{"id":"bunbury-treefarm-project-agreement-act-1995","name":"Bunbury Treefarm Project Agreement Act 1995","slug":"bunbury-treefarm-project-agreement-act-1995","collection":"act","jurisdiction":"wa","status":"in_force","isInForce":true,"actNumber":null,"makingDate":null,"administeringDepartment":null,"currentVersion":{"id":30094,"registerId":"wa-bunbury-treefarm-project-agreement-act-1995-current","compilationNumber":null,"startDate":"2026-04-01","status":"InForce","reasons":null,"registeredAt":null},"sections":[{"sectionNumber":"1","sectionType":"section","heading":"Bunbury Treefarm Project Agreement Act 1995","content":"![Crest]()Western Australia\n\nBunbury Treefarm Project Agreement Act 1995\n\nWestern Australia\n\nBunbury Treefarm Project Agreement Act 1995\n\nContents\n\n1. Short title 1\n\n2. Commencement 1\n\n3. Interpretation 1\n\n4. Agreement ratified and implementation authorised 1\n\nSchedule 1 — Bunbury Treefarm Project Agreement\n\nNotes\n\nCompilation table 10\n\nDefined terms\n\n  \n\nWestern Australia\n\nBunbury Treefarm Project Agreement Act 1995\n\nAn Act to ratify, and authorise the implementation of, an agreement between the State and Nippon Paper Treefarm Australia Pty Ltd, Mitsui Plantation Development (Australia) Pty Ltd and MCA Afforestation Pty Ltd in relation to the establishment in the Bunbury region of the State of commercial hardwood plantations for the purpose of producing wood chips for export.\n\n##### 1. Short title\n\nThis Act may be cited as the *Bunbury Treefarm Project Agreement Act 1995* 1.\n\n##### 2. Commencement\n\nThis Act comes into operation on the day on which it receives the Royal Assent 1.\n\n##### 3. Interpretation\n\nIn this Act, unless the contrary intention appears —\n\n  the Agreement means the Bunbury Treefarm Project Agreement, a copy of which is set out in Schedule 1, and includes the Agreement as varied from time to time in accordance with its provisions.\n\n##### 4. Agreement ratified and implementation authorised\n\n(1) The Agreement is ratified.\n\n(2) The implementation of the Agreement is authorised.\n\n(3) Without limiting or otherwise affecting the application of the *Government Agreements Act 1979*, the Agreement operates and takes effect despite any other Act or law.\n\nSchedule 1 — Bunbury Treefarm Project Agreement\n\n[s. 3]\n\n[Heading amended: No. 19 of 2010 s. 4.]\n\n**BUNBURY TREEFARM PROJECT AGREEMENT**\n\nTHIS AGREEMENT is made this 1st day of September 1995\n\nB E T W E E N :\n\n**THE STATE OF WESTERN AUSTRALIA** (in this Agreement called “the State”)\n\nAND\n\n**NIPPON PAPER TREEFARM AUSTRALIA PTY LTD** (ACN 070 211 004), **MITSUI PLANTATION DEVELOPMENT (AUSTRALIA) PTY LTD** (ACN 070 210 990), and **MCA AFFORESTATION PTY LTD** (ACN 070 210 981), all of Level 24, Bourke Place, 600 Bourke Street, Melbourne, Victoria (in this Agreement collectively called “the Joint Venturers” in which expression will be included their respective successors and permitted assigns)\n\n**RECITALS**\n\nA. The Joint Venturers are desirous of establishing in the Bunbury Region commercial hardwood plantations for the purpose of producing wood chips for export through the Project;\n\nB. To this end the Executive Director of the Department of Conservation and Land Management (“the Executive Director”) a body corporate constituted by the *Conservation and Land Management Act 1984* (“the CALM Act”) acting as the Joint Venturers’ agent pursuant to a Deed of Agency and Indemnity entered into by the Executive Director and the Joint Venturers (“the AI Deed”) will or may —\n\n(a) enter into timber sharefarming agreements under section 34B of the CALM Act in respect of land in the Bunbury Region;\n\n(b) acting under sections 33(1)(f) and 34A(1)(d), (g) and (h) of the CALM Act, with the Minister’s approval do all or any of the following —\n\n(i) arrange for the Joint Venturers to purchase;\n\n(ii) take on lease;\n\n(iii) enter into licences to enter and use;\n\n(iv) enter into option agreements —\n\n(I) to enter into timber sharefarming agreements under section 34B of the CALM Act in respect of;\n\n(II) to take on lease;\n\n(III) to enter into licences to enter and use;\n\n(v) arrange for the Joint Venturers to enter into options to purchase\n\nland in the Bunbury Region,\n\nto allow the Joint Venturers to establish the Project on that land;\n\nC. The State for the purposes of promoting development in the South West of Western Australia and of promoting Western Australian exports agrees to assist the Joint Venturers in respect of the Project upon and subject to the terms of this Agreement.\n\n**OPERATIVE PART WHEREBY THE PARTIES AGREE AS FOLLOWS —**\n\nDEFINITIONS AND INTERPRETATION\n\n1. (1) In this Agreement subject to the context —\n\n **“Bunbury Region”** means the land which is within a 120 kilometre radius of the General Post Office, Bunbury, Western Australia, with a long term average rainfall greater than 600 millimetres per annum and of which the State granted an estate in fee simple absolute prior to 1975;\n\n **“Project”** means the establishment and maintenance of large scale commercial hardwood plantations of up to 20,000 hectares in the aggregate in the Bunbury Region for the purpose of producing woodchips for export;\n\n **“Timber Sharefarming Agreements”** means timber sharefarming agreements referred to in Recital B(a).\n\n(2) In this Agreement any covenant or agreement on the part of the Joint Venturers is a joint and several covenant or agreement as the case may be.\n\nINTRODUCTION OF BILL\n\n2. The State must introduce and sponsor a Bill in the Parliament of Western Australia to ratify this Agreement and endeavour to secure its passage as an Act prior to 31 December 1995 or such later date as the parties may agree.\n\nCOMMENCEMENT AND OPERATION OF AGREEMENT\n\n3. This Agreement other than clauses 1 and 2 and this clause 3 does not commence to operate until the Bill referred to in clause 2 has been passed by the Parliament of Western Australia and comes into operation as an Act.\n\nJOINT VENTURERS’ OPERATIONS\n\n4. (1) The Project must not exceed 20,000 hectares in the aggregate of which not more than 7,000 hectares shall be within the Shires of Dardanup, Donnybrook/Balingup, Bridgetown/Greenbushes, Boyup Brook (except those areas having rainfall less than 700mm per annum), Capel, Busselton, Nannup and Manjimup.\n\n(2) The Joint Venturers in their operations in Western Australia must comply with and observe the laws for the time being in force in Western Australia.\n\nUNDERTAKINGS BY THE STATE\n\n5. During the term of this Agreement —\n\n(a) the State must not expropriate or confiscate from the Joint Venturers timber standing or felled produced by or on behalf of the Joint Venturers from land referred to in Recital B(a) and (b) or wood chips made from that timber;\n\n(b) the State must not impose, nor permit or authorise any of its agencies or instrumentalities or any local or other authority of the State to impose discriminatory taxes rates or charges of any nature whatever on or in respect of the Timber Sharefarming Agreements or the land, leases, or licences referred to in Recital B(b), or the timber standing or felled produced under the Timber Sharefarming Agreements or from that land or wood chips made from that timber;\n\n(c) the State must not discriminate against the Joint Venturers in processing the Joint Venturers’ applications made in respect of their activities relating to the production of timber by or on behalf of the Joint Venturers under the Timber Sharefarming Agreements or on the land referred to in Recital B(b), or made in respect of the processing of that timber into wood chips;\n\n(d) the State must not impose restrictions which prevent the export by the Joint Venturers of wood chips made from timber which has been produced under the Timber Sharefarming Agreements or from land referred to in Recital B(b);\n\n(e) subject to relevant safety considerations the State must not materially obstruct, nor permit or authorise any of its agencies or instrumentalities or any local or other authority of the State materially to obstruct, the Joint Venturers’ timber production operations on land referred to in Recital B(a) and (b) or the transportation of the timber produced from those operations or processing for export or transportation of wood chips made from that timber;\n\n(f) on request by the Joint Venturers the State must make representations to the Commonwealth, or to the relevant Commonwealth constituted agency authority or instrumentality, for the grant to the Joint Venturers of any licence or consent under the laws of the Commonwealth necessary to enable or to permit the Joint Venturers to export wood chips made from timber which has been produced under the Timber Sharefarming Agreements or from land referred to in Recital B(b); and\n\n(g) the State must not cause the Executive Director to breach the AI Deed, the Timber Sharefarming Agreements, or the leases or the licences referred to in Recital B(b)(ii) and (iii).\n\nVARIATION\n\n6. (1) The parties may from time to time by agreement in writing add to substitute for cancel or vary all or any of the provisions of this Agreement for the purposes of more efficiently or satisfactorily implementing or facilitating any of the objects of this Agreement, but any agreement made pursuant to this subclause does not come into effect except in accordance with subclause (3).\n\n(2) The Minister must cause any agreement made pursuant to subclause (1) to be laid on the Table of each House of Parliament within twelve sitting days next following its execution.\n\n(3) Either House may, within twelve sitting days after the agreement has been laid before it, pass a resolution disallowing the agreement, but if after the last day on which the agreement might have been disallowed neither House has passed such a resolution, then the agreement will have effect from and after that last day.\n\nTERM OF AGREEMENT\n\n7. This Agreement will expire at such time as the Joint Venturers cease to have any rights or obligations under any of the Timber Sharefarming Agreements or under any lease or licence referred to in Recital B(b)(ii) and (iii), or on 30 June 2030, whichever is earlier.\n\nAPPLICABLE LAW\n\n8. This Agreement is to be interpreted according to the law for the time being in force in the State of Western Australia and the parties irrevocably submit to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of Western Australia and to courts hearing appeals from those courts.\n\nEXECUTED by the parties.\n\n| SIGNED for and on behalf of the State of Western Australia by **THE HONOURABLE RICHARD COURT M.L.A.**, Premier in the presence of: | )   )   )   ) | RICHARD COURT |\n| --- | --- | --- |\n\n\nCOLIN BARNETT\n\n______________________________\n\nWitness\n\nMINISTER FOR RESOURCES DEVELOPMENT\n\n______________________________\n\n______________________________\n\nAddress\n\n______________________________\n\nOccupation\n\n| THE COMMON SEAL of **NIPPON PAPER TREEFARM AUSTRALIA PTY LTD** was affixed to this Agreement by authority of the Directors in the presence of: | )   )   )   )   ) | C.S. |\n| --- | --- | --- |\n\n\nKAZUHIRO SAKAI KEIJI NISHIHARA\n\n____________________________ _________________________\n\nDIRECTOR DIRECTOR/SECRETARY\n\nMR KAZUHIRO SAKAI MR KEIJI NISHIHARA\n\n| THE COMMON SEAL of MITSUI PLANTATION DEVELOPMENT (AUSTRALIA) PTY LTD was affixed to this Agreement by authority of the Directors in the presence of: | )   )   )   )   ) | C.S. |\n| --- | --- | --- |\n\n\nKOICHI FUKUSHIMA Y. OKAMOTO\n\n__________________________ __________________________\n\nDIRECTOR DIRECTOR\n\nMR KOICHI FUKUSHIMA MR YOZO OKAMOTO\n\n| THE COMMON SEAL of MCA AFFORESTATION PTY LTD was affixed to this Agreement by authority of the Directors in the presence of: | )   )   )   ) | C.S. |\n| --- | --- | --- |\n\n\nT. KOIDE K. ARAKAWA\n\n__________________________ ___________________________\n\nDIRECTOR DIRECTOR\n\nMR. TOMONORI KOIDE MR KENICHIRO ARAKAWA\n\nNotes\n\n1 This is a compilation of the *Bunbury Treefarm Project Agreement Act 1995* and includes the amendments made by the other written laws referred to in the following table. The table also contains information about any reprint.\n\nCompilation table\n\n| **Short title** | **Number and year** | **Assent** | | **Commencement** |\n| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |\n| *Bunbury Treefarm Project Agreement Act 1995* | 51 of 1995 | 21 Nov 1995 | | 21 Nov 1995 (see s. 2) |\n| **Reprint 1: The *Bunbury Treefarm Project Agreement Act 1995* as at 2 May 2003** | | | | |\n| *Standardisation of Formatting Act 2010* s. 4 | 19 of 2010 | 28 Jun 2010 | 11 Sep 2010 (see s. 2(b) and *Gazette* 10 Sep 2010 p. 4341) | |\n\n\nDefined terms\n\n*[This is a list of terms defined and the provisions where they are defined. The list is not part of the law.]*\n\n**Defined term Provision(s)**\n\nthe Agreement 3\n","sortOrder":0}],"analysis":{"issue_detection":{"absurdities":[],"contradictions":[]},"flash_summary_failed":{"failed":true,"reason":"A positive credit balance is required for all requests, including BYOK, so fallback providers remain available. Add credits at https://vercel.com/d?to=%2F%5Bteam%5D%2F%7E%2Fai%3Fmodal%3Dtop-up to continue.","source":"analysis-cron"},"flash_summary":{"complexity_score":3,"scope_assessment":{"changed":false,"description":"The Act as provided ratifies and gives statutory effect to the Bunbury Treefarm Project Agreement and sets its operative limits and State undertakings. There is no evidence in the text of substantive scope expansion beyond the Agreement’s original purpose (establishing up to 20,000 hectares of hardwood plantations for woodchip export). The only later modification recorded in the compilation notes is a formatting/standardisation amendment (Standardisation of Formatting Act 2010) which did not alter substantive effect. The Act therefore remains within the original project scope set out in the Schedule (including its temporal limit to rights under timber agreements or 30 June 2030)."},"complexity_factors":["Short Act (4 main sections) with one substantive Schedule that contains the full agreement (concise overall length)","Small number of defined terms in the Schedule (e.g. Bunbury Region, Project, Timber Sharefarming Agreements; Schedule 1 cl.1)","Cross-references to other statutes and instruments: Conservation and Land Management Act 1984 (CALM Act) powers and deeds (AI Deed), and the Government Agreements Act 1979 (see s.4 and Recital B)","Legal effect 'despite any other Act or law' (s.4(3)) creates potential conflict points to check against other legislation","Variation procedure requires parliamentary laying and creates a disallowance window (Schedule 1 cl.6) — adds procedural complexity","Multiple external dependencies: timber sharefarming agreements, leases/licences, and possible Commonwealth export licences (Schedule 1 Recital B and cl.5(f))","Geographic and quantitative limits (120 km radius, rainfall condition, aggregate 20,000 ha with sub-limits) introduce conditionality in project scope (Schedule 1 cl.1 and cl.4)","Joint and several obligations for the Joint Venturers (Schedule 1 cl.1(2))"],"plain_english_summary":"This Act ratifies and incorporates the Bunbury Treefarm Project Agreement, authorising the State and its agencies to implement a plan for up to 20,000 hectares of commercial hardwood plantations to produce woodchips for export and making the Agreement enforceable despite other laws. It binds the State (and the Executive Director) and three private Joint Venturers, granting the companies protections (against expropriation, discriminatory charges and export restrictions) and thereby constraining the State’s future regulatory choices until the Agreement ends or 30 June 2030."},"kimi_summary":{"content_quality":"ok","complexity_score":3,"scope_assessment":{"changed":false,"description":"The legislation remains tightly scoped to its original purpose: ratifying the specific 1995 Bunbury Treefarm Project Agreement. The only amendment recorded (Standardisation of Formatting Act 2010) was cosmetic — changing the heading format in the Schedule. The Act has not expanded beyond the original 20,000 hectare plantation project."},"complexity_factors":["Only 4 operative sections in the Act itself (short title, commencement, interpretation, ratification)","Single defined term in the Act ('the Agreement')","The Schedule contains the full contract text, but it is relatively straightforward commercial language","Minimal cross-referencing — only references to the Government Agreements Act 1979 and Conservation and Land Management Act 1984","No nested exceptions or complex conditional logic in the legislative provisions","Standard 'despite any other Act' supremacy clause (common in state agreements)","Variation mechanism requires parliamentary tabling and disallowance, but this is a standard procedural safeguard"],"plain_english_summary":"This is a Western Australian law that rubber-stamps a commercial deal between the State government and three Japanese-owned companies (Nippon Paper, Mitsui, and MCA Afforestation) to grow up to 20,000 hectares of hardwood plantations near Bunbury for wood chip exports.\n\n**What it does:**\n- **Ratifies (officially approves)** a contract signed in 1995 between the State and the three companies, known as the \"Joint Venturers\"\n- **Authorises** the government to carry out its side of the deal\n- **Gives the contract special legal status** — it overrides other laws if there's a conflict\n\n**Key promises the State makes:**\n- Won't seize the timber or wood chips\n- Won't slap special taxes or fees on the project that don't apply to others\n- Won't discriminate against the companies when processing permits\n- Won't block exports of the wood chips\n- Won't obstruct logging operations or transport\n- Will help the companies get federal export licences if needed\n- Won't let the Department of Conservation break its contracts with the companies\n\n**Key limits:**\n- Maximum 20,000 hectares total\n- No more than 7,000 hectares in specific shires near the coast (Dardanup, Busselton, etc.)\n- The deal expires when the last contract ends, or by 30 June 2030 at the latest\n\n**Who it affects:**\n- The three Japanese companies (now or their successors)\n- The WA government, particularly the Department of Conservation and Land Management (now DBCA)\n- Landholders and communities in the Bunbury region where plantations were established\n\n**Why it matters:**\nThis is a \"state agreement\" — a special type of contract that sits above normal laws. It locks in favourable treatment for a major foreign investment in WA's south-west forestry sector, guaranteeing the companies can operate without sudden rule changes that might hurt their business. These agreements are controversial because they can bind future governments for decades."},"summary":{"complexity_score":1,"scope_assessment":{"changed":false,"description":"Scope cannot be assessed as the legislative content was unavailable. No comparison between original intent and enacted provisions is possible from the data provided."},"complexity_factors":["No legislative text was retrievable — only an error page was returned","Cannot assess actual complexity without access to the Act's provisions","Score of 1 reflects inability to analyse, not simplicity of the underlying law"],"plain_english_summary":"## Bunbury Treefarm Project Agreement Act 1995 (WA)\n\n**The content of this legislation is not available for analysis.**\n\nThe page that should contain this Western Australian Act has been taken down as part of a website upgrade by the Parliamentary Counsel's Office. Only the page error message and an Acknowledgement of Country were retrievable — no actual legislative text was accessible.\n\n**What we can infer from the title alone:**\n- This is a Western Australian State law from **1995**\n- It relates to a specific commercial **tree farming project** in or near **Bunbury** (a regional city in WA's South West)\n- Laws of this type typically authorise a formal agreement between the State Government and a private company to establish and operate a plantation timber operation — often granting special rights over land, water, or timber harvesting\n- These 'project agreement' acts are a common WA legislative tool used to lock in terms for large infrastructure or resource projects\n\n**To access the actual text**, visit [legislation.wa.gov.au](https://www.legislation.wa.gov.au) and search for the Act directly, or contact the Parliamentary Counsel's Office Helpdesk."}},"importantCases":[],"_links":{"self":"/api/acts/bunbury-treefarm-project-agreement-act-1995","history":"/api/acts/bunbury-treefarm-project-agreement-act-1995/history","analysis":"/api/acts/bunbury-treefarm-project-agreement-act-1995/analysis","conflicts":"/api/acts/bunbury-treefarm-project-agreement-act-1995/conflicts","importantCases":"/api/acts/bunbury-treefarm-project-agreement-act-1995/important-cases","documents":"/api/acts/bunbury-treefarm-project-agreement-act-1995/documents"}}