Mr CAUSLEY (12:49 PM) —On behalf of the Standing Committee on Environment and Heritage, I present the committee's report, entitled Review of the Department of the Environment's annual report for 1997-98 , together with the minutes of proceedings and evidence received by the committee.

Ordered that the report be printed.

Mr CAUSLEY —It gives me pleasure to table the first report of the Committee on Environment and Heritage for this parliament. The report is a review of the annual report of the Department of the Environment for 1997-98. The committee used its review of the department's annual report to investigate the department's activities in a number of areas, including rivers and water quality, world heritage areas, national parks and reserves, environment reporting and marine management.

The committee's report makes two recommendations. The first is about coordination of river and water quality programs, to ensure that these programs make the best use of available resources. At present there are a number of programs aimed at protecting and enhancing the health of rivers and waterways. The committee believes there needs to be a more coordinated approach to management of these programs to ensure there is good community consultation, ongoing monitoring of results and the best use of available resources. The second recommendation deals with the framework for the state of the environment reporting. The committee is concerned that the information gathered across the whole of government for other processes, such as regional forest agreements, is not fed into the state of the environment reports. The committee has recommended that the Department of the Environment and Heritage ensure that all available data is incorporated into state of the environment reports and that the reports are used as a basis for future decision making on environment policies and programs.

The committee undertook this review under the provisions of standing order 324(b), which refers annual reports of departments and agencies to House of Representatives committees for investigation. This standing order gives committees an excellent opportunity to hold government departments and the government accountable to the parliament. If undertaken on a yearly basis, these reviews of department annual reports would form an important part of departments' accountability. Committees can also use reviews of annual reports to follow up on the results of previous committee reports. This committee asked the Department of the Environment and Heritage to report on the implementation of the recommendations arising from a previous committee inquiry on management of world heritage areas.

During the committee's review of the Department of the Environment and Heritage's annual report, the management of Australia's water resources, particularly the health of urban and rural waterways, emerged as a topic warranting further investigation. Accordingly, the committee has resolved to continue its inquiries and undertake a larger review of catchment management. The inquiry will focus on best practice models for catchment management in Australia and how current management strategies might be improved. I look forward to tabling the report of our extended inquiry later in this parliament. I would like to thank the officers of the Department of the Environment and Heritage who assisted the committee throughout our review of the annual report. Finally, I also thank the members of the Committee on Environment and Heritage and the secretariat for all their help, advice and work and for their contributions to the inquiry. I commend the report to the House.