Environmental Policy: The Australian Experience

Paper Summary:

There are numerous constraining factors that burden the process of forming an effective environmental policy in Australia. This paper discusses how clashing values and ideas prevent the formulation and implementation of coherent environmental policy in Australia. It looks at how Australia's over-reliance on a resource-based economy, federalist framework and failing policy processes often converge to create conjecture in the environmental arena. The conclusion is a brief summary, which reflects that the conflict and ambiguity plaguing environmental policy in Australia is the direct result of a confusion of ideas.

From the Paper:

"A quick review of environmental policy in Australia reveals the extent of confusion surrounding the issue, this confusion can be partially attributed to Australia's dependence on and sometimes exploitation of its natural resources to generate revenue (Eckersley, 1996:89). This utilitarian trend began with European settlement and originated from the developmentalist approach to land management (Walker, 1999:24-5). An approach that fails to recognise the value of nature beyond that which is appropriate for development such as mining, logging and other economically productive practices (Aplin, 1998:173). Developmentalism comes at an immense cost to the environment; large portions of Australia's woodlands and forests have already been destroyed in the relentless pursuit of economic growth. "

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