The Australian Minister for the Environment and Water is a position which is currently held by
Tanya Plibersek in the
Albanese ministry since 1 June 2022, following the
Australian federal election in 2022.
In the
Government of Australia
The Australian Government, also known as the Commonwealth Government, is the national government of Australia, a federalism, federal parliamentary system, parliamentary constitutional monarchy. Like other Westminster system, Westminster-sty ...
, the minister and assistant minister are responsible for the protection and conservation of the environment; to ensure that Australia benefits from meteorological and related sciences and services; and to see that Australia's interests in
Antarctica are advanced. The minister provides direction and oversight of the
Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment (previously the Department of the Environment and Energy, and before that the Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities) to develop and implement national policy, programs and legislation to protect and conserve Australia's environment and heritage.
Portfolio responsibilities
The minister administers their portfolio through the
Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water and its environment component bodies, including:
* Antarctic Animal Ethics Committee
* Antarctic Ethics Committee (Human Experimentation)
* Antarctic Research Assessment Committees (ARACs)
* Antarctic Science Advisory Committee
* Australia-Netherlands Committee on Old Dutch Shipwrecks
*
Australian Antarctic Names and Medals Committee
The Australian Antarctic Names and Medals Committee (AANMC) was established to advise the Government on names for features in the Australian Antarctic Territory and the subantarctic territory of Heard Island and the McDonald Islands. The committee ...
*
Australian Heritage Council
*
Bureau of Meteorology
* Environment Protection and Heritage Council
* Great Barrier Reef Consultative Committee
*
Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority
* Great Barrier Reef Ministerial Council
* Great Barrier Reef Structural Adjustment Package Technical Advisory Committee
* Hazardous Waste Technical Group
*
Murray-Darling Basin Authority
* National Environment Protection Council
* National Environmental Education Council
* New South Wales World Heritage Properties Ministerial Council
* Office of the Renewable Energy Regulator
* Science Program Management Committee
* State of the Environment Committee 2006
* Stockholm Intergovernmental Forum
*
Sydney Harbour Federation Trust
The Sydney Harbour Federation Trust ("Harbour Trust") is an Australian Government agency established in 2001 to preserve and rehabilitate a number of defence and other Commonwealth lands in and around Sydney Harbour. The Trust has been focused ...
* Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area Ministerial Council
*
Threatened Species Scientific Committee
* Wet Tropics Ministerial Council
List of ministers
Environment
The following individuals have been appointed as Minister for the Environment, or any precedent titles:
Notes
: Whitlam was one of a
two-man ministry consisting of himself and
Lance Barnard
Lance Herbert Barnard AO (1 May 19196 August 1997) was an Australian politician and diplomat. He was the deputy leader of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) from 1967 to 1974 and held senior ministerial office in the Whitlam Government, most no ...
for two weeks until the full ministry was announced.
Water
The following individuals have been appointed as Minister for Water, or any precedent titles:
Former ministerial portfolios
List of ministers for sustainable population
The Minister for Sustainable Population was a ministerial portfolio administered through the
Department of the Treasury responsible for "planning properly for the infrastructure needs, for the housing needs, for the transport needs, for the regional needs" of the Australian population of the future.
Originally entitled the ''Minister for Population'' by Prime Minister
Kevin Rudd, his successor,
Julia Gillard
Julia Eileen Gillard (born 29 September 1961) is an Australian former politician who served as the 27th prime minister of Australia from 2010 to 2013, holding office as leader of the Australian Labor Party (ALP). She is the first and only ...
, renamed the portfolio to the ''Minister for Sustainable Population'' to reflect her policy changes on the matter of population growth and the need for a sustainable future for Australia, saying the change sends a clear message about the new direction the Government is taking. After the
2010 federal election, the portfolio was subsumed by the ''Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities'' portfolio.
List of ministers for cities and the built environment
The following individual has served as the Minister for Cities and the Built Environment.
Assistant ministers
List of assistant ministers for the environment
The following individual has served as the Assistant Minister for the Environment.
List of assistant ministers for water
The following individual has served as the Assistant Minister for Water.
See also
* Ministers for Environment
**
Minister for the Environment (New South Wales)
**
Minister for the Environment (Victoria)
**
Minister for Environment (Western Australia)
**
Minister for the Environment, Climate Change and Water Security (
Northern Territory)
* Ministers for Water
**
Minister for Water (New South Wales)
The New South Wales Minister for Water, previously the Minister for Lands and Property, Property and Housing and the Minister for Lands and Water is a minister in the New South Wales Government with responsibility for the administration and de ...
**
Minister for Water (Victoria)
**
Minister for Water (Western Australia)
Minister for Water is a position in the government of Western Australia, currently held by Dave Kelly of the Labor Party. The position was first created in 1913, for the government of John Scaddan, and has existed in almost every government sin ...
References
External links
*
{{Australian federal ministerial portfolios
Environment and Water