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State of the Environment 2011 (SoE 2011)

The Australian State of the Environment 2011 report is a substantive, hardcopy report due to be tabled in Parliament by 31 December 2011.

Compiled by an independent committee appointed by the Minister for the Environment, the report constitutes a comprehensive assessment of the environment in terms of its current condition, the pressures on it and the drivers of those pressures. It details management initiatives in place to address environmental concerns and the impacts of those initiatives.

The main purpose of the report is to provide relevant and useful information on environmental issues to the public and decision-makers, in order to raise awareness and support more informed environmental management decisions that lead to more sustainable use and effective conservation of environmental assets.

National SoE reports released to date have attracted strong interest from a wide range of groups and individuals with an interest in environmental information, including the general public, all levels of government, state environment/NRM agencies, non-government organisations, the scientific community, international bodies such as OECD, UNEP and CSD, industry groups, and educational institutions.

Development of the SoE 2011 report is well advanced. SoE 2011 will capture critical information about environmental issues - issues that are nationally significant and of interest to current and future generations.

It will be the fourth in an ongoing series of five-yearly reports, building on 15 years of experience in reporting on the state of the environment.

2011 SoE Committee

The Minister for the Environment has decided that the 2011 report will be produced independently by a committee of experts in a manner similar to the 1996, 2001 and 2006 reports.

The Minister has appointed the following members to the 2011 SoE Committee:

Chairman: Dr Tom Hatton (Director, CSIRO Water for a Healthy Country Flagship).
Members: Dr Steven Cork (research ecologist and futurist); Mr Peter Harper (Deputy Australian Statistician); Mr Rob Joy (School of Global Studies, Social Science and Planning at RMIT University); Professor Peter Kanowski (Fenner School of Environment and Society at ANU); Mr Richard Mackay (heritage specialist); Dr Neil McKenzie (Chief, CSIRO Land and Water); Dr Trevor Ward (marine and fisheries ecologist).

• Factsheet: 2011 State of the Environment Committee (PDF - 169 KB) |  (Word - 1,102 KB)

Secretariat and advisory services will be provided to the committee by the Strategic Information and Environmental Reporting Section of the Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts (DEWHA). A departmental SoE Executive Panel will provide senior executive support for the process.

Issues and indicators to be included in the 2011 report will be determined by DEWHA in collaboration with the committee. Considerations in determining the appropriate issues and indicators include the Government's public policy requirements and the desirability of moving further towards a stable and repeatable set of core indicators that are comparable between reporting periods.

Within this context, the committee will:

• assist the department to determine a list of key topic areas to address in the SoE 2011 report and an appropriate structure for the report
• produce the SoE 2011 report, including a summary of main findings - drawing on various sources of reliable data, input from other independent contributors and comments by independent reviewers and the department
• provide advice and updates as requested by the Minister
• provide updates, comment and advice to the department as requested by the chair of the departmental SoE Executive Panel or their delegate
• assist with promoting and disseminating the SoE 2011 report and other products, and
• throughout the process of developing and promoting the report, advocate for accurate, robust and meaningful environmental reporting and identification of policy issues, but not for any particular policy position.

The chair of the committee will:

• provide strategic direction to the 2011 SoE Committee in an efficient and effective manner in order to provide the Minister with a report on the State of the Environment by the deadline in 2011, and
• maintain relationships with other relevant bodies concerned with environmental reporting and represent the committee as requested by the chair of the departmental SoE Executive Panel or their delegate.