Chapter 1: Strategic Directions

Australia’s environmental problems are not restricted to regional and rural areas. With urbanisation, population and economic growth come challenges that must be managed to maintain quality of life. Australia’s cities have avoided many problems faced by cities in other developed nations. However, there are a number of challenges.

Some Australian cities now face episodes of air pollution comparable to episodes in cities like New York and Tokyo. Many of our urban waterways and marine environments suffer from stormwater run-off and sewage pollution. Remnant vegetation and bushland in urban centres are threatened. Australia’s waste per head is the highest in the industrialised world: each year we send more than 14 million tonnes of solid, domestic, commercial and industrial waste to landfill.

Australia also has one of the largest ocean territories and longest coastlines in the world. Our marine environment traverses tropical, sub-tropical, temperate and antarctic zones and contains a rich and unique variety of marine life.

This budget re-directs more resources to the remediation of Australia’s urban environmental damage. It also directs more resources to the conservation and sustainable management of our oceans. By doing so it redeems two important pledges made by the Coalition during the last election.

The Government is providing $1.25 billion to restore and protect the environment through the Natural Heritage Trust, the largest single investment ever made in Australia’s environment. Funding was made possible by the sale of one-third of Telstra.

Through the Natural Heritage Trust, the Government has allocated $346 million to the Bushcare programme to restore and enhance native vegetation in rural and urban landscapes. Bushcare is the central component of the national effort to reverse the decline of native vegetation by mid-2001.

The Government has allocated $85 million to the National Reserve System programme to fund the acquisition of additional land for Australia’s national park system. So far, it has approved the acquisition of 1,448,000 hectares.

The Government has provided national leadership and $125 million to protect our coastal and marine environment from sewage and stormwater pollution, improve coastal planning, increase monitoring and protect marine species. It has increased efforts to improve coastal management, protect marine species, reduce the impact of introduced marine pests and to support the thousands of volunteers who work to protect our coastline through Coastcare.

It has completed development of a national oceans policy which sets a new ‘ecosystem-based’ framework for the management of our oceans. Through the oceans policy $50 million has been allocated to develop regional marine plans, increase our scientific understanding of the oceans, and target problems such as acid sulfate soils.

It has established the world’s first network of dugong sanctuaries.

The Government has allocated $314 million from the Natural Heritage Trust to improve the quality and protect the biodiversity of Australia’s rivers and wetlands. This includes $196 million to protect the Murray-Darling, Australia’s largest river system.

The Government has provided $19 million to reduce air pollution in major cities. It has promoted the development of national ambient air quality standards through the National Environment Protection Council (NEPC).

The Government has supported the establishment of a National Pollutant Inventory which requires large companies to report publicly their emissions of 36 pollutants, with 90 pollutants to be reported against after 1 July 2000.

The Government has provided $180 million over a five year period to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Initiatives include the establishment of the Australian Greenhouse Office, support for the expansion of the renewable energy sector, and the promotion of energy efficiency in the automotive, transport, industrial, building and household sectors.

The Bush for Greenhouse initiative was launched in April 1999, with $5.5 million aimed at enhancing corporate investment in native vegetation ‘sinks’.

As a second-stage response to the air pollution inquiry conducted by the Academy of Technological Science and Engineering, the Government will support the development of a national strategy to monitor and manage ‘air toxics’. These are pollutants such as dioxins, benzene and formaldehyde which are present at very low concentrations and are known to cause long-term health damage.

They play an important role in smog formation and, in certain circumstances, also can be a significant air pollution problem. Some air toxics found in materials such as paints, adhesives and sealants in new buildings are among the more harmful indoor air pollutants.

Through the $180 million Safeguarding the Future programme to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the Government has allocated $3.8 million to encourage infrastructure for compressed natural gas (CNG) refuelling networks. Lack of facilities was identified as a major barrier to the uptake of cleaner CNG to replace traditional fuels.

Many waterways in our major cities suffer from a range of environmental problems, including pollution from stormwater and sewage and riverbank vegetation loss.

The Government will continue to support programmes to reduce the amount of waste going to landfill. It will:

It is important that the impact on human settlement of industrial, household and agricultural chemical products is minimised.

As part of Living Cities the Government will establish a ‘Chemwatch’ programme to assist government, industry and the community to make informed decisions about the impact of these chemicals and improve their management.

Key features of ‘Chemwatch’ will be:

The Natural Heritage Trust has focused on the environmental problems in rural and regional Australia because of serious loss of biodiversity and vegetation and land degradation occurring in those areas.

However, many urban green spaces are suffering from inappropriate development, illegal tree felling, weeds and feral animals, which are threatening many crucial remnants of urban bushland.

In 1997 the Government began developing Australia’s first national oceans policy. After extensive community consultation, Australia’s Oceans Policy was published in December 1998.

Through the Oceans Policy the Government will:

• exercise and protect Australia’s rights and jurisdiction over off-shore areas, including off-shore resources;
• monitor and conserve Australia’s marine biodiversity, the ocean environment and its resources to ensure ocean uses are ecologically sustainable;
• promote ecologically sustainable coastline development and job creation;
• accommodate community needs and aspirations;
• improve our expertise and capabilities in ocean-related management, science and technology, and engineering;
• discharge Australia’s international obligations under the Law of the Seas Convention and other international conventions;
• improve and integrate management arrangements; and
• promote public awareness and understanding.

A total of $50 million over three years has been allocated to assist in implementing new commitments arising from the Oceans Policy of which the sale of the second, 16 per cent tranche of Telstra will provide $20 million. These funds are additional to the considerable funding provided by the Commonwealth Government for related marine programmes in areas such as conservation, fishing, marine science, shipping and the surveillance and defence of our marine jurisdiction.

Other measures that will be funded through the Oceans Policy include:

These measures build upon the record levels of funding allocated for coastal and marine protection through the Coasts and Clean Seas component of the Natural Heritage Trust.

Coasts and Clean Seas is supporting:

The Government established the Natural Heritage Trust with $1.1 billion from the partial sale of its telecommunications agency, Telstra. The objectives of the Natural Heritage Trust are to:

• provide a framework to stimulate strategic investment in our natural environmental capital;
• achieve environmental protection, natural resource management and sustainable agricultural outcomes; and
• provide a framework for cooperation between the community and all tiers of government.

The Natural Heritage Trust Advisory Committee, chaired by Sir James Hardy, was established to advise the Government on maximising environmental benefits.

Spending has been directed through a range of programmes to five major areas of environmental distress: vegetation, rivers, biodiversity, land and coastal and marine environments.

In four years, the Natural Heritage Trust has made significant progress. It has:

• achieved better integration of sustainable agriculture and biodiversity conservation objectives in accordance with the recommendation of the State of the Environment report;
• helped community groups have been able to access significant funds to help them repair their local environments; and
• introduced, refined and streamlined a ‘one-stop-shop’ application and approval process.

In 1998-99 the Natural Heritage Trust funded more than 3,000 successful projects resulting in a total investment of more than $260 million.

The Government recognises the importance of maintaining the momentum established through the operations of the Natural Heritage Trust.

So, with the agreement of the Natural Heritage Trust Advisory Committee, it will provide an additional $250 million to the Trust from the sale of the second, 16 per cent tranche of Telstra, for both Environment Australia and the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry.

The Australian continent and its surrounding seas and islands include an amazing variety of plants and animals, all of which contribute to Australia’s astounding biodiversity.

Australia is the only developed nation which has been described as ‘mega-diverse’. Our relative isolation means that an unusually large proportion of our wildlife is found nowhere else on the planet.

The past 200 years have seen considerable biodiversity loss, probably the nation’s greatest environmental challenge according to the Australia: State of the Environment 1996 report.

The starting point for biodiversity conservation is a legal framework that identifies the Commonwealth Government’s responsibilities.

That approach is embedded in Australia’s first comprehensive biodiversity legislation, the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Bill, introduced into the Parliament last November.

Key features of the Bill are:

• enhanced protection for threatened species and communities;
• stronger, earlier protection for world heritage properties;
• provision for the first time of national, legislative protection for Ramsar wetlands;
• provision for voluntary conservation agreements with landholders for conservation of biodiversity; and
• provision for the first time that regulations may be made to control access to biological resources in Commonwealth areas.

The Government has recognised that the reserve system should include areas representative of Australia’s flora and fauna. It has allocated $85 million from the Natural Heritage Trust to develop a comprehensive, adequate and representative reserve system.

It has:

• approved the purchase of an additional 1,448,000 hectares of high priority and threatened areas;
• recognised the role of the community and landholders in protecting high conservation areas by allowing organisations, such as Birds Australia, to apply for national reserve funds.

Through the National Reserve System, the Government has supported the development of conservation areas on land owned by indigenous people.

The first Indigenous Protected Area was proclaimed in August 1998, over a property called Nantawarrina in the northern Flinders Ranges of South Australia. Five other Indigenous Protected Areas are scheduled for proclamation in the next 12 months.

Over-clearing of native vegetation has caused many environmental problems such as the extinction of plants and animals, loss of precious topsoil, the pollution of many of our rivers, rising saline water tables and increased net greenhouse emissions.

Vegetation loss not only has damaged Australia’s environment: ultimately it threatens sustainable farming in many areas.

The Government has established the largest ‘off-reserve’ native vegetation restoration programme in Australia’s history, through the Natural Heritage Trust’s $346 million Bushcare programme and has set itself the goal of reversing the decline of native vegetation by mid-2001.

During the next Parliament, the Government will extend the Bushcare programme for another three years to support large-scale revegetation and bushland conservation projects in cooperation with landholders.

In 1996 the Government established the Biological Diversity Advisory Council to advise the Minister and the Australia and New Zealand Environment and Conservation Council (ANZECC) on the implementation of the National Strategy for the Conservation of Australia’s Biodiversity.

Members represent the scientific community, industry and conservation organisations, local government and indigenous organisations.

The Fraser Government established the Australian Biological Resources Study (ABRS) in 1978. It is recognised nationally and internationally for providing fundamental data needed to classify Australia’s biodiversity.

Its taxonomic research is a stocktake of Australia’s organisms and underpins management and conservation of our resources.

The Government will provide an additional $4.5 million during the next four years to the ABRS to ensure its Participatory Programme Grant Scheme component is maintained at an appropriate level.

To be successful, revegetation efforts such as Bushcare must be complemented by substantial reductions in land clearing, currently estimated at 350,000 hectares a year.

During the past two years, the Government has used the Natural Heritage Trust Partnership Agreements with the States and Territories to secure support for reducing land clearance.

Bushcare has funded the development and application of an innovative suite of incentives to assist landholders to improve the management of remnant bushland, and to vegetate degraded areas.

States and Territories have committed to better management and protection of native vegetation, including undertakings to:

• preventing any clearing of endangered ecological communities;
• retain and manage native vegetation, including controls on clearing; and
• limit broad-scale clearance of native vegetation, consistent with ecologically sustainable management and bio-regional planning, to areas where regional biological diversity is not compromised.

Importantly, ANZECC will take the lead in developing and implementing a national framework to manage and monitor Australia’s native vegetation.

The Government will ensure that commitments made by the States and Territories, which are linked to financial support from the Natural Heritage Trust, are honoured in full.

Funding from the Natural Heritage Trust will assist States and Territories by 2000 to:

One of the greatest threats to Australia’s biodiversity is introduced plant and animal species such as foxes, marine pests and weeds.

The Government will undertake a dual strategy against weeds and feral animals by guarding against expansion of existing pests and imposing stronger controls to help stop the introduction of new ones.

The Minister has approved Australia’s first fox and feral cat abatement plans under the Endangered Species Act to coordinate a national response to these threats.

The Government will now support the creation of an ‘alert list’ of introduced plants and animals in Australia that are not yet out of control but pose a high risk to our environment.

Unsustainable, short-term decision-making can threaten Australia’s biodiversity and its capacity to ensure future generations benefit from its natural resources.

The Government supports partnerships with industry for greater ‘eco-efficiency’, a concept that involves companies becoming economically efficient and ecologically efficient.

The Government has encouraged industry sectors and enterprises to adopt cleaner production practices to reduce pollution, energy and water consumption and minimise waste. The Government is going beyond cleaner production to maximise economic return at the lowest cost to the natural resource base.

During the next Parliament, the Government will:

Economic incentives and disincentives are necessary to improve business’ approach to the environment.

During the next Parliament, the Government will continue to develop economic instruments and incentives. It will:

To achieve ecologically sustainable development Australian industry must have access to leading environmental technology and management. The Government therefore supports Australia’s environment technology industries, which offer improved domestic performances and significant export opportunities.

The Government has:

• established an environment industry focus unit to develop opportunities for environment technology and management companies;
• supported the establishment of an environment business forum; and
• provided opportunities for environment management companies through the International Environment Protection programme.

During the Parliament, the Government will:

The result of that review was the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Bill which was introduced into the Senate in November last year.

Under the existing regime Commonwealth involvement in environmental matters is determined by indirect and environmentally irrelevant triggers such as foreign investment and funding decisions. This limits the Commonwealth’s contribution to environmental protection and creates unnecessary delay, uncertainty and duplication for industry.

The Bill will ensure, for the first time, that the Commonwealth has direct legislative power relating to matters of national environmental significance.

The Government will seek to enact the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Bill as soon as possible.

Additionally, during the Parliament, the Government will:

The Government has ensured the effectiveness of the NEPC, which allows the States and Commonwealth to develop consistent and mandatory environmental protection measures.

As chair, the Government has led the work of the Council, which has:

• established a National Pollutant Inventory which requires large Australian businesses to report publicly emissions of 36 pollutants, with 90 pollutants to be reported against after 1 July 2000;
• developed ambient air quality standards for six major atmospheric pollutants; and
• introduced new measures to track the interstate movement of hazardous waste.

During this Parliament, the Government will address:

The inclusion of 13 places in Australia on the World Heritage register is testimony to the richness of Australia’s biodiversity and cultural landscapes.

The Government increased funding for the management of State-run world heritage places to $15.7 million in 1998-99, a 50 per cent increase in funding over spending in Labor’s final year in office; successfully nominated Macquarie Island and the Heard and Macdonald Islands for world heritage listing; and nominated the Blue Mountains in New South Wales for world heritage listing;

During the next Parliament, the Government will:

The Great Barrier Reef world heritage area, with Kakadu and Uluru, is one of Australia’s best known natural wonders.

The Government has put a high priority on improving the management and protection of the reef.

During the past two years, it has increased the size of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park by 350 square kilometres with the addition of the Gumoo Woojabuddee area near Shoalwater Bay; announced the extension of the prohibition of mining to the entire reef region; and established the world’s first chain of dugong sanctuaries in the southern Great Barrier Reef.

This Budget provides an additional $3.4 million over three years for increased surveillance and enforcement measures in the park.

The Government will:

The Australian Defence Forces are relocating from a number of defence facilities around Sydney Harbour, including North Head, Middle Head, Georges Heights, Cockatoo Island and Woolwich.

The Government recognises the importance of these sites to the Sydney community for both their natural and cultural values.

The Government has established an interim Sydney Harbour Federation Trust, pending the passage of legislation, to:

• manage, protect and rehabilitate North Head; Middle Head and Georges Heights; Woolwich and Cockatoo Island as Defence relocates from those sites; and
• allow public access to parts of Garden Island.

More than 1300 species of Australian plants or wildlife are listed as endangered or vulnerable to extinction. On average, 42 species are added to the list each year. One in four native animals is endangered or extinct.

Some scientists are suggesting Australia could lose half of its native bird species in the next hundred years from over-clearing of their habitats.

Endangered species programmes have tended to operate separately from other conservation programmes. The Government has sought to integrate the needs of threatened species into other programmes, such as those funded by the Natural Heritage Trust.

During the next three years the Government will provide $20.4 million ($6.8 million in 1999-2000) to endangered species programmes to:

The Government has recognised the importance of providing a strong legislative framework for the protection of endangered species.

The Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Bill now in the Senate will improve protection of endangered species.

Among other things, the bill will:

Australia’s bird species are a highly visible indicator of our country’s biodiversity and many species are at great risk of becoming endangered as a result of land clearing.

The Government has provided more than $2.6 million for the conservation of Australia’s bird species; and provided $1.2 million to Birds Australia, the nation’s leading ornithological organisation, to help its more than 10,000 bird watchers to produce a new Atlas of Australian Birds.

Albatross are among the world’s largest and longest living birds. Interaction with humans has led to many albatross species becoming critically endangered.

The Government has adopted a threat abatement plan to reduce the impact of fishing on albatross by 90 per cent over five years and successfully nominated the list of all southern hemisphere albatross species under the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (the Bonn Convention).

In the past two years, the Government has strengthened protection for Australia’s marine wildlife—many of which are found only in Australian waters.

To enhance measures relating to the protection of marine species, the Government has decided to remove the existing blanket exemption of marine fish under the Wildlife Protection (Regulation of Exports and Imports) Act.

The Fraser Government ended whaling in Australian waters.

That commitment to protecting whales has been pursued by this Government which seeks the declaration of a global whale sanctuary and an end to all commercial whaling, has obtained the support of the South Pacific nations for a proposal to establish a South Pacific whale sanctuary as an interim step, and provided $1.6 million over four years for whale conservation projects.

The Government will:

The Government has supported a national network of volunteers to conserve threatened plants and animals with a grant of $350,000 a year to the World Wide Fund for Nature, now increased to $500,000 a year.

The Government will increase funding for volunteer support for wildlife conservation through the development of a Bush for Wildlife programme which will be funded from and integrated with Natural Heritage Trust programmes.

The programme will include:

In December 1997 Australia was one of 160 countries which agreed to legally binding greenhouse gas emission targets for developed nations. Australia signed the Kyoto Protocol in April 1998.

Through the Kyoto Protocol, the international community endorsed a reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by the developed world of more than 5 per cent of 1990 levels by 2008 to 2012.

The Government is translating international efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions into domestic policy.

In November 1997 it announced a five-year, $180 million programme to meet Australia’s greenhouse obligations. That programme, Safeguarding our Future, will improve our environmental performance in a number of other areas, such as air quality.

Principal measures in the programme are:

• support for sourcing energy from renewable resources such as the sun, wind and tides;
• strategies to reduce emissions from cars, industry, and commercial and domestic buildings;
• support for local government to reduce greenhouse emissions;
• tree planting and revegetation through the Plantations-2020 Vision programme and the Bush for Greenhouse programme; and
• establishment of the Australian Greenhouse Office to provide national leadership on greenhouse matters and implement the Government’s agenda.

The Government supports the international community’s efforts to halt damage to the earth’s protective ozone layer. Australia has been an influential participant at Montreal Protocol meetings and is a leader in attempts to secure a phase out of all significant ozone depleting substances.

The Government has:

• won recognition from the United Nations Environment Programme as a world leader in ozone protection;
• supported the international phase out by 2005 of methyl bromide, a significant ozone depleting substance used by the agricultural and horticultural sectors. and developed a strategy for its phase-out in Australia; and
• brought the increase of halon 1202 to the world’s attention and called for international action at the Working Group to the Montreal Protocol in July 1998.

The Government will continue to support international efforts to protect the earth’s ozone layer including:

Nearly 20 per cent or 156 million hectares of Australia’s land mass is covered by forests and woodlands, which include more than 700 species of eucalypts. Our forests are a major part of our biodiversity, ranging from northern tropical rainforests to the unique karri forests of south-western Australia.

The Government, with the States, has been developing Regional Forest Agreements (RFAs) in 12 forest regions where commercial harvesting takes place. The agreements, which will last for 20 years, will:

• create a world-class forest reserve system that protects the biodiversity, old growth, wilderness and heritage values of our forests according to scientifically developed national criteria;
• ensure that forests are harvested according to principles of ecologically sustainable forest management; and
• provide job security and new opportunities to industries that rely on our native forest resource.

The success of the RFA process has been recognised internationally. It is achieving protection of forests in excess of the 10 per cent recommended by the World Conservation Union and the World Wide Fund for Nature.

Through initiatives such as Rivercare, the National River Health Programme, Waterwatch and support for the Murray-Darling Commission, the Government has oversighted improved water flows, sustainable agricultural practices and protection of river ecosystems.

The Government also supports the COAG water reform framework and the commitment towards allocating environmental flows for all river systems by 2001.

The Government will:

The implementation of the Great Artesian Basin Strategic Management Plan will benefit from a $31.8 million Commonwealth contribution over five years from 1999-2000.

The Government has supported the rehabilitation of the Murray-Darling basin by committing $196 million to support the Murray-Darling 2001 Initiative through the Natural Heritage Trust and by maintaining the historic cap on water diversions from the basin, consistent with 1993-94 levels of consumption and development.

The Government has provided $8.75 million from the Natural Heritage Trust for RiverWorks Tasmania to improve the water quality of Tasmania’s riverways.

Through RiverWorks Tasmania, it has supported projects to improve the quality of the Derwent, Tamar, Huon, King and Queen Rivers.

The Government will continue to support the national effort to protect Australia’s wetlands. Passage of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Bill, which includes Ramsar wetlands as one of the matters of national environmental significance, will reinforce the effort.

The Government will seek to:

The Government has sought to protect the basin during the past two years by:

• signing an historic Lake Eyre Basin Heads of Agreement which will lead to an integrated catchment management agreement;
• providing more than $500,000 from the Natural Heritage Trust to establish a local community-based Lake Eyre Basin Coordinating committee to oversee preparation of a strategy to conserve the Basin; and
• funding the preparation of a management plan for the Coongie Lakes.

The Government has recognised the enthusiasm of young Australians and their desire to make a direct contribution to the protection of our environment through the establishment of the Green Corps.

The Green Corps has provided an opportunity for 3,600 young Australians to participate, for six-month periods, in ‘on-ground’ conservation projects and to increase their employment skills and experience.

The Green Corps has:

• planted almost 750,000 trees;
• collected 880 kilograms of seeds have been collected;
• erected 242 kilometres of protective fencing;
• removed 14,500 hectares of weeds; and
• constructed 345 kilometres of walking tracks.

A community which is well-informed and capable of taking appropriate actions in support of the environment is fundamental to ecologically sustainable development. Environmental education is an important national activity but it is not just the prerogative of the Commonwealth Government, or other governments for that matter. It concerns everyone in the community.

The Government therefore supports a cooperative national approach in this area. To this end it has initiated a national consultative process to promote discussion of the issues involved. The focal point for this process is the discussion paper Today Shapes Tomorrow which was released by the Federal Minister for the Environment and Heritage, Senator Robert Hill in January this year.

The discussion paper will be followed by a statement on environmental education to be issued by Senator Hill later this year. The statement will set future directions for the environmental education activities of the Environment and Heritage portfolio and also indicate how the Government intends to show national leadership in this area across different sectors. It will give further emphasis to the role of education in achieving an ecologically sustainable future.

Australians have demonstrated their commitment to the environment by participation in voluntary conservation organisations that exist at local, State and national levels.

The acclaimed first national Australia: State of the Environment 1996 report was published in 1996.

The National Land and Water Resources Audit (NLWRA) will provide a national assessment of Australia’s land, vegetation and water resources to support sustainable development.

Key questions have been grouped into seven themes, and projects to trial and demonstrate audit outcomes are underway.

A major part of the audit’s work is data collection and officers have been developing protocols with data agencies.

The Government has tried to ensure that environmental and sustainability issues are integrated into APEC’s broad agenda. In particular, it has supported the work of APEC’s sustainable development ministers, particularly in relation to sustainable cities.

The Government has been involved in the attempt to reinvigorate the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and restore it as the principal promoter of environmental outcomes within the United Nations system.

The Government supports the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) as the main control on international trade of endangered species and wildlife.

The Government intends to:

Local, State and Commonwealth Governments have made considerable advances in management and protection of Australia’s heritage places. However, the roles and responsibilities of the various levels of government need sharper definition.

The Government, with the States and Territories, is developing Australia’s first, national heritage places strategy.

The strategy will provide an historic opportunity to:

• improve the way all levels of government identify and protect heritage places;
• establish ‘best practice’ and consistent standards for heritage protection across all jurisdictions; and
• remove gaps in existing heritage regimes.

The Government will create a new Cultural Heritage Projects Programme to support the restoration and conservation of built and indigenous heritage. The programme will absorb the National Estate Grants Programme and the tax incentives for heritage conservation scheme.

Australia has responsibility for 42 per cent of Antarctica, a continent of great beauty and significant biological resources, which is of scientific and practical interest to Australia.

The Government will protect this special region and seek to increase understanding of its influence on Australian and global environmental systems.

The Government will:

Excellent weather forecasting is essential to the safety and well-being of the Australian community and to many Australian industries. In view of this Professor Ralph Slatyer was asked to review the operation of the Bureau of Meteorology.

The Government has:

• provided an additional $4.6 million a year for three years in response to the Slatyer review;
• established, with the CSIRO, a joint High Performance Computing and Communications Centre to provide Australia with world-class weather computing systems;
• entered a joint project to develop a new pilotless aircraft, Aerosonde, to improve Australia’s capacity to monitor and collect data from tropical cyclones;
• approved the development of a wave buoy network to improve marine weather services and increase marine safety; and
• established an agricultural-meteorology specific web site, SILO, to assist rural communities.

The Government will continue to support Australia’s weather forecasting services. It will fund: