25 June 2008
Monash University's most senior governance and climate change experts have called for the creation of a new National Sustainability Policy aimed at creating an effective and efficient system for monitoring and mitigating activities that contribute to climate change.
The experts are calling for development of the policy to include wide consultation with Australian organisations and the public in a manner similar to the highly successful National Competition Policy process of the 1990s.
The experts - Director of Monash's Governance Research Unit, Associate Professor Ken Coghill; Head of Monash Climate, Professor Amanda Lynch; Director of Monash's Centre of Policy Studies, Professor Philip Adams; and Melbourne University Professor David Karoly - call for the new policy in a submission to the Victorian Government.
The submission argues major innovation in governance is essential for achieving the big reductions in carbon emissions required to curb dangerous climatic change. "The nature and extent of the changes required are extra-ordinary and exceed those required at the outbreak of World War II," the experts say in their submission.
"The changes must occur in almost every aspect of life. Government must establish a framework within which individuals, households, businesses and communities are given a clear sense of leadership and direction, and the capacity to respond with high levels of autonomy."
The experts' submission calls for the initial wide-ranging public inquiry to result in recommendations being made to the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) on "the governance arrangements needed to effectively implement carbon trading and the myriad other changes we need to make in the way we live".
Under the Monash submission:
- COAG would then agree on a National Sustainability Policy (NSP) - a set of objectives and prohibitions against unsustainable behaviour;
- A federal Environmental Practices Act would be introduced to ensure every business in Australia operated in accordance with the NSP;
- State and local governments would enforce the Act and drive other reforms;
The Commonwealth would make payments for satisfactory progress with policy implementation and related reforms. A National Sustainability Council would oversee the new sustainability system and advise COAG on further reforms.
For more information, please contact the Monash media office on (03) 9903 4840.
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