the
Australian forestry standard audit performed by NCS International is not
publicly available —
(a) why not;
and
(b) will the minister please table
this document?
STANDARD AUDIT
822. Hon GIZ WATSON to the minister representing the
Minister for Forestry:
I refer to the Forest Products
Commission website and the ''Australian Forestry Standard, audit scope
and summary—March 2009—performed by NCS International'',
which states at pages 2 and 3 that ''environment policy does not fully
meet all requirements of a forest management policy'' and that ''objectives
and targets are not measureable in south west forests'', and which
refers also to ''damage to habitat trees in south west forests''
and ''safety issues identified in south west forests harvesting
operations''.
(1) What steps
has the Forest Products Commission taken to redress these failures to comply
with the standard?
(2) Is the
original Australian forestry standard audit performed by NCS International
publicly available?
(3) If the
Australian forestry standard audit performed by NCS International is not
publicly available —
(a) why not;
and
(b) will the minister please table
this document?
AnswerView source ↗
I thank the honourable member for some notice of this
question.
(1) These
findings do not represent the failure of the Forest Products Commission to
comply with the standard but rather highlights areas for improvement and
corrective action. For all such audit matters, the FPC creates an incident
report, which is tracked through the incident management system to completion.
FPC undertook the following steps to redress these matters —
Policy: following this audit, the
FPC drafted and formalised a forest management policy. This policy has been
examined by auditors and found to comply with the requirements of the AFS. A
copy of this policy is available on FPC's website.
Objectives and targets: these were
reviewed following this audit.
Habitat trees: for future block/landing
setup, the coupe officer in charge is to liaise with contractor to ascertain
locations of landings to accommodate the silvicultural objectives of the forest
stand; when selecting a landing location, avoid areas of retained trees; and,
if this is not possible, then formally revise tree-marking to allow for landing
location.
Safety issues: the coupe OIC is to
perform spot checks and monitor contractors' safety and health
practices. Also, contractor safety requirements to all staff were discussed at
the next production meeting.
(2) No.
(3) (a) A copy
of the full report is not published. However, a summary is provided on the
Forest Products Commission's website—www.fpc.wa.gov.au.
(b) Yes, I
table the requested information. This is about half a cut-down tree, I think!
[See paper 5230.]
question.
(1) These
findings do not represent the failure of the Forest Products Commission to
comply with the standard but rather highlights areas for improvement and
corrective action. For all such audit matters, the FPC creates an incident
report, which is tracked through the incident management system to completion.
FPC undertook the following steps to redress these matters —
Policy: following this audit, the
FPC drafted and formalised a forest management policy. This policy has been
examined by auditors and found to comply with the requirements of the AFS. A
copy of this policy is available on FPC's website.
Objectives and targets: these were
reviewed following this audit.
Habitat trees: for future block/landing
setup, the coupe officer in charge is to liaise with contractor to ascertain
locations of landings to accommodate the silvicultural objectives of the forest
stand; when selecting a landing location, avoid areas of retained trees; and,
if this is not possible, then formally revise tree-marking to allow for landing
location.
Safety issues: the coupe OIC is to
perform spot checks and monitor contractors' safety and health
practices. Also, contractor safety requirements to all staff were discussed at
the next production meeting.
(2) No.
(3) (a) A copy
of the full report is not published. However, a summary is provided on the
Forest Products Commission's website—www.fpc.wa.gov.au.
(b) Yes, I
table the requested information. This is about half a cut-down tree, I think!
[See paper 5230.]
Explore WA Government Data
Search the full archive in the free dashboard, or query programmatically via API.
Explore more
Government Gazette
Appointments, regulatory notices, planning changes.
Hansard
Debates, questions, speeches and sentiment.
Tabled Papers
Reports and documents tabled in Parliament.
Committees
Committee profiles and recent reports.
Regulations
Subsidiary legislation with filters and summaries.
Bills
Proposed laws and parliamentary progress.
Acts
Current WA legislation and summaries.
Explanatory Memoranda
Bills with EMs (text/PDF) available.
Members
MP profiles, party breakdown and rankings.
Pollie Rankings
Data-driven rankings across 19 categories.
Amendment Chains
Track how schemes and regulations evolve over time.