Report – Australian Government, 19 July 2022

State of the Environment Report 2021

About this Report

The Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act) legislates a review of the state of the Australian environment every 5 years. Australia state of the environment 2021 (SoE 2021) assesses the changing condition of our natural environment across 12 themes: air quality, Antarctica, biodiversity, climate, coasts, extreme events, heritage, Indigenous, inland water, land, marine and urban.

The SoE is designed to:

  • help shape strategy, policy and action
  • influence behaviours of individuals, communities and businesses
  • assist in assessing our actions as stewards of the Australian environment.

The 2021 report combines scientific, traditional and local knowledge to provide a rigorous, peer‑reviewed assessment of every aspect of the environment.

Independent nature of the state of the environment report

A committee of independent scientists and environmental experts authored the thematic chapters and contributed to the Overview report, led by co-chief authors Dr Ian Cresswell, Dr Terri Janke and Professor Emma Johnston.

The authors were supported in their work by a taskforce within the Australian Government Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment and a project board of departmental senior executives. Input to the report was provided by many partners and contributors, including Commonwealth and state and territory data, case studies, and many other contributions by partners recognised in the Acknowledgements sections of the chapters. The department’s Indigenous Advisory Committee was also consulted on drafts of all the chapters.

What is different in this report?

In recognition of our ongoing joint stewardship of the environment, and in line with the objective of the EPBC Act, ‘to promote a collaborative approach to the protection and management of the environment involving governments, the community, land holders and Indigenous peoples’, we have created partnerships to deliver the report:

  • Indigenous inclusion has been greatly enhanced in recognition of the role of Indigenous people and their knowledge in the conservation and ecologically sustainable use of Australia’s environment and biodiversity.   The report includes an Indigenous chapter and Indigenous co-authors for nearly all chapters.  We have also engaged with various Indigenous communities and leaders across the country in the development of the report.
  • Using the United Nations sustainable development goals (SDGs) as a frame, this report examines human links with the environment in terms of our wellbeing.  This approach also comes from our Indigenous authors’ influence in drawing out strong connections between people and Country. The SDGs have been embraced by industries and state and territory governments, so provides common ground for assessment.
  • To ensure the report is fit for purpose, we sought input from both government and nongovernment users of the report throughout its development.  This was done through government policy networks and the establishment of the SoE user reference group, including representatives of peak bodies, not-for-profits, philanthropic investors and green finance.

Structure

The report comprises an Overview and 12 thematic chapters: air quality, Antarctica, biodiversity, climate, coasts, extreme events, heritage, Indigenous, inland water, land, marine and urban. Each report uses a common structure:

  • Outlook and impacts, which looks at the future of our environment and how this will affect our wellbeing
  • Environment, which explores the state of various aspects of our environment
  • Pressures, which looks at the impacts of pressures relevant to each chapter
  • Management, which assesses the effectiveness of policy, legislation and action.

This builds on the internationally accepted approach for reporting on the environment – the drivers, pressures, state, impact, response (DPSIR) framework.

Links between drivers, pressures, the environment, human wellbeing, outlook and management

Assessments

The authors of the report assess various aspects of the environment and rate their status, the impact of pressures, and the effectiveness of management. In 2021, they have also assessed how the condition of our environment is affecting our wellbeing.

Before commencement of the 2021 assessment process, assessment standards were prepared and agreed with authors, outlining the approach and meaning of each grade. Integration of Indigenous and non-Indigenous knowledge systems was aided by the preparation of Indigenous collaboration guidelines based on the Indigenous co-authorship strategy developed for the report. Assessments were completed by expert panels of Indigenous and non-Indigenous authors, and in many cases external (non-author) experts. Specifics are provided in the ‘Approach’ section of each chapter.

Assessments are based on the current science and literature, available data and expert opinion. The authors have indicated the strength of the evidence for assessments with a ‘level of confidence’. In many cases, experts contributed directly to the assessments in the thematic chapters. Expert workshops were also held to gather evidence and information, discuss issues and gauge opinion. The authors have indicated the strength of the evidence and consensus for their conclusions within each set of assessments. Content review, fact checking and independent peer review were used to validate and strengthen the content. All draft reports were reviewed by key stakeholders from the Australian Government, state and territory governments, the scientific research community and industry before undergoing independent peer review by subject matter experts.

We have added new assessments in this report for the human wellbeing impacts of environmental state and trends, in keeping with the ‘Impact’ in the Driver–Pressure–State–Impact–Response (DPSIR) model (European Commission 1999). This new category of assessment reflects the important connection between environmental and human health, and the inseparability of people from Country in Indigenous world views. Recent trends in environmental reporting focus on this relationship, including nature’s contribution to people (Díaz et al. 2018), evolution of the DPSIR model into DPSIR and DAPSI(W)R(M) (Scharin et al. 2016), and the combination of environmental and social dimensions in the global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

SoE 2021 also introduces summary assessments in the Overview chapter. These assessments summarise the theme-level assessments across the 12 detailed chapters, based on the range and most frequently reported grade (mode). Assessments were compiled and refined by an expert panel that included chief authors, to ensure appropriate weightings across chapter contexts and realms. Summary assessment text consolidates the narrative across contexts and realms.

Finally, SoE 2021 introduces mapping of assessments to SDG targets, in line with recent state SoE reports (Queensland and Victoria). Each assessment indicates the SDG targets that it may relate to. We use this terminology because the majority of SDGs focus on the latter stages of DPSIR (Impact and Response), so pressure, state and trend assessments, and many of our more specific wellbeing and management assessments can only partly inform these higher-level goals. These mappings have been developed based on input from chapter authors and expert panel evaluation.

Ratings of the current state and future trend are shown on a simple sliding scale. A brief summary is provided, and further information is available in the chapter content. The work is linked to an international standard, listing the SDG targets relevant to the assessment.

Many of the aspects of the environment assessed in the 2021 report were assessed in previous reports, allowing us to track change over time. SoE 2021 contains data and information up to 30 June 2021, except where otherwise noted. There will always be new developments between this date and the publication of the report, but these cannot always be included.

Some authors have drawn on additional materials, such as expert opinion or input from local and regional stakeholders. Any relevant additional materials used to support thematic content are available as supplementary material (see Supplementary material and downloads).

State and territory reporting

Most of Australia’s states and territories also prepare regular state of the environment reports about their jurisdiction, and this information has been used in the national report where possible. We are working with the states and territories to improve our linking of outcome-based indicators to make it easier to see what is going on across the nation and at regional levels.

Visit state and territory government websites to find out about their reporting processes and latest reports:

Read the full report here: https://soe.dcceew.gov.au.

Media release – Dr Rosalie Woodruff MP, Environment and Biodiversity spokesperson, 19 July 2022

State of Environment is Devastating

The Australian State of the Environment Report paints a devastating picture of Australia’s ecosystems and biodiversity.

This report is a wake-up call – and the Rockliff Liberal Government needs to end regulations that give developers and resource extraction industries unfettered access to damage critical habitat.

Inaction on climate change, reckless habitat destruction, a failure to properly monitor changes, and woefully inadequate environmental laws have perpetuated a disastrous environmental decline across the Australian landscape, including in Tasmania.

In this context it is unforgivable the Tasmanian Liberal Government has already missed two statutory deadlines for Tasmanian State of Environment reports, with the third rapidly approaching.

The Australian report highlights just how little we know about the state of Tasmania’s environment – but what we do know is grim.

Tasmania’s last SOE report was 13 years ago, and since then wide-spread environmental deregulation has occurred, key environmental bureaucracies have been politicised, and their mandates to protect the environment have been replaced with top-down directives to facilitate business growth.

Tasmania has a number of endangered species – including the swift parrot, masked owl, Maugean skate, Tasmanian devil, orange-bellied parrot, wedge tailed eagles and red handfish – all being actively threatened by ineffectual national and state environmental laws. The threat to endangered species from native forest logging, inshore salmon farming and inappropriately placed wind farms are obvious examples of failed laws in action.

The special carve out for native forest industries, in which the Regional Forest Agreement is exempt from EPBC assessment, has precipitated the broad-scale clearing of native habitat and rapid decline in threatened species in Tasmania. The failure to include climate impacts in any state or federal assessments for developments or resource extraction means there is no capacity to account for carbon emissions.

We are in a climate and biodiversity crisis, but our current laws make it impossible to protect Earth’s life systems.

Premier Rockliff needs to respond to this crisis by ending native forest logging, bringing on strong environmental laws, making the EPA independent of government and business, and resourcing Tasmania’s environment reporting that’s required by law.

On Tuesday 19 July the Federal Environment Minister, Tanya Plibersek, will release the latest national State of the Environment Report. It is expected that the report will outline terrible news about the worsening extinction and climate crises. This report was controversially suppressed by the former government during the pre-election period.

XR Victoria spokesperson Miriam Robinson says:

“The previous report, released in 2016, showed many worsening signs for our environment since 2011. There is no reason to believe that things have got any better in the past six years. The news today will probably be about years of neglect under the previous government and some political point-scoring and a lot of finger-pointing. But we are here today to urge our governments, at state and local level, as well as Federal, whatever party you represent, to step it up. There is no more time to play political games.

“We need to get beyond politics and start saving the furniture. Even if, by some miracle, we manage to lower global greenhouse emissions and temperatures start to come down in the next few decades, it will mean little if we have lost huge chunks of our natural world. As the climate becomes more unstable, we need to do everything we can to preserve what we still have left, while we still can.

“Australia has the worst record for extinctions in the world. We are seeing the koala and the greater glider slide towards extinction, on the way to joining the more than 100 species we have lost since colonisation. Under current policy Victoria’s native forests will continue to be logged until 2030, despite the terrible damage from the 2009 and 2019 bushfires. Most of the logging is for paper pulp that goes overseas and ‘disposable’ timber pallets. Damaging forests in a climate and ecological emergency is insanity.

“One thing the Environment Minister could do right away is adopt all the recommendations of the Samuel Review of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act. She has said the Act will be reviewed, but we don’t know when that will be or how many of the recommendations will be adopted. Strengthening that important legislation would go a long way towards improving the way we care for our precious natural world. In the Act as it stands, the word climate is not even mentioned. Our government needs to be doing so much more. We need urgent action now far more than we need nice words.”

Felicity Law from Kinglake Friends of the Forest says:

“Regional Forest Agreements must go. These dubious legal agreements between successive state and federal governments, from both major parties, give logging a special exemption from federal environment laws. They have facilitated the killing of threatened species and the loss of our carbon stores.”

There will also be actions about this issue in Canberra, Adelaide and Sydney.

Media release – Andrew Wilkie, independent MP for Clark, 19 July 2022

ENVIRONMENTAL ALARM MUST SPARK IMMEDIATE ACTION

Independent Member for Clark, Andrew Wilkie, says the catastrophic state of Australia’s environment laid bare in an alarming new report underlines the need for urgent action on climate change and the establishment of a new Environment Protection Authority.

“A surge in threatened species and extinction risk, collapsing ecosystems, habitat loss and widespread degradation are all very clear signs that we are already in the thick of an environmental emergency turbo-charged by climate change,” Mr Wilkie said. “The fact that the previous Federal Government sat on this latest State of the Environment report since December, when time is of the essence, is nothing short of appalling.

“While Labor is making all the right noises, the heat is now on the new Government to take swift and decisive action. This means ensuring greenhouse gases and climate impacts are captured under Australia’s environmental law framework and considered in all levels of assessment and decision-making. It means protecting our forests by removing the exemption for federal oversight of native forests and investing in better data collection and monitoring. Immediate action to slow and reverse extinction rates must be a priority.

“We also need an independent Environment Protection Authority that operates at arm’s length from the Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment and is free from political interference, such as the model I put forward in a private member’s bill last year.

“Time and time again successive governments have failed to ensure effective enforcement of our environmental laws. Australia’s environmental crisis continues to play out in real time as we watch our precious places and fragile ecosystems collapse, our iconic animals become extinct, and we witness more and more extreme weather events. We cannot sit idly by as this destruction continues unabated. The time to act is now.”

Media release – Bob Brown Foundation, 19 July 2022

Bob Brown responds to the State of the Environment report

The hand-wringing and manufactured shock at the State of the Environment Report released today, as after the release of previous similar national and global summaries of the calamity, will once again quickly fade into token action and general dismissiveness, Bob Brown said today.

This is not a failure of the last decade of government. It is a failure of the last century of government, speckled with a few exceptional phases. The last thirty years have seen a parade of environmental recklessness and bloody-mindedness, inescapably tied to corporate capture, including:
• the Keating government’s meek cave-in to the 300 log trucks which illegally blockaded Parliament House in 1995
• PM Howard’s consequent washing of federal hands for the nation’s heirloom forests and wildlife habitat when he signed Regional Forest Agreements with the states in 1997-2001.
• indifference by Labor and the Coalition to repeated calls for climate and biodiversity action by scientists, including more than 100 Nobel laureates in 1993.
• the response to such calls being to increase fossil fuel extraction and forest and woodland destruction
• the failure of governments to give Aboriginal people a veto over mining and other destructive incursions on their land
• the absurdity of rebuffing international attempts to raise Australia’s performance  by, for example, declaring the Great Barrier Reef ‘endangered’ as it so obviously is
• the new rush by Labor and Coalition governments to criminalise peaceful environmental protesters as the real villains of our times
• the relegation of World Heritage nominations to the states
• the promoting and subsidising of coal mines, gas fracking and native forest logging, effectively having the public pay for the environmental degradation this report so meekly brings forward.

While the Minister releases the State of Environment report today, Bob Brown Foundation is in the Federal Court for a two-day hearing in our case challenging the former Environment Minister Sussan Ley’s flawed approval of the building of 15km of roads and clearing of rainforests and melaleuca forests for 165 drill sites by MMG for their proposed tailings waste dump in takayna.

Media release – BirdLife Tasmania

Tasmania an ‘island ark’ for the future survival of Australia’s birds

The release of the 2021 State of the Environment Report underlines the current and future roles of Tasmania as an “island ark”, critical for the survival of Australia’s birds, now and into the future.

“Tasmania is facing many of the same pressures as mainland Australia, but thankfully not as intense. This means our ecosystems and native habitats, while under increasing pressure, are in better condition than those on the mainland,” Dr Eric Woehler OAM, Convenor of BirdLife Tasmania said today on the release of the 2021 SOER.

“For more than 30 years, we have known that habitat loss and fragmentation are the primary drivers for the loss of Australia’s biodiversity and increased risk of extinction.”

“Australia has the worst record for mammalian extinctions – we’ve lost the Tasmanian Tiger – but an ever-increasing number of our birds are facing ever-increasing risk of extinction.”

“Tasmania’s habitats and ecosystems must remain intact to ensure Tasmania can ensure the future survival of Australia’s remarkable birds. Not all species will survive, but protecting our environment now will maximise the protection afforded species in the future” Dr Woehler added.

“In this way, Tasmania can act as an ark for our birds.”

There has been no State of the Environment Report for Tasmania since 2009. “It is manifestly unacceptable for the absence of a State of the Tasmanian Environment Report for 13 years,” Dr Woehler said. BirdLife Tasmania produces an annual State of Tasmania’s Birds Report, paralleling the efforts by the Federal Government.

Climatic warming will see new and cumulative pressures on Tasmania’s endemic birds. “We’re already seeing the impacts of climate change on some of our woodland birds, such as Forty-spotted Pardalotes. Other species such as Dusky Robins are undergoing rapid population decreases.”

Dr Woehler contributed the seabirds text for the marine chapter of the Report.

Media release – CPA Australia, 19 July 2022

Dire environmental performance puts pressure on companies

Overnight, CPA Australia received the Australasian Reporting Awards’ (ARA) 2022 Integrated Reporting Award. We are taking the opportunity to urge companies to adopt integrated reporting to help save Australia’s environmental heritage.

“Given the dire state of Australia’s performance in the State of the Environment report, integrated reporting has never been more important,” said CPA Australia Chief Executive, Andrew Hunter.

The Federal Government today released the 2021 State of the Environment report revealing a significant loss of wildlife and habitat, with many ecosystems showing signs of collapse or near collapse.

“We’re taking this opportunity to encourage more businesses to adopt integrated reporting. Taking a responsible, long-term approach to value creation in an increasingly uncertain world is crucial.

“Integrated reporting is an opportunity for companies to show they’re putting their money where their mouth is when it comes to meeting community expectations about their impact.”

Integrated reporting measures financial and non-financial capital in six areas (financial, manufactured, human, intellectual, social and relationship, and natural) to better capture value creation.

“Integrated reporting helps businesses think more clearly about the role non-financial factors, such as environmental, social and governance (ESG) considerations, play in value creation.

“Company stakeholders, whether they’re shareholders, customers or members, have a legitimate need to understand how long-term value is being created. They want transparency beyond what is typically required in mandatory standards.”

“CPA Australia is creating value by reducing our impact on the environment. We have committed to achieving net zero greenhouse gas emissions within our organisation. We advocate for the adoption of sustainability standards, and we provide education and resources to assist accountants and others to improve sustainability.”

Elements of integrated reporting have been used in CPA Australia reports since 2013 when the International Integrated Reporting Framework was released.

CPA Australia’s 2021 Integrated Report covers risks, opportunities, material issues, external environment and views of stakeholders in detail. It was prepared in accordance with the Value Reporting Foundation’s Integrated Reporting Framework.

CPA Australia also won the ARA Report of the Year in 2020, received a Gold Award for our 2019 Integrated Report and was a finalist in 2021. We are a member of the Value Reporting Foundation and the Integrated Reporting Business Network and support the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

“We are dedicated to excellence in our reporting and welcome the ongoing recognition of our commitment.”

Independent Member for Nelson Meg Webb  said today the delayed Federal State of the Environment Report increases pressure upon the State Government to detail when the long overdue Tasmanian State of the Environment Report will be released.

“The legislated required Tasmanian State of the Environment Report risks being listed as endangered or extinct itself, since it has not been sighted since 2009,” Ms Webb said.

“The Act stipulates its release every five years.

“In June, I asked Planning Minister Ferguson when the Report would be released and received a ‘yes Minister’ style response which would do Sir Humphrey Appleby proud.

“Worryingly, Minister Ferguson made it apparent the only options regarding who was responsible for the report’s production were expected to be presented to Government by the end of the year.

“It is not good enough to keep putting this crucial report into the too hard basket.  Our environment is literally burning while governments fiddle around the edges.

“All Tasmanians rely upon clean air, water and soil. Many industries from nature tourism through to agriculture rely upon a healthy and robust ecology, making our own State of the Environment report essential snapshot of our island’s current health and to inform future planning.

“Tasmanian scientists contributed to the recent national environment report so obviously we have the local expertise and some relevant data already collated.  Clearly the lack of local political will and prioritisation is the impediment here.”

Ms Webb said she has asked about the missing Tasmanian State of the Environment Report during Budget Estimates Hearings for the past three years.

“It is beyond shocking and inept that this Government still cannot clearly detail who is responsible for its production and when Tasmanians can expect to see the next edition.

“Tasmanians don’t get to choose which law they will or will not abide by, so there is no excuse for the government to continue breaching their legal requirement to ensure an independent and rigorous Tasmanian State of the Environment Report is produced every five years.”

Note: Section 29 of the State Policies and Projects Act 1993 stipulates the production of the State of the Environment Report every five years

Attached: Excerpt from Legislative Council Budget Estimates Committee Hearings with the Planning Minister, Monday 6 June 2022 (2 pages).

Legislative Council Hansard Excerpt – Legislative Council Estimates Committee A – Monday 6 June 2022  – Ferguson

Output Group 4 – Regulatory and other Services 4.2 Tasmanian Planning Commission

Ms WEBB – This 4.2 – Tasmanian Planning Commission and we will just revisit something we have discussed previously in Estimates on the State of the Environment Report because it does remain here listed on page 151, under the Planning Commission as one of the responsibilities of the commission. We know it has not occurred since 2009. We have missed two.

From memory, last year when we spoke about it the then minister indicated advice was being sought from an interdepartmental committee on the format and purpose of the State of the Environment Report and where responsibility should lie for that work, recognising that it probably wasn’t correctly situated in the TPC. Was advice received from that interdepartmental committee? If so, what did that indicate and has a decision been made on whether to transfer the obligation to prepare and release the State of the Environment Report from the TPC to a different agency? If so, which one?

Mr FERGUSON – Thanks, I will ask the deputy secretary to respond first.

Mr LIMKIN – Thank you for your question. The interdepartmental committee is still considering this work. There has been a raft of work completed over the last six months. At this stage, we intend to be able to report to Government by the end of the year on options available on the State of the Environment Report and provide Government with options and a way forward at that point in time.

Ms WEBB – So, we have not progressed much further than where we were when we discussed it last year I gather then from that answer, minister?

Mr LIMKIN – My understanding, Ms Webb, is that as of last year, the Government had announced it was reviewing the State of the Environment Report. We were only tasked late last year to do this. We have commenced as quickly as we could. There are a number of elements around this, including the change to the EPA which required this work to be consulted through that process and our colleagues at the EPA needed some time to go through that change before engaging with this.

We have now been engaging probably a good six months and as I said, we are at the final stages of developing options for Government to make some decisions going forward.

Ms WEBB – Minister, in light of this, that we are still in limbo somewhat and we have missed the 2014 iteration; we have missed the 2019 iteration. There would then be a 2024 iteration. Does the Government have and do you have, a commitment as to when you will see the next State of the Environment Report delivered under whatever new arrangements transpire?

Mr FERGUSON – The advice that I have on this is it has been a long-running issue. I think it has even predated our Government, in terms of some of these matters.

I am told that preparing a state of the environment report is very resource-hungry. I think that was acknowledged in the question. We want to make sure that it is done correctly and given that it will be a large investment of time, resources and money, in preparing a new report, we want to make sure it is fit-for-purpose, that it is done by the proper body and that it more effectively integrates with the other elements of the planning system that we have.

That is why Mr Limkin is chairing that deputy secretaries steering committee with doing that review of the reporting requirements. I am not yet in receipt of any recommendations from that process, but when I am, naturally I would be more forthcoming about next steps.

I understand that project planning for the review will commence shortly, and that the review will include extensive public consultation. That is the best advice I can provide for now. It clearly is not a resolution to the matter, but we have the right commitment and wherewithal to sort it out, and to then commission the actual state of the environment report through a body that is properly equipped to do it.

I will just ask Mr Risby, what would be an appropriate time frame to indicate to the committee. I am sensing that it would be in the realm of perhaps two years’ time.

Ms WEBB – Thank you and in light of that, given that there is a national state of the environment report due in early 2022 this year, which I believe has been done, but not released by the federal government, what Tasmanian information or data was provided to the Australian Government for inclusion in that report? If information or data was provided, who, at a state level, provided that?

Mr RISBY – I seem to recall this matter cropped up last year, and my response at that time, from a planning point of view was that I have not been approached for planning information to feed into that. I seem to recall that the EPA may well have been approached for the environment matters, but that is not something I can be sure of.

Mr FERGUSON – Who would be the right person to ask? Would it be the Environment minister?

Mr RISBY – It would be the Environment minister and his team. [end of excerpt]