Australia has in the past, and will in the future, experience a range of challenges, obstacles and risks as it works to renew political commitment to sustainable development.

Key challenges will be in:
? Communicating the concepts
? Fostering community engagement
? Ensuring momentum
? Achieving cross-sectoral uptake
? Restructuring of social and economic systems

Communicating the concepts
A key and on-going challenge is ensuring the concept and principles of sustainable development are well understood across government, as well as by non-governmental organisations, business, industry, and the community. This is a critical component to achieving the change which is needed to move Australia towards a sustainable future.

Australia is using both a top down and bottom up approach to this. The governments in Australia work to promote change from the top down by setting overarching frameworks that are designed to encourage progress at the community level. State and territory governments have been working closely with local governments to deliver change at the community level.

Fostering community engagement
Fostering community engagement and understanding of sustainable development and what it means to live sustainably is a key priority for Australia. It is important to provide the community with knowledge, skills and opportunities to act and meet sustainable development goals. Community ownership and commitment to sustainability is essential to achieving sustainable development goals. The Australian Government is therefore working to address this by using education for sustainability as a mechanism to build the community?s knowledge and skills to achieve sustainable development goals.

Community input is sought early in the development of new policies and attention given to how best to encourage an ongoing role in design and delivery. For example the Australian Government is working closely with industry and community groups on regulating product stewardship arrangements for end-of-life televisions and computers.

Ensuring momentum
Another challenge for Australia is ensuring momentum continues for achieving sustainable development. It is important to build upon achievements to date and to benefit from the structures, policies and resources already in place to progress sustainable development goals. The appointment of a Minister for Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities and the establishment of the Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities are recent examples of the Australian Government?s efforts to bring added focus and momentum to this issue.

A key issue Australia is grappling with in ensuring momentum in its reform agendas for sustainable development is dealing with ?reform fatigue?. With such large scale and comprehensive reforms having occurred and continuing to occur there is potential for the public and the political commitment to flag due to the continuing nature of the reform. For example, in water reform, while all state and territory governments agree to the reform agenda, in some cases implementation has been slow and patchy, due both to the scale and complexity, and the political, social and resource demands. In this context, the Australian Government has used a range of means to encourage continued commitment, including gaining agreement to a transfer of Constitutional powers.

Achieving cross-sectoral up-take
It has been recognised that one of the key challenges in achieving sustainable development is moving it from rhetoric to measurable achievements. In Australia, implementation of the NSESD is stronger and more visible in a few key sectoral areas, for instance in agriculture and some areas of mining and manufacturing where there has been a close partnership between government and relevant industry and community groups. It is also recognised that there is still much to do to achieve full implementation and uptake of the principles of ESD. Strengthening uptake across all sectors is a key challenge for Australia.

Restructuring social and economic systems
One of the most significant challenges in implementing sustainable development is where there is a need for restructuring of economic and/or social systems to address unsustainable patterns of natural resource use. Many industries and communities, for historical reasons, have dependencies on patterns and approaches to natural resource exploitation that may not be ecologically or economically sustainable in the longer term, particularly in a changing climate. Adjusting economic activities away from unsustainable patterns can have significant short term impacts of both an economic and social nature. Further, adjustment needs are often most significant in communities and industries that have the least capacity or opportunity to adjust. This will continue to be key challenge for Australia, particularly in relation to regional and rural communities dependent on agriculture, fisheries and forestry

There will be many new opportunities to progress sustainability in Australia.

Areas that could be built upon include:
? strengthening community engagement
? building on momentum and public interest
? invigorating interest and uptake across sectors.

Australia?s sustainability agenda is increasing in prominence. Renewed political commitment to sustainable development is evident across all tiers of government. The driver for this renewed commitment is a growing awareness that Australia is fortunate to have a rich cultural and natural heritage, social stability, a strong democratic political system, and the resources to support economic prosperity. The future, however, holds many challenges which must be addressed if we are to continue to prosper. The available evidence suggests that in many areas our current way of living cannot be sustained.

Renewed awareness of the importance of sustainable development is reflected by a number of recent commitments at the national level, including:
? the appointment of the Australian Government?s first Minister for Sustainability
? the formation of the Australian Government Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities (DSEWPaC)
? the proposal for the development of Australia?s first Sustainable Population Strategy
? increased national government involvement in a comprehensive water reform agenda
? the launch of Australia?s National Waste Policy
? pursuing education for sustainability.

New Australian Government Minister and Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities
The Australian Government Portfolio of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities has been created to lead on policy formulation and advice to progress sustainability in Australia. Areas of focus for the new minister and the portfolio will be addressing the challenges and opportunities of population including infrastructure, water, environmental, housing and health needs.

Development of a ?Sustainable Population Strategy?
The Minister for Sustainability is developing a Sustainable Population Strategy. The strategy will consider the policies and programs required to ensure that we can shape and respond to changes in our population to build a sustainable Australia. The ultimate goal of the strategy will be to improve the wellbeing of current and future generations through more effective recognition and management of the impacts of population changes, including the size, composition and location.

The development of the Sustainable Population Strategy will be informed by three Advisory Panels and a public consultation process.

The composition of the Advisory Panels reflect population and sustainability from three different viewpoints:

? Demographic Change and Liveability Panel ? Chaired by Professor Graeme Hugo.
? Productivity and Prosperity Panel - chaired by Ms Heather Ridout.
? Sustainable Development Panel ? chaired by The Hon. Bob Carr.

Advisory Panel reports informed the issues paper which was released for public consultation on 16 December 2010. The Sustainable Population Strategy will be developed following the close of the consultation period early in 2011.

Water Reform
The Australian Government has put in place a long term agenda for national water reform. This journey began in the 1990?s and was driven by a number of elements: Australia?s climatic variability and mis-management of water leading to over allocation, environmental degradation of water ways and high levels of public concern on the management of water. The impetus for water reform has been accelerated in more recent years by an extended period of unprecedented drought.

While there has been engagement at all levels of politics in the development and implementation of water reform, delivery has not been fast enough. As a consequence the Australian Government has taken a stronger role in ensuring a sustainable outcome for water management in order to increase the productivity and efficiency of Australia's water use, to service rural and urban communities, and to ensure the health of river and groundwater systems. Recent Australian Government-led reforms have included:
? 2004 National Water Initiative (NWI)
? 2007 Water Act
? 2008 Water for the Future, committing over AUD12 billion
? 2008 Inter-Government Agreement on Murray-Darling Basin Reform, providing the Australian Government with greater powers to manage water in the Murray-Darling Basin
? National Water Markets System
? National best practice compliance and enforcement framework
? First National Water Account
? First Murray-Darling Basin Plan (expected 2011)

Australia?s ambition for water reform is to find the right balance between the water needs of the community, industry and the environment, and to use markets and a planning and entitlements framework to increase efficiency and productivity.

Numerous studies have demonstrated that the ability to trade has provided significant benefits to irrigators and for urban water security despite severe drought.

New National Waste Policy
Australia has recently released a new National Waste Policy that sets the direction for Australia over the next 10 years to produce less waste for disposal and manage waste as a resource to deliver economic, environmental and social benefits. The National Waste Policy heralds a new, coherent, efficient and environmentally responsible approach to waste management in Australia. The policy, agreed by all Australian environment ministers in November 2009, sets Australia's waste management and resource recovery direction to 2020. The policy covers wastes, including hazardous wastes and substances, in the municipal, commercial and industrial, construction and demolition waste streams and covers liquid, gaseous and solid wastes.

The National Waste Policy delivers a national approach by providing the basis for collaboration between all tiers of government, effective and efficient approaches to domestic waste issues and ensuring that waste management remains aligned with Australia?s international obligations. The policy seeks to complement action to deliver emission reductions, reduce energy and water use, support jobs and invest in future long term economic growth. It is a strong example of a successful process to develop a policy for all tiers of Australian governments.

A key driver of success for the development of the National Waste Policy was the successful co-ordination of a public consultation process that enabled the community and business to participate in the process and present issues of concern. Success was also achieved by generating ?buy-in? at all levels of government which was an important process to ensure that the aims, vision, principles, key direction and priorities for the policy were shared.

An Implementation Plan has been published for the National Waste Policy. The Plan sets out the governance arrangements, identifies key milestones and priorities for the first five years and commits to annual public reporting of progress. A status report covering progress over the first 12 months is available at: www.environment.gov.au/wastepolicy.

Pursuing ?Education for Sustainability?
The Australian Government recognises that education for sustainability is a priority to help the community develop skills, knowledge and values that promote behaviour in support of a sustainable environment. Key areas of focus for Australia?s work in this area targets both formal and non-formal education settings such schools, the work place and in the home. Sustainability is a priority theme being addressed in all learning areas in the new Australian Curriculum. All Governments across Australia are collaborating to deliver the Australian Sustainable Schools Initiative (AuSSI) which combines learning with sustainable management of schools. Capacity is being developed in the Vocational Education and Training (VET) sector through the National Green Skills Agreement and the National VET Sector Sustainability Policy and Action Plan.

In 2009 the government released the National Action Plan for Education for Sustainability called Living Sustainably that sets out a framework for national action to respond to the needs and priorities of education for sustainability. This is Australia's second National Action Plan. It builds on the foundation laid by the first plan released in 2000 and represents a significant contribution to Australia's participation in the United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development, 2005-2014. A key driver for education for sustainability in Australia has been the collaborative approach take in policy development, involving both environment and education agencies. Partnerships with community organizations have assisted the delivery of sustainability educational programs.