This research note updates previous research published by the Institute of Public Affairs in 2019 that measured the growth of federal environmental legislation since 1971.
The analysis uses administrative arrangements orders to determine what is categorised as environmental legislation. Administrative arrangement orders are published by the government to distribute all statutes in force to their responsible departments. The Federal Register of Legislation contains past and present versions of all Commonwealth laws, allowing a historical count of pages of legislation in force over time.
The most recent administrative arrangement order was issued in October 2022. The page number count for 2023 and 2024 uses the stock of legislation listed in the October 2022 order, as well as new legislation that has been introduced and passed, including bills that are currently in parliament, that is listed as being administered by the environment department on the Federal Register of Legislation as of 1 July of each year.
In February 2020, the administration of energy policy was removed from the environment department, while the remainder of the environment department was merged with the agriculture department under the stewardship of separate ministers. Significantly, throughout that period, the agriculture minister was more senior than the environment minister.
Given the departmental arrangements in place between February 2020 and October 2022, this analysis excludes from the page count of environmental legislation any laws that were previously administered by the agriculture department. Including these laws would overstate and misrepresent the amount of environmental laws being administered in that period.
