摘要 :
Governments develop policies that set strategic directions on matters of national significance, referred to in this paper as strategic policies. Australia's Commonwealth Government develops and influences national environmental an...
展开
Governments develop policies that set strategic directions on matters of national significance, referred to in this paper as strategic policies. Australia's Commonwealth Government develops and influences national environmental and sustainability policies despite having limited constitutional powers in the management of natural resources. The Commonwealth Government has, over the past three decades, developed strategic policies aimed at sustainably managing forests, water, soils and agricultural lands. The design and implementation arrangements of environmental policies that have endured is not well studied, and this paper addresses this knowledge gap in the context of a federal system. The National Forest Policy Statement, the National Water Initiative and the Natural Heritage Trust have endured centre-left Labor and centre-right Coalition Governments, and serve as case studies. These policies have required structural adjustments to industries to varying degrees to limit impacts on the environment, leading to contestations about policy objectives. The policy cycle serves as the primary heuristic for analysis and the research finds that policy objectives are constrained by the Commonwealth Government's limited constitutional powers on environmental matters. Its participation in strategic policies is driven through notions of resolving a crisis and the policies endure in a phase of indifference to the original policy objectives.
收起
摘要 :
Over the past three decades, the Australian Government has led the coordination and implementation of strategic policies that aim to manage natural resources sustainably. Strategic policies typically seek to manage the consumptive...
展开
Over the past three decades, the Australian Government has led the coordination and implementation of strategic policies that aim to manage natural resources sustainably. Strategic policies typically seek to manage the consumptive use of natural resources to improve a range of environmental variables. This article focuses on strategic policies which operate under national arrangements where the Australian Government has limited direct constitutional powers to regulate natural resource use, so resorts to indirect measures and financial incentives. While the extent to which such policies give effect to sustainable development principles is debatable, as is their appropriateness for achieving environmental gains, a number of strategic natural resource management policies have persisted in the national policy domain. These present opportunities for understanding good-practice policy-making for managing natural resources sustainably, and an evaluative framework is presented to this effect. Relevant inter-relationships and complexities for policy design and implementation are revealed with the intent of stimulating further enquiries and analyses of strategic NRM policies in the context of Australia's federal system.
收起
