Today in Parliament, Abigail contributed to a debate calling for an end to the destruction of our irreplaceable native forests and a job-for-job guarantee to ensure forestry workers are supported through a just transition, protecting both our environment and our people.
Abigail said:
Native forest logging is environmentally devastating, economically unviable and socially unsustainable. But ending it must be done with workers, not against them. Australia's native forests are among the most biodiverse and carbon-dense ecosystems on earth. They provide critical habitat for threatened species like the koala, the swift parrot and the greater glider, and they store enormous amounts of carbon. Yet for decades Labor and Liberal governments have allowed destructive logging to continue, releasing millions of tonnes of carbon, driving species toward extinction and devastating ecosystems that have existed for millennia. The Greens are the only party with a comprehensive plan to end native forest logging and ensure that no worker is left behind.
Native forests are critical carbon stores. Logging releases millions of tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions that Australia's carbon accounting system fails to properly capture. The Greens secured a historic win: For the first time, native forest logging will now face national environmental scrutiny under reformed Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act provisions. But there is more to do. Markets have moved on. The future lies in plantations, sustainable timber manufacturing and large-scale rewilding and restoration. We will not abandon forestry workers. A just transition means a job-for-job guarantee, retraining and investment in sustainable regional industries. Forestry workers are skilled, hardworking people who have been let down by governments that refused to plan for the inevitable end of native forest logging. The Greens believe in a job-for-job guarantee. No worker should be left behind because their government failed to plan ahead.
The Frontier Economics report found that transitioning two million hectares of New South Wales native forest to protected areas could support around 1,200 full-time equivalent positions—more than 80 in hardwood plantations, over 550 in hardwood manufacturing and over 550 in forest management and restoration. The choice before us is clear. We can continue to subsidise the destruction of our irreplaceable native forests—losing money, losing species and losing carbon—while forestry workers are left with no plan and no future, or we can do what The Greens have always called for: protect our forests, invest in our workers and build a forestry industry that is sustainable, profitable and just. Polling shows that an overwhelming majority of Australians want native forest logging to end. It is popular and the right thing to do for nature, for the climate and for the communities that depend on our forests. The Greens have the plan, have the commitment and will deliver a just transition that leaves no worker behind.
Read the debate in Hansard here.
18 March 2026