Queensland residents draw to the attention of the House the lack of transparency, accountability and open data regarding native forest logging operations by the Department of Primary Industries (DPI) business unit DPI - Forest Products. Other State owned native forest business entities make their harvest plans and logging schedules freely available on the Internet, Queensland residents must pay a non-refundable application fee prior to receiving a quote for billable hours to source documents. Knowing when, where and what forest products have been cleared and/or taken within our State forest estate, both historically and more recently at the landscape scale, is a fundamental requirement to understanding how selective logging impacts forest health, forest structure, availability of ecological resources and the distribution and abundance of native species.

Premier Crisafulli’s charter letter to the Minister for Customer Services and Open Data committed to ‘redesign a government that works for Queenslanders’ directing the Minister to ‘ensure the Government is open and transparent, through more accessible public data and information’. As stated in the DPI 'Forest Management Plan Summary' 2023, DPI - Forest Products are required to proactively engage with affected stakeholders and community groups and incorporate feedback to meet compliance obligations. Queenslanders deserve to know what’s going on in our publicly owned native State forests and how the DPI 'Looks after the Environment'. 

Your petitioners, therefore, request the House to bring this to the attention of the Minister for Customer Services and Open Data the lack of public accessible data regarding native forest logging.