Meeting of Environment Ministers (MEM)
Agreed statements
- Meeting 5 agreed statement (PDF - 27.2 KB) | (DOCX - 43.75 KB) - 25 November 2016
- Meeting 4 agreed statement (PDF - 135.82 KB) | (DOCX - 48.28 KB) - 15 December 2015
- Meeting 3 Agreed Statement (PDF - 37.06 KB) | (DOCX - 45.74 KB) - 15 July 2015
- Meeting 2 Agreed Statement (PDF - 27.61 KB) | (DOCX - 25.19 KB) - 27 February 2015
- Meeting 1 Agreed Statement - 29 April 2014
MEM Priorities
Following the Council of Australian Governments’ (COAG) decision in December 2013 to streamline and refocus its Council system, environment ministers discussed which of the matters formerly overseen by the Standing Council on Environment and Water required resolution on a national collaborative basis. Ministers agreed to give priority to reviewing environmental regulation.
National Review of Environmental Regulation
The April 2014 meeting of Environment Ministers agreed to the National Review of Environmental Regulation as the next step in environmental regulation reform and supported the Review's strategy to build on existing regulation reform approaches currently underway across jurisdictions.
The Review is focusing on identifying unworkable, contradictory or incompatible regulation and seeking opportunities to harmonise and simplify regulations.
National Clean Air Agreement
On 15 December 2015 Australia’s Environment Ministers established the National Clean Air Agreement (Agreement), over six months ahead of schedule
The Agreement focuses on actions to reduce air pollution and improve air quality through cooperative action between industry and government at the national, state and local level. The Agreement is designed to incorporate a range of existing, new and complementary measures to improve Australia’s air quality.
Working together on threatened species
Ministers committed to work together to establish a common assessment method for assessing and listing threatened species and, where agreed by jurisdictions, ecological communities, resulting in a single operational list in each jurisdiction. The common assessment method will be consistent with the best practice standards set by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and will ensure that efforts by all Governments to protect species will be targeted at those species in the greatest need of protection.
Minister Hunt invited all Ministers to attend a national Threatened Species Summit on 16 July 2015 to exchange ideas and agree on future actions that all governments can undertake to address the decline of Australia’s native species.
Contacts
For information contact the Secretariat: MEM@environment.gov.au