This paper recommends a major review of the Australian forestry industry in the light of the needs of climate-change policy, and the burgeoning of plantation forestry.

The paper begins with a ‘situation and outlook’ review of Australia’s forestry industry, before turning to the most salient contemporary forest-policy issues; the Federal Government’s stance of disengagement; taxation-based plantation managed-investment schemes, and climate change. It identifies, within the Government’s proposed emissions trading system, likely counter-productive market signals for climate-change mitigation and forestry-industry productivity.