Budget Review 2021–22 Index
Sophie Power and Pete David
The Treasurer announced
that the 2021–22 Budget provides ‘over $480 million in new funding for the environment’.
As outlined below, this environment-related
funding includes measures relating to oceans, environmental law reform,
recycling and waste, and climate adaptation (including a new Australian Climate
Service). The Budget also contains additional measures for biodiversity on
agricultural land and natural disaster resilience.
Oceans
Australia is a member of the High Level Panel for a
Sustainable Ocean Economy (Ocean Panel) that
set out a sustainable ocean agenda in Transformations for a Sustainable Ocean Economy: A Vision
for Protection, Production and Prosperity. In
December 2020, Australia committed to sustainably manage 100% of the ocean within
its national waters by 2025, which builds on the
September 2015 agreement by Australia to the Sustainable
Development Goal 14: Life
below water. In a national launch event speech, the Prime Minister stated:
… we will develop a sustainable ocean plan for Australia that will guide us and our actions out to 2025. Our plan will
outline how we will achieve the sustainable ocean economy with waste and marine
park management, sustainable fisheries, safe and efficient maritime transport, marine
biosecurity and offshore energy production.
As announced in April 2021, the Budget
provides a total of $100.1 million over five years for an ‘Oceans Leadership Package’
(Budget measures: budget paper no. 2: 2021–22, p. 59). This funding is further broken down
in the Prime Minister’s press release. This measure includes $18.1 million over four years for
a Sustainable Ocean Action Plan which will help achieve commitments set out in the
Ocean Panel’s agenda in areas including marine park management, invasive
species eradication, sustainable fisheries and ocean accounting.
As detailed in the April
announcement, the Oceans Leadership Package also provides $39.9 million for
marine park management. This includes $19.4 million for the Marine Parks Grants program to build
on the previous two funding rounds which totalled $11 million. The first funding
round supported 12 projects which aimed to ‘improve
the long-term sustainability of fishing in ways that support the objectives of Australian
Marine Parks’. Round Two funded 20 projects which aimed to ‘improve
knowledge of Australian Marine Park values and contribute to the vision, objectives
and 10-year outcomes across the management programs identified in the Australian
Marine Parks management plans’. A further $15 million
will be allocated towards ocean discovery and restoration projects.
The Minister for the Environment unveiled commitments to
establish two new Marine Parks around Christmas Island and the Cocos (Keeling
Islands). The Package commits $5.4 million ‘to support
the health and sustainability of the pristine waters around Australia’s Indian Ocean
Territories’. These announcements were met with positive reactions from stakeholders including the Australian Marine Conservation Society and the
Save Our Marine Life Alliance.
Also included in the Oceans
Package is $30.6 million over four years to support the export of Australia’s expertise
in ocean accounting and undertake blue carbon restoration in regional Australia
and in regional partner countries. Blue carbon ecosystems are marine-based ecosystems that sequester and
store large amounts of carbon in both the plants and sediment. This primarily
consists of mangroves, seagrasses and tidal marshes. Ocean accounting is used to make informed decisions for ocean management, drawing
on data concerning biodiversity, carbon, coral reefs, tourism and
resource management to describe the complex
environmental and economic systems present in the oceans. Close to $19 million of the funding will be committed to four local
projects restoring coastal ecosystems, with a further $10 million allocated to
three restoration and protection projects assisting developing countries. The
remaining funds will be directed to help ‘solidify Australia as a leader in
ocean and natural capital account assistance’.
Indigenous Protected Areas (IPAs),
which account for almost half of Australia’s National Reserve
System, were also provided $11.6 million over two
years to expand and create new IPAs that provide greater coverage of Sea
Country, protect marine biodiversity and create additional employment
opportunities for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. According to the Department’s website, this funding will be used to incorporate Sea Country in IPAs
in nine locations, with further details to be provided as they become available. Further detail on this measure is
provided in the Indigenous Affairs Budget Review article.
Environmental law reform
Budget
Paper No. 2 allocates $29.3 million over four years to the Environment Protection
and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act) (pp. 57–58). Much
of this allocation is to maintain the timeliness of Commonwealth environmental assessments
and approvals ($17.1 million over two years). This builds on the $12.4
million provided in the 2020–21 Budget and $25 million in the December 2019
Mid-Year Economic
and Fiscal Outlook 2019–20 (MYEFO) to deal with a backlog of environmental
approval applications.
This additional funding has resulted in significant improvements
in the timeliness of decision-making under the EPBC Act. In the December
2019 quarter, 19% of key decisions were made on time. By
March 2020, this figure rose to 87% and as at
30 September 2020, 97% of key decisions were made on time. The backlog of overdue
decisions was reduced from 78 to 18 overdue decisions between December 2019 and
September 2020. The additional funding in the Budget is designed to maintain this
level of timeliness during the government’s proposed transition to ‘single touch
approvals’. However, as
noted in Budget Review 2020–21, some
commentators have suggested the increased delays were a result of reduced staffing
and resources in the environment portfolio, and that additional funding is ‘merely
a reversal of previous funding cuts’.
Response to EPBC Act review
The Budget contains some funding to support reforms as part of
the ‘initial response’ to the ten year independent statutory
review of the EPBC Act by Professor Graeme Samuel, which was released
in January 2021. The final report of
that review made 38 recommendations, which it described as ‘substantial and necessary
reforms to reverse the current state of environmental decline’. To date, the Government has not published a formal
comprehensive response to the Samuel review, but has introduced legislation
into Parliament to partially implement some of the review’s recommendations.
Among other matters, this legislation proposes to establish an ‘Environment Assurance
Commissioner’ to monitor and audit Commonwealth, state and territory environmental
approval processes. As such, the measure includes $9 million over four years from
2021–22 to establish this Commissioner.
The Samuel review also found that the EPBC Act is not
fulfilling its objectives as they relate to the role of Indigenous Australians in
protecting and conserving biodiversity and cultural heritage and promoting the respectful
use of their knowledge. The review made several
recommendations aimed at improving Indigenous heritage protection and Indigenous
involvement in EPBC Act decision-making processes. The measure
includes $0.5 million over two years from 2021–22 to engage with stakeholders
to improve Indigenous heritage protection and involvement (Budget
Paper No. 2, p. 58; Regional
Ministerial Budget Statement, p. 26).
Finally, this EPBC Act measure includes $2.7 million over
three years from 2021–22 to pilot a Commonwealth-accredited regional plan to support
and ‘accelerate development’ in a ‘priority regional area’. According to the Regional
Ministerial Budget Statement, this measure will:
… provide businesses in the identified priority development
region with greater certainty of their environmental approval requirements and
will reduce their need to source and provide specific environmental information.
(p. 26)
The Samuel review did recommend a greater
focus on regional planning, consistent with the
National Environmental Standards proposed by the review and developed in
accordance with quality planning principles (recommendations 25 and 26). There is
no indication as to where this ‘priority regional area’ will be or whether it has
been identified: the Minister
for the Environment has said this ‘pilot’ regional plan will be developed ‘in
partnership with a willing state or territory’.
As
outlined in Budget Review 2020–21, the Government is also proposing
to accredit states to carry out environmental approvals for Commonwealth
matters. Legislation
was introduced into Parliament in August 2020 to support this ‘single-touch
environmental approvals’ proposal, but has not yet passed the Senate. Stakeholders
such as the
Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF) have pointed out:
There is no funding [in this Budget] to help the states and territories
assume national responsibilities for environmental approvals, as proposed by the
Morrison government. Nor is there any funding to develop strong national environmental
standards or to develop and implement a comprehensive response to Graeme Samuel’s
independent review of the EPBC Act.
Recycling and waste
Around $77.9 million has been allocated to recycling and
waste to continue the Government’s focus on the ‘transformation
of Australia’s recycling and waste industry’. This follows the
2020–21 Budget which allocated $249.6 million over four years for waste
management and recycling. This new measure comprises:
- $67 million over four years to support food and organic garden
waste initiatives, including $59.8 million to deliver grants, in
partnership with states and territories, through a new ‘Food Waste for Healthy
Soils Fund’. This Fund aims to enhance existing waste and processing infrastructure
and to divert
organic material from landfill for agricultural use. There is also $7.2
million to deliver a community and education program on the benefits of
processing organic waste (Budget
Paper No. 2, p. 53)
- $5 million in new funding to support small and medium sized
business to adopt the Australasian
Recycling Label (Budget
Paper No. 2, p. 57). This aims to remove confusion and provide
information on how to correctly dispose of, or recycle, an item and its
packaging and
- $5.9 million to conduct a further grant round under the National
Product Stewardship Investment Fund (Budget
Paper No. 2, p. 57). This fund was established
in late 2019 with $20 million and aims to increase the number of
industry-led product stewardship schemes in Australia and increase the
recycling rates of existing schemes. To date, $14.5 million has been granted to
20 projects.
Biodiversity
Budget
Paper No. 2 contains measures to encourage stewardship
and biodiversity on agricultural land (pp. 52–53). This includes $22.3
million over four years for a pilot biodiversity stewardship program to
‘enhance existing high value native vegetation on farms’, and $9.9 million over
three years for measures to support biodiversity
certification and trading (p. 53). Environment funding also includes $29.1
million over four years for activities to support land managers and farmers
to manage feral animals, pests and weeds (p. 52).
These measures were welcomed by some stakeholders, such
as the National Farmers Federation. However, environmental stakeholders,
such as the ACF,
have expressed concern that federal budget spending in the environment
portfolio, including biodiversity programs, has
declined considerably since the Coalition Government came to office in 2013.
Climate adaptation and disaster resilience
The Budget also contains a range of measures to help Australia
‘better
anticipate, manage and adapt to the impacts of natural disasters and changing climates’
(Budget
Paper No. 2, pp. 65–66, see also p. 56). This includes, for example:
- $61.1 million over four years for a new National Recovery and Resilience Agency
(NRRA) which has been established in response
to the Royal Commission
into Natural Disaster Arrangements. The NRRA will bring together the
National Drought and North Queensland Flood Response and Recovery Agency and
National Bushfire Recovery Agency, as well as functions from some Departments.
It will
provide support to local communities following major disasters, as well as
provide advice to Government on policies and programs to mitigate the impact of
future major disaster events
- $615.5 million over six years for a new ‘Preparing
Australia Program’ to provide grants for projects to support public and private
disaster risk reduction and resilience, as well as $280.0 million over three years
for grants for projects in bushfire affected areas as part of the National Bushfire Recovery
Fund
- $90 million over four years to Emergency
Management Australia to improve its ability to manage national natural disasters
- $212.2 million to continue support for farmers and communities to
manage drought (Budget
Paper No. 2, p. 56) and
- $209.7 million over four years (and $37.3 million annually
ongoing) for a new Australian Climate Service
to increase the government’s capacity to predict and prepare for more extreme weather
events caused by climate change.
The Australian Climate Service will draw
and build on the expertise of the Bureau of Meteorology, Geoscience Australia,
CSIRO and the Australian Bureau of Statistics. These agencies have welcomed
its establishment, as has the Australian
Academy of Science.
These measures follow the Government’s
commitment in January 2021 to develop a new National Climate Resilience and
Adaptation Strategy and to join the international Call for Action on Raising
Ambition for Climate Adaptation and Resilience.
However, some
commentators have been critical that the Budget is focussed on climate adaptation
rather than measures to prevent and/or mitigate climate change. Similarly, the
Academy of Technology and Engineering observed that the Budget was a
‘missed opportunity to address climate change’:
Most of the investment to address climate change is targeted
at adaptation strategies, which are clearly necessary. But we would have liked
to have seen at least an equal amount invested in accelerating and leading
Australia’s transition to a low emissions economy.