Native forestry will continue to be exempted from federal threatened species regulations, Assistant Forestry Minister Jonathon Duniam says, despite a major review finding national conservation law was failing to protect wildlife. Former competition watchdog Graeme Samuel’s once-in-a-decade review of the Environment Protection Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act, said there are “fundamental shortcomings” in Regional Forest Agreements and he had “low confidence” they were upholding Commonwealth protections for native forests subject to logging operations. Regional Forest Agreements are made between state and federal governments. The state provides a plan to “balance” the impact of logging on flora and fauna with economic factors, and in return, commercial logging operations are exempted from national laws that protect threatened species. …“My job, broadly, is to maintain the Regional Forest Agreements in their current form,” Senator Duniam said. “We are pro-forestry, we want to grow the sector.”