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Australia's Clearing-House Mechanism
The Commonwealth of Australia was formed in 1901 when the former British colonies of New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, Western Australia, South Australia and Tasmania agreed to federate. Government is based on a democratically elected Parliament with two chambers - the House of Representatives and the Senate—and operates under a three-tiered system of government. The Australian Government has responsibility at the national level, with six state and two territory governments sharing political and legal responsibility. Local government forms the third tier.
Australia has a written constitution that defines the responsibilities of the Government in areas such as foreign relations and trade, defence and immigration. The Constitution confers law-making powers on state parliaments on matters that are not the exclusive responsibility of the Australian Government. In practice, the two levels of government cooperate in areas where States and Territories are formally responsible, such as education, transport, health and law enforcement. The States exercise most legal responsibility for environmental protection. However, within the powers defined by the Constitution, federal law may override state law.
Australia is a fragile continent. It has some of the oldest land surface on earth, and its soils and seas are among the most nutrient poor and unproductive in the world, due mainly to the country's geological stability. Australia is also the driest inhabited continent on earth, with the least flow of any of the world's rivers, the lowest run-off, and the smallest area of permanent wetlands of all the continents. Its interior has one of the lowest average rainfalls in the world, and about three-quarters of the land surface is arid or semi-arid. These arid areas extend from the large central deserts to the western coast. Soils in these areas are characteristically very dry, even compared with other deserts of comparable aridity.
Australia is identified as one of the world's 17 mega-diverse countries, based on total number of species and the degree of endemism at the species and higher taxonomic levels. (Endemism means that a species occurs exclusively in a particular area). Australia is estimated to have from 7-10 per cent of the world's biodiversity and is known to have the world's largest number of endemic vertebrate species.
The Australian Government's biodiversity policy frameworks include, amongst others, the National Strategy for Ecologically Sustainable Development, National Strategy for the Conservation of Australia's Biological Diversity, 1992, the National Forest Policy Statement 1992 and associated Regional Forest Agreements, and Australia's Oceans Policy and associated regional marine planning. (see Biodiversity Policies and Australian Government Policies).
These policies encourage conservation using a broad range of approaches, such as the establishment and management of protected areas, integrated natural resources management, management of key threatening processes (for example, invasive alien species, broadscale land clearing, fire, pollution and unsustainable land-use practices), community involvement and education, and the provision of incentives.
The Natural Heritage Trust and the National Action Plan for Salinity and Water Quality are major programmes through which the Australian Government provides direct and indirect financial support for its biodiversity policies.
The Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act) Act defines key areas of national environmental responsibility confers on the Australian Government the appropriate powers to deal with them. The EPBC Act established the Biological Diversity Advisory Committee, which provides advice on the conservation and ecologically sustainable use of biodiversity. The Act also enables the Australian Government to make wildlife conservation plans and to address the impact of invasive species (see Recovery Plans and Invasives).
