The recent axing of Land and Water Australia (LWA) and cuts to critical funding programs under the Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation (RIRDC) cast doubt on the way the Rudd government is managing Australia's natural resources. Together with the slashing of funding for regional natural resource management (NRM) groups and the mishandling of the Caring for Our Country program, we have a picture of a federal government that simply does not understand the challenges facing regional Australia.

Far from reducing red tape, the new funding process for Caring for Our Country has led to thousands of groups putting in hundreds of hours to complete complex business plans with little chance of success. The more than 1,300 applicants have no way of knowing why the vast majority of their projects were not successful, as it is not clear on what basis the 57 funded projects across Australia were selected.

Minister Peter Garrett claims that this has ‘revolutionised' natural resource management funding, when it has in fact taken us away from a longer-term strategic planning approach. Where regional stakeholders previously worked together to establish their priorities, we have now moved to a short-term scatter-gun, individual grants approach where there is no consideration of what has gone before or how individual projects link up to achieve landscape-scale goals.

Project proposals were not required to provide evidence of technical feasibility or proven pathways to adoption, meaning there was little opportunity for experienced performers to demonstrate their success. This means project selection came down to how well they matched the business plans priorities, budget and timeline, and not how likely they might be to actually deliver on the ground results.

Of the $404 million in funding, $57.5 million was dedicated to individual projects - of this, $19 million going to the camel eradication project, leaving just $38.5 million spread across 56 projects. These are the ‘winners' from a total 1,300 applications, who together sought a total $3.4 billion.

These significant funding cuts to NRM groups and regions, together with the uncertainty of future funding and the inability to properly pursue longer term regional planning, is leading to an NRM ‘brain drain' - as dedicated and experienced staff become frustrated and leave the sector. We our losing some of our most talented people when our environment and our communities need them most.

What the Greens are doing for NRM:

Rachel has been responsible for initiating the following inquiries:

• Inquiry into Natural Resource Management and Conservation Challenges - to report by 11 August 2009
• Inquiry into the operation of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 - tabled 30 April 2009.
• Inquiry into Climate Change and the Australian Agricultural Sector - tabled 4 December 2008

We continue to hold the government accountable on NRM issues through questions in the Senate chamber and at Senate Estimates hearings.

What you can do:

We need to gather information about which NRM programs received funding, how much they received and who missed out in the current funding round.

This information will assist us in demonstrating the true impact of the dangerously random and short sighted funding approach adopted in the current Caring for our Country funding round.

So please provide us with any information, comments or stories through our contact form here.

You can also write to us at: 1/151 Brisbane St NORTHBRIDGE WA 6003
Tel: (08) 9228 3277
Fax (08) 9228 4055

If you would like to be placed on our NRM list to receive regular email updates please email bridget.halbert@aph.gov.au

You could also write to Federal Environment Minister Peter Garrett about this issue:
PO Box 249 Maroubra NSW 2035

Attachment	Date	Size
NRM Leaflet.pdf	13/07/09 10:06 am	132.1 KB
Climate change and the Australian agricultural sector.pdf	21/07/09 3:00 pm	579.38 KB
Review of EPBC - Final Report_AG.pdf	21/07/09 3:02 pm	5.83 KB
Review of EPBC - First Report_AG.pdf	21/07/09 3:02 pm	69.21 KB