The Australian Forest Products Association (AFPA) has welcomed the opportunity to submit comment on important forest industries proposals for the 2019-20 Federal Budget. The forest, wood and paper products industry supports up to 120,000 direct jobs across the full industry value chain with an annual economic contribution of around $23 billion. Source: Timberbiz
According to AFPA by implementing the right policy settings, more regional jobs and economic activity could be created, allowing the renewable forest industries to further grow and prosper.
AFPA has submitted a document with three recommendations in response to the invitation to provide submissions to inform the 2019-20 Federal Budget.
The full document is available at https://ausfpa.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/2019.01.25-FY20-AFPA-Pre-budget-Submission-final.pdf
- Remove barriers to our forest industries participating in the Emissions Reduction Fund (ERF) and earmark $80 million specifically for new projects with multiple benefits, such as forest plantation and farm forestry projects.
- Invest in research and development for forest industries. The NFIP also announced: at least two additional research centres of the National Institute for Forest Products Innovation (NIFPI), in partnership with States and industry and the establishment of a National Steering Committee to oversee the NIFPI centres.
- Removal of the cap on voluntary matching forest industry levies. The forest and wood products sector is the only agricultural sector with an artificial cap that limits access to the full 0.5% of GVP in voluntary matching funding. The cap is specified in the Forestry Marketing and Research and Development Services Amendment Regulation (2015).
