Corporate Plan 2016–17(excluding Appendices)
The full Department of the Environment and Energy Corporate Plan 2016–17is available at
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Address:
John Gorton Building
King Edward Terrace
Parkes ACT 2600
Australia
Mail:
GPO Box 787
Canberra ACT 2601
Australia
Internet:
Phone:
02 6274 1111
+61 2 6274 1111 (international)
Fax:
02 6274 1666
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© Commonwealth of Australia, 2016.
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Disclaimer
The views and opinions expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the Australian Government or the Minister for the Environment and Energy.
2019–20, as required under paragraph 35(1)(b) of the Public Governance, Performance and Accountability Act 2013. The corporate plan is prepared in accordance with section 16E of the Public Governance, Performance and Accountability Rule 2014.
Contents
Message from the Secretary
Our Purposes and Activities
Operational context
Governance and enterprise issues
Acknowledging our risks
Capabilities
Growing inclusive leaders and developing our people
Building a positive risk management culture
Fostering innovation
Improving our ICT and digital capabilities
Communicating and engaging effectively
Achieving regulatory maturity
Our strategic priorities
Measuring our performance
Supporting evaluation of our work
*Appendix A: Our purpose and activity statements
*Appendix B: Mapping of the Department’s Portfolio Budget Statements 2016–17 to Corporate Plan 2016–17
*Appendix C: How was this document developed?
*Theappendicesare available for downloading at
Message from the Secretary
The Department’s Corporate Plan 2016–17 positions our Department for the year ahead and looks forward to 2020. The corporate plan helps us work towards a shared purpose.
Our work spans every aspect of the policy process. We are policy advisers, regulators, program implementers and communicators. Working with others, we undertake and invest in science and evidence to do our work better and in concert with on-ground operations.Achieving our purposes depends on getting each aspect right.
Our purposes are broad ranging, spanning environment protection, energy, human health, climate change, heritage and improving Australia’s productivity. Our knowledge and experience is the key to delivering good advice, implementing programs and operations effectively and ensuring confidence in our regulatory activities.
The corporate plan reflects the breadth of our role and the challenges that affect our work. It identifies our achievements, and sets out the improvements we plan to make by harnessing our diversity and focusing on broad-based and multidisciplinaryskills and capabilities to build our influence. We’ll improve by positively engaging with risk, trialling new community-focussed approaches, and systematically evaluating their potential.
The 2016–17 corporate plan pays special attention to the capabilities we need to do our work. It highlights the importance of diversity as a powerful resource that underpins our influence. A diversity of experience and background allows us to better understand and connect with the Australian community’s background, values and needs, and identify creative solutions to Australia’senvironmental and energy challenges. This is invaluable in serving the Government and fostering our longer-term stewardship of the environment.
This year, the corporate plan identifies our strategic priorities for 2016–17 and beyond. These priorities chart the direction we’re taking as stewards of Australia’s unique environment and drivers of reliable and sustainable energy markets. Staff will be able to identify their work and what they have set out to achieve against these priorities. The corporate plan includes case studies of what we do, showcasing examples of our many stories.
I am committed to the Department being a trusted and effective adviser in carrying out its role and this corporate plan outlines how we will work with others to achieve this.
—Dr Gordon de Brouwer
Secretary, Department of the Environment and Energy
—Gordon de Brouwer
Our Purposes and Activities
We deliver major Government initiatives to promote the conservation and sustainable use of Australia’s natural resources and to ensure community and industry energy needs are met through the efficient use and adequate, reliable and competitive supply of energy. We do this across fourpurposes. We will achieve these results by focusing on nine activities that are supported by the science, information and research cross-cutting activity.
Department’s Role / The role of the Department of the Environment and Energy 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.Purposes / Environment and Heritage
Conserve, protect and sustainably manage Australia’s biodiversity and heritage / Climate Change
Develop and implement a national response to climate change / Antarctica
Advance Australia’s strategic, scientific and environmental interests in the Antarctic / Energy
Support the reliable, sustainable and secure operations of energy markets through improving Australia’s energy efficiency, performance and productivity for the community.
Activities / Investing in our environment and heritage / Reducing Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions / Antarctic science and presence / Energy security
Environmental watering
Regulating to protect our environment and heritage / Adapting to climate change / Energy market reform and energy efficiency programs
Environmental health
Science, information and research
Our identity / We are stewards of Australia’s natural resources and an authority on the Australian environment and energy markets.
Our people /
- Our diversity
- Our leadership
- Our skills and expertise
- Our relationships
- Our collaboration
- Our contribution
- Our resilience
- Our professionalism
- Our stewardship
Further information on the Department’s performance information for our purposes and activities is available at AppendixA.
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Operational context
The Department supports the Government to maintain and enhance the economic and social values of our natural resources while ensuring the environmental value of Australia’s natural assets is conserved for current and future generations.
Bringing energy and environment policy together in the one Department recognises the fundamental link between the economy and the environment. Reliable, sustainable and secure energy markets underpin a productive, growing economy.
We have responsibilitiesacross Australia’s diverse land and seascapes,in Antarcticaand as global citizens. Australia’s environment is unique and of significant value to people, communities and our economy. It is culturally significant to our Indigenous peoples and central to our identity as Australians. Our ecosystems and the biodiversity they support provide services that are fundamental to human life and health, such as climate control, soil fertility, pollination, food production, air and water filtration and erosion and pest control.
Changes to our environment and energy future both in Australia and globally are ongoing. By taking a multidisciplinary, coordinated response that brings together government, the community and business we can developeffective solutions toaddress both environment and energy challenges.
Considering Indigenous culture is an important aspect of the Department’s natural resource management and heritage protection responsibilities. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples play a key role in protecting and managing their heritage and are important partners in the Department’s work.
Our work spans policy making to program implementation, scientific research to
on-ground operations, from regulation and compliance to knowledge brokering at the international and domestic levels. We endeavour to foster and build collaborative relationships with all stakeholders, government and non government, to achieve positive outcomes for Australia, Antarctica and globally.
Environmental degradation is a trans-boundary problem. Environmental management activities within a country’s boundaries can have effects globally. Internationally, there is a focus on collaborative and coordinated approaches to the management of environmental resources as environmental protection is increasingly recognised as everyone’s responsibility. This is true for an island nation like Australia where protection of species, ocean health and climate change mitigation are examples of where our interests intersect with the rest of the world. It is true of our interests in Antarctica.
A significant amount of the Department’s work is in response to our obligations to the global community, including the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The 2030 Agenda includes goals that focus on health, food and agriculture, water and sanitation, human settlement, energy, climate change, sustainable consumption and production, oceans and terrestrial ecosystems.
Many multilateral agreements provide the constitutional basis for the Australian Government’s environmental and energy legislation, policies and programs. The Department is the Australian Government lead for over 20 multilateral agreements. Engaging in these forums alongside other governments and international organisations can help Australia to learn and benefit from international actions to protect the environment and support secure and reliable energy markets.
The breadth of our responsibilities reveals the complexity of our work and the context in which we operate. Often the scope of the problems we address extends beyond our prescribed responsibilities and areas of direct influence. The table below shows this complexity and our level of influence. It presents some of thefactors that have the potential to affect our performance and our ability to achieve our purposes.
Along with agencies across Government, our operating environment continues to be one of smaller budgets, increasing devolution of government functions, shared stewardship with business and the community, new technologies, increasing demands and expectations from the general public and greater scrutiny. As with the biophysical environment, some of these factors are not fully within our control but can provide a catalyst for change, highlighting the need for the Department to build collaborative partnerships with governments, business and the community.
Table 1: Our level of influence
Factors —Greater influence / Factors — Partial influence / Factors —Less Influence- Support of the Minister and Government
- Reporting on the state of Australia’s environment
- Scanning for emerging risks and opportunities
- Investing in our environment and heritage
- Our environment and energy policy advice
- Administration and enforcement of Commonwealth energy and environment laws
- Our science and information base
- Our engagement with the community
- Our implementation of government agendas (e.g. innovation, regulatory reform, digital transformation)
- Our approach to risk
- Our workforce planning and working conditions
- Our business operations
- Budget allocations
- State of Australia’s economy
- Decisions by business to invest in energy markets
- Perception that environment and economy are mutually exclusive
- Perception of the Department and importance of the work we do
- Energy costs
- Environmental protection and conservation activities undertaken by states, territories and regional bodies
- Uptake of energy efficiency initiatives
- Compliance with and enforcement ofCommonwealth environmental laws by others
- Setting of environment related international obligations
- Cooperation with public and private stakeholders
- Passing of new initiatives through Parliament
- Pressures external to the Department including the actions of international governments
- Policy decisions of state and local governments
- Machinery of government changes
- Legacy effects of environmental damage (e.g. species loss)
- Impacts of climate warming already in the world’s climate systems
Innovative financing partnerships
The Department is exploring innovative financing partnerships to improve outcomes for the environment and heritage. Innovative financing is providing opportunities to improve value for money, encourage new and novel solutions to problems and reinforce shared stewardship with business and the community.
Mechanisms such as green bonds, impact investment, private equity and corporate partnerships have been used to deliver conservation outcomes in Australia and internationally. For example, the Clean Energy Finance Corporation is providing up to $100 million in finance to Origin Energy to assist in its rollout of rooftop solar photovoltaics for Australian households and business. Origin Energy’s ‘Solar as a Service’ offering uses power purchase agreements to eliminate the need for customers to cover upfront solar photovoltaic system costs. This finance supports Origin Energy in providing power purchase agreements to these customers, allowing them to buy their own solar-generated energy for an agreed period and at an agreed price, which encourages the deployment of solar and battery storage solutions.
The Department is looking at financing mechanisms to facilitate private investment in projects that will improve water quality for the Great Barrier Reef. We are working towards establishing an Antarctic foundation that will partner corporations and individuals with the Australian Antarctic Division to conduct Antarctic science. Options for a national heritage lottery,are being considered to support heritage activities. Opportunities for co investment and collaboration for recovering Australia’s threatened species have been identified through initiatives under theThreatened Species Strategy.
Governance and enterprise issues
Significant changes in our operating environment present opportunities for us to improve the way we work and our ability to achieve our purposes over the coming four years. These include:
- Innovation and technology—Scientific advances in environmental surveys and assessments, including citizen science initiatives, are leading to a more collaborative and integrated approach to how we do our work. Technological improvements in renewable energy and energy efficiency are transforming the energy sector.
- Communicating our work—Easy access to information through the internet, the 24 hour news cycle and the scope and volume of information shared by us across media platforms reflects our complex operational context.
- APS reform—Recent public service reviews, such as Shergold[1] and Belcher[2], provide direction to how we can improve the way we work. The Department is implementing changes in response to these reviews including through improvements to the way we operate, through co-design and greater use of modern communication systems.
‘Adaptive government can take many shapes. There are innumerable ways in which the public service can become more agile. As with any new approach, changes will be needed to turn the adaptive ethos into action. Some will require a shift in entrenched practices, attitudes or behaviours. Administrative structures and workplace systems often hinder the capability of APS agencies but it is cultural inertia that acts as a barrier to creativity. Induction programs generally focus on explaining to newcomers that “this is how we do things here” rather than “this is how we are looking to improve things here”.’
— Peter Shergold 2015, Learning from Failure,Australian Public Service Commission, p. 73
Acknowledging our risks
We undertake a wide range of activities in pursuing betterenvironmental and energy outcomes for Australia. This includes working in high risk environments like Antarctica and across our Commonwealth reserves.The amount of risk each division will take depends on the context and objectives of the work, balanced against the impact of the operating environment on that objective.
In our approach to risk management,we consider factors that affect our natural environment and energy markets, as well as those that affect how we work as an organisation. Our enterprise risks include people, financial, workhealthandsafety, strategic and technology.
Ourrisk appetite sets the boundaries within which staff are expected to operate and is vital for effective risk management. A clear understanding of risk appetite helps staff assess risks, make informed decisions, confidently engage with risk and harness its opportunities.
The Executive Board and management give serious, regular and systematic consideration to the identification of risk and significant effort and resources to managing risks.
We undertake diverse activities where the level of risk tolerated depends on the specific circumstances and objectives of the work. We only tolerate those risks which permit us to:
- achieve our stated purposes and activities efficiently and cost-effectively
- comply with all applicable laws and regulations
- conduct our business in a safe and sound manner, with a particular focus on work health and safety.
An example of where we accept high residual risks to achieve an objective is our operations in the extreme and remote environments of Antarctica and the Southern Ocean. These are inherently high risk environments. Through mature and well documented risk management procedures we ensure we actively mitigate residual operational and work health and safety risks to tolerable levels.
This appetite to risk applies to all departmental activities.
The tolerance of risk will vary across the Department depending on the operating environment, the nature of the work being undertaken and the acceptance for loss in the pursuit of delivering the activity. The risk tolerances for the Department as a whole are set by the Executive Board and reviewed annually, and may be updated outside of this process—for example, if there is a change to the operating environment of the Department.