C O R P O R A T E P L A N 2 0 1 6 – 1 7

OUR ROLE is to advise on and implement environment and energy policy to support the Government in achieving a healthy environment, strong economy and thriving community now and for the future.

WE ARE stewards of Australia’s unique environment and drivers of reliable and sustainable energy markets.

OUR CAPABILITIESThe Department will focus on growing our capability in the following areas over the next four years to achieve our purposes and build our influence.

• Growing inclusive leaders and developing our people by focussing on

– inclusive and professional leadership – talent management – developing critical skills – improving attraction and retention of diversity groups – improving performance management – promoting a healthy and safe workplace.

• Creating a positive risk management culture that is built on a robust risk management framework and is founded on all staff identifying and mitigating risk within their own sphere of influence, engaging with risk and learning from mistakes.

• Fostering innovation by focussing on collaboration and solutions and using our internal innovation networks to develop innovation skills, connect people and foster cross-disciplinary collaboration.

• Improving our ICT and digital capabilities by building and refining digital tools to better manage our information and prioritising our ICT investments to best meet the Department’s future needs.

• Communicating and engaging effectively with the Australian community and business by consulting widely, using new technologies and providing useful, timely and accurate information to build confidence in what we do.

• Achieving regulatory maturity by investing in integrated, future-proofed regulatory systems, engaging effectively with regulated entities, adopting best practice and supporting and developing our staff.

• Evaluating our performance. We are committed to evaluating our policies, programs and regulations, reflecting on what we do, why we do it, whether we are effective and how we can improve.

OUR PURPOSES AND ACTIVITIES Under our four purposes we focus on nine activities that are supported by the science, information and research cross-cutting activity.

Science, information and research cross-cutting activity

Environment and Heritage

Conserve, protect and sustainably manage

Australia’s biodiversity and heritage

Investing in our environment and heritage

Environmental watering

Regulating to protect our environment and heritage

Environmental health

Reducing Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions

Adapting to climate change

Climate Change

Develop and implement a national response to

climate change

Antarctic science & presence

Antarctica

Advance Australia’s strategic, scientific and environmental interests

in the Antarctic

Energy market reform and energy efficiency programs

Energy security

Energy

Support the reliable, sustainable and secure operations of energy

markets through improving Australia’s energy efficiency,

performance and productivity for the community.

OUR STRATEGIC PRIORITIES Our strategic priorities set the stage for the work we do to achieve our purposes, as well as putting us on the path for our long-term stewardship of the environment and support for reliable, sustainable and secure energy markets. Each Deputy Secretary has provided priorities for the areas of the Department for which they are responsible, looking at what we need to focus on now and what we need to prepare for in the future.

Dr Gordon de Brouwer Secretary

Strategy and Operations

Our Strategy and Operations functions include corporate and high level policy support for the Department, the Department’s science and information base and the Department’s activities in Antarctica and Parks Australia. Priorities over the next four years are:

• By implementing the Australian Antarctic Strategy and 20 Year Action Plan, the Department has a once in a generation opportunity to improve the protection and understanding of Antarctica.

• How we capitalise on breakthroughs in science and data for the environment and energy portfolio will be a major focus of our work. Key priorities will be the digital availability and platforms for our data, including the bioregional assessments of water resources to understand potential impacts from coal and coal seam gas extraction, and the 2016 State of the Environment Report.

• This corporate plan makes clear that our success in delivering the Government’s agenda for the environment and energy depends on the capability of our people and the strength of our Department’s systems. We are aiming to grow capability, including through promoting diversity, over the coming years.

Malcolm Thompson Deputy Secretary, Strategy and Operations

Environment protection

Our Environment Protection functions include developing policy advice, regulating and investing to protect Australia’s environment and heritage, in a way that supports social and economic development in Australia. In 2016–17, our three priorities are:

• developing and implementing key strategies to protect our environment and heritage, including finalising a new biodiversity strategy and implementing our threatened species and heritage strategies

• implementing landscape approaches to protect environmental and heritage assets in Australia, including:

– implementing our Reef 2050 plan to protect the Great Barrier Reef

– increasing our use of large, regional-scale strategic approaches to support the growth of our cities, Northern Australia, and our agricultural and natural resource sectors

– playing our part in implementing the Murray–Darling Basin Plan, by delivering environmental water to restore and protect the Basin’s rivers and wetlands

– investing in on-the-ground conservation across Australia

• strengthening the Department’s capacity to effectively protect our environment and heritage by putting in place a departmental regulatory framework, improving our engagement of stakeholders, strengthening our IT systems and supporting our staff with targeted training and guidance.

Dean Knudson Deputy Secretary, Environment Protection

Climate change and renewables innovation

To help Australia transition to a low emissions economy in tandem with the global effort and to minimise the impact of climate change on Australia and our region, our Climate Change and Renewables Innovation priorities are:

• developing a clear narrative that unifies the Government’s climate change policies around the 2030 target and the Paris Agreement, including identifying success stories and communicating practical results

• providing high quality sectoral analyses to support the evolution of current policies such as the Renewable Energy Target, the Emissions Reduction Fund and the Safeguard mechanism, and increasing the effectiveness of enabling measures such as clean energy research and development and financing

• undertaking the Government’s review of climate change policies in 2017 in concert with other relevant departments

• supporting energy sector transformation by developing measures that remove barriers to, and enhance uptake of, renewable and low emission generation at least cost

• working with all Government agencies to promote understanding of likely climate change impacts and ensuring climate risk is incorporated in government policies and programs

• delivering our United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change commitments in partnership with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and supporting the Minister to deliver on Australia’s regional climate initiatives in rainforest and ‘blue carbon’ protection.

Jo Evans Deputy Secretary, Climate Change and Renewables Innovation

Energy

Our Energy priorities are to enable well functioning energy markets so that households and businesses have access to affordable, reliable and secure energy within the binding constraint of reducing emissions in line with the Paris Agreement targets. In particular, working through the Council of Australian Governments’ (COAG) Energy Council, our priorities are:  

• increasing competition in the domestic gas market (establishing trading hubs, opening up trading of unused capacity, finalising coverage of the regulated market by end of the year)

• removing barriers to new technology and assessing whether the current regulatory rules for new investments are fit-for-purpose

• improving network regulation to ensure that consumers pay competitive prices for electricity

• better understanding the potential impacts of carbon policies, including state and territory emission reduction policies, on the energy sector.

In addition, to help inform the community on current and future energy security issues, we will release the National Energy Security Assessment by December 2016.

Rob Heferen Deputy Secretary, Energy