STRATEGIC PLAN 2014–2018
Our role
To advise on and implement environment policy to support the Government in achieving a
healthy environment, strong economy and thriving community now and for the future.
Our objectives

To deliver robust environmental advice that has the confidence of Government and the
community.

To deliver policy through our programme, regulatory and operational functions with
integrity, transparency and accountability.

To maintain and improve our capacity to serve the Government and the public interest
over time.
Our priorities
Clean Land: Environment and Heritage

Conserve, protect and sustainably manage Australia’s land and marine biodiversity,
threatened species, ecosystems, environment and heritage.
Clean Air: Climate Change

Reduce Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions, adapt to the impacts of climate change
and contribute to the negotiation of an effective global solution to climate change.
Antarctica

Advance Australia’s strategic, scientific, environmental and economic interests in the
Antarctic.
Clean Water

Improve the health of rivers and freshwater ecosystems and water use efficiency.
Our approaches
Lead

Tackling significant risks to Australia’s environment.

Integrating environmental, economic and social objectives.
Debate and Analyse

Testing assumptions, identifying policy options.

Providing advice based on strong and robust evidence, including science.
Collaborate and Communicate

Collaboration, co-design and co-production with governments, businesses and
communities.

Communicating policy challenges and the evidence base informing policy responses.
Deliver and Evaluate

Delivering best practice implementation to improve environmental outcomes.

Evaluating our approaches to continually improve how we work.
Our behaviours

Collaboration, mutual respect and productive working relationships.

Courteous, respectful and effective communication.

Innovation, creativity, and considered levels of risk-taking.

A commitment to excellence, professional development and a strategic approach to
achieving results.

Personal drive and integrity.
Measures of success

Australia’s natural and cultural capital is protected in a way that sustains and builds
national prosperity.

The Government, communities and business value our advice.

The community and our stakeholders are engaged and informed.

Our staff are motivated, high-performing and adhere to APS values.
OUR DEPARTMENTAL OUTCOMES
Outcome 1: Conserve, protect and sustainably manage Australia’s biodiversity,
ecosystems, environment and heritage through research, information management,
supporting natural resource management, establishing and managing Commonwealth
Protected areas and reducing and regulating pollutants and hazardous substances.
Programme 1.1: Sustainable Management of Natural Resources and the Environment

Through the Green Army Programme, support the delivery of enduring environmental
and heritage conservation outcomes at the local, regional and national level by working
cooperatively with community groups and by young Australians’ participation in Green
Army Teams – providing them with experience, skills and training, having highest regard
for participant safety, wellbeing and personal need and development.

Facilitate the establishment of 20 million trees and associated understorey by 2020 to
improve the extent, connectivity and condition of native vegetation that supports native
species (including threatened species and ecological communities) and contribute to
reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Through the National Landcare Programme, provide long-term funding, with simplified
application processes, to support local projects that care for the environment and better
manage our natural resources.

Provide enduring protection and conservation of the Great Barrier Reef’s Outstanding
Universal Value and a long-term strategic approach to addressing key threats to the Reef
through establishing the Reef Trust and leading the development of the Reef 2050
Long-term Sustainability Plan.
Programme 1.2: Environmental Information and Research

Under the National Environmental Science Programme, improve our understanding of
Australia’s environment through collaborative research that delivers accessible results
and informs decisions.

Through the National Plan for Environmental Information initiative and the Measuring
Sustainability Programme, improve the availability and quality of environmental and
sustainability information.

Enhance Australia’s capabilities in taxonomy and species discovery through fostering
early career researchers, and disseminating information on Australia’s biota.

Collaborate in international efforts towards permanently ending all forms of commercial
whaling and reforming the International Whaling Commission.
Programme 1.3: Carbon Pollution Reduction—Land Sector Initiatives

Improve the condition and extent of native vegetation and natural resource management
in a changing climate through progressing projects that establish, restore and/or protect
biodiverse carbon stores, and through supporting regional natural resource management
organisations to improve planning for and the management of their natural resource
base.
Programme 1.4: Conservation of Australia’s Heritage and the Environment

Provide national and international leadership in conserving and protecting natural,
Indigenous and historic heritage places.

Value and protect our unique biodiversity by: identifying nationally-listed species and
ecological communities, and supporting their protection; regulating wildlife trade (imports
and exports); meeting obligations under international agreements; and identifying threats
to biodiversity and supporting efforts to mitigate them.
Programme 1.5: Environmental Regulation

Implement the one stop shop policy for environmental approvals in a manner that
delivers greater regulatory efficiency, while maintaining high environmental standards.

Support sustainable development outcomes by delivering efficient and effective
environmental regulation.

Contribute to the Australian Government agenda to achieve $1 billion a year of reduced
compliance burden.

Protect the Alligator Rivers Region from the impacts of uranium mining.
Programme 1.6: Management of Hazardous Waste, Substances and Pollutants

Improve the quality of the environment and reduce pollution through the implementation
of national frameworks, standards, regulation, monitoring, and reporting for wastes,
hazardous substances, air pollutants, ozone depleting substances and synthetic
greenhouse gases.
Outcome 2: Reduce Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions, adapt to the impacts of
climate change and contribute to the negotiation of an effective global solution to
climate change, through developing and implementing a national response to climate
change.
Programme 2.1: Reducing Australia’s Greenhouse Gas Emissions

Meet Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets by:
-
Implementing the Emissions Reduction Fund.
-
Encouraging the uptake of renewable energy through the Renewable Energy Target
and targeted policies and programmes.
-
Providing incentives to reduce land sector emissions in the land sector through the
Carbon Farming Initiative.
-
Providing opportunities to reduce and offset emissions through the Carbon Neutral
Programme.
Programme 2.2: Adapting to Climate Change

Contribute to Australia’s capacity for managing climate change impacts through
coordinated adaptation research, information provision and policy support for decision
makers.
Outcome 3: Advance Australia’s strategic, scientific, environmental and economic
interests in the Antarctic by protecting, administering and researching the region.
Programme 3.1: Antarctica: Science, Policy and Presence

Conduct scientific research in Antarctica and the Southern Ocean that supports national
policy and environmental management priorities, in particular taking advantage of the
opportunities the Antarctic offers for globally significant and coordinated research.

Preserve Australia’s sovereignty over the Australian Antarctic Territory, including our
sovereign rights over adjacent offshore areas.

Protect the Antarctic and the Southern Ocean environment, having regard to its special
qualities and effects on our region.

Contribute to maintaining Antarctica’s freedom from strategic and/or political
confrontation.

Remain informed about, and able to influence, developments in a region geographically
proximate to Australia.

Facilitate the deriving of any reasonable economic benefits from living and non-living
resources of the Antarctic and the Southern Ocean (excluding deriving benefits from
mining and oil drilling in the Antarctic Treaty area).
Outcome 4: Improve the health of rivers and freshwater ecosystems and water use
efficiency to support enhanced security, sustainability and productivity of water
resources through implementing water reforms.
Programme 4.1: Water Reform

Help communities, irrigators and businesses use water resources sustainably and
efficiently by progressing national water reforms.

Improve the environmental health of the Murray-Darling Basin by recovering water,
through prioritising water-saving infrastructure projects, to ‘bridge the gap’ between the
Sustainable Diversion Limits in the Murray-Darling Basin Plan and baseline diversions by
2019.

Improve the health of rivers, wetlands and freshwater ecosystems by meeting our
obligations under the Ramsar Convention.

Ensure public access to scientific evidence that informs regulatory decisions on the
potential water related impacts of coal seam gas and coal mining development.
Programme 4.2: Commonwealth Environmental Water

Protect and restore environmental assets in the Murray-Darling Basin through the
management and use of Commonwealth environmental water.
Corporate Outcome: Organisational effectiveness

Establish an Office of Environmental Science and Economics to build best practice policy
development and implementation support with line areas.

Refocus the Department’s external communications function to adopt a greater emphasis
on research and policy debate and strengthen the focus on community engagement.

Strengthen the leadership and capability of our people to ensure the Department’s
current and emerging business needs and priorities are met and promote a culture of
innovation.

Improve our business processes through a focus on more effective use of knowledge,
information and technology

Enhance our whole of agency financial management capability to ensure sound financial
results and good budget outcomes.

Strengthen our governance and accountability frameworks including better management
of projects and risks.
Cross-cutting priorities

Contribute to the Government’s deregulation agenda by identifying deregulatory
opportunities and considering best-practice regulatory design across our work.

Implement the recommendations of the Department’s Strategic Review.

Contribute to Closing the Gap on Indigenous disadvantage.

Develop an integrated Research Strategy to assist strategic planning of and targeted
investment in scientific, economic and social research.

Ensure the cooperative implementation of Australia’s international responsibilities
relevant to the portfolio.
HOW WE WORK
We advise on and implement environment policy to support the Government in
achieving a healthy environment, strong economy and thriving community now and
for the future.
This involves sustaining and building national prosperity, determined by the quality, quantity,
distribution, use and preservation of stocks of economic, human, social and natural capital.
How we think about and pursue our work
Linking environmental | social | economic spheres
Our environment, society and economy are interdependent. Our work requires a whole-ofsystem view, considering interactions between these spheres rather than only a discrete
analysis of each.

Environmental, social and economic elements should be considered early, tested often,
and integrated in policies and programmes.

Evaluation and consideration of environmental, social and economic information should
be objective, rigorous and transparent.

Trade-offs within or between capital stocks may be necessary, but are not inevitable –
opportunities for win-win outcomes should be fully explored.
Diverse values and perspectives
There are diverse views on how our outcomes can be achieved and how the environmental,
social and economic spheres are valued.

All values and perspectives are acknowledged, understood and respected to help identify
common goals and interests.

Engage with the issues from the perspective of different stakeholders to identify links
across spheres, and factor them into decision-making and communications.

Values can relate to both means and ends, and in many cases, we are dealing with nonmarket values (or the lack of a price).
Multiple Scales
Our work covers issues of both space and time. While our activities may typically focus on a
particular time and space, the potential impacts of our activities are not as limited.

Take a broader approach to an activity than may be requested—consider its impact in
both the short and long term, and on the small and large scale.

When considering different scales, there is a need to take account of the relevant
cumulative effects of decisions, benefits and consequences that may apply.
Uncertainty
Gaps in knowledge about the nature, extent and value of capital stocks, and the relationships
between them, make it challenging to evaluate benefits, costs and risks.

Research, planning and risk assessment will help to reduce uncertainty and mitigate risk.

Limits and thresholds of natural systems should be identified where possible and
explicitly considered.

Base decisions regarding the use of capital stocks on evidence of their quality,
abundance and resilience.

Take a precautionary and adaptive management approach, focusing on no regrets
options and future opportunities for improvement.
HOW OUR PLANNING DOCUMENTS SUPPORT OUR WORK
Corporate Strategy and Planning
Strategic Plan, Portfolio Budget Statements, Our Departmental Outcomes
Describes how we will be accountable for achieving the Government’s priorities.
Business Planning
Division, Branch and Section Plans, Human Resources
How our functions and outputs will be delivered at an operational level to achieve our
departmental outcomes, including the priorities identified in the Strategic Plan.
Individual Work Planning
Our Performance Management Framework
Shows how individual accountability is linked to the achievement of departmental outcomes
through our business planning framework.