Version 3.2, 17 September 2008 1 Regional natural resource management arrangements for Australian states: structures, legislation and relationships to government agencies (September 2008) David J. Pannell 1,2 , Anna Ridley 1,3 , Eloise Seymour* 1,3 , Peter Regan 1,4 , Glenn Gale 1,5 1 CRC for Plant-Based Management of Dryland Salinity 2 University of Western Australia 3 Department of Primary Industries, Victoria 4 NSW Agriculture 5 Department of Water, Land and Biodiversity Conservation *If you would like to update anything on this paper, please contact Eloise Seymour: eloise.seymour@dpi.vic.gov.au There have been rapid and frequent changes in the arrangements and structures surrounding catchment management bodies in Australia, including changes in the statutory powers of catchment management bodies, their responsibilities, their names, their reporting channels through government, and the names and structures of government agencies with which they must work. The rapidity of change can be gauged by the fact that a book chapter published in 2003 documenting catchment management institutional arrangements state by state (Ewing, 2003) was substantially out of date before the end of the year. Most states and territories in Australia have recently reviewed statutory and administrative arrangements for natural resource management. This document is a snapshot of the arrangements and structures, as of March 2007, for Australian states. The details of arrangements vary considerably between states from institutional models with high levels of community empowerment to those where State Government agencies retain full responsibility for all statutory functions. A common arrangement for all States, as part of the NAP and NHT bilateral agreement, is the establishment of a Joint Steering Committee. In each State this committee coordinates the State and Commonwealth investment and commonly consists of representatives from State and Commonwealth agencies, with members and observers also from local government and regional groups (see example: http://www.nrm.gov.au/state/nsw/jsc.html) . There is also inconsistency between states in the name given to the regional NRM bodies. They are called Catchment Management Authorities in New South Wales and Victoria, Catchment Councils in Western Australia, Natural Resources Management Boards in South Australia, Regional NRM Groups in Queensland and Regional Committees in Tasmania. In each state, there is currently an overarching committee of some sort, although their roles vary widely. Summary The following Table provides a summary of current regional NRM arrangements in Australian States, particularly in relation to statutory powers and streamlining of legislation. Full details for each State are outlined later in the report.