Election 2025: What Can The Australian Government Do For Coastal Management?
There is always a temptation to dream after an election that a “new” government may take a closer look at what it can do in addressing the plethora of issues facing management of the Australian coast. I continue to see a role for federal agencies in working in association with states and local governments in improving the nation’s capacity in confronting challenges of climate change, population expansion, infrastructure deficiencies, development pressures and biosecurity threats. In the absence of any legally binding structure such as an Australian Government Coastal Management Act that defines a partnership governance arrangement, then we must continue to find practical ways for the federal government to assist other governments and communities to meet these on-going challenges of living and working on the coast.
I have previously written on the frustrations of working in a consistent and sustained manner with the Australian Government on coastal management (in Ocean and Coastal Management, 2022, 106098). Here I wish to refer to some existing activities that one can only hope will continue to be funded. I apologise if I have missed some programs.
The release this month of the Australian Adaptation Database is a firm recognition that the Labor Government has made an investment in communication of information on what is happening across the country in climate change adaptation. Its purpose is to support “adaptation stocktaking”, a process formally recognised under the Paris Agreement. Content is very wide-ranging, including coastal references, that aims to reflect the nature of adaptation in Australia. It is seen as a critical tool to inform policy, in identifying adaptation gaps and supporting evidence-based planning and investment. The research team based at the University of Melbourne is undertaking further steps to build on this initial work and seek ways to integrate findings into national climate resilience strategies. The database is supported by the National Environmental Science Program (NESP) working with the University of Melbourne’s School of Geography, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, and can be accessed here.
Also coming out of Melbourne is a product of the work of Ben Hague and colleagues at the Bureau of Meteorology. In March, Ben and Danielle Udy released a report entitled “Sea level datasets for coastal hazard assessment and informing adaptation: a how-to-guide” (Bureau Research Report, No. 109). This report shows how datasets can be used to estimate future changes in coastal and estuarine flood hazards at tide gauge locations. Examples are provided to show how the data can be applied and made relevant for any coastal flood severity, frequency, or amount of sea-level rise.
Geosciences Australia (GA) continues to use satellite information to map national coastline trends. Their program is Digital Earth Australia (DEA). Each shoreline position is defined by a single yearly average and thus gives a composite image of change. It does not capture variability like that developed by Kilian Vos of the UNSW Water Research Lab’s CoastSat program (http://coastsat.space/). However, I have found DEA quite useful. Shoreline trend information up to 2024 around the continent is now available.
National Research Infrastructure for Australia (NCRIS) is supporting an initiative called “CoastRI” (https://www.coastri.org.au/). This initiative has already received initial support building on the established IMOS program. The objective is to gather scientific data to assist, predict and address opportunities and imminent risks facing Australia. CoastRI is seen as an integrated multi-disciplinary program within the broader NCRIS group. It aims to address cumulative threats facing coastal areas and support other national programs such as SOE reporting, Reef 2050 Plan and the National Climate and Resilience Strategy. I congratulate Daniel Ierodiaconou at Deakin University and his numerous colleagues on their pathway to implementing CoastRI initial funding.
I turn now to CoastAdapt. You can still find online the products of the Government’s investment in NCCARF between 2014 and 2017. A great summary appears in a paper by Jean Palutikof et al. in Climate Change (2018, v. 153, 491-507). When initiated by the then Minister Greg Hunt, the emphasis was on providing an array of tools to assist local government. He articulated quite specifically the need for the federal government to engage with councils in various ways so they could make decisions in the context of up-to-date knowledge related to climate change. I was involved in aspects of this work with colleagues, especially the development of “Shoreline Explorer”. Various products including manuals, briefing notes and synthesis reports proved to be most useful for councils and others. Alas the grant funding NCCARF ceased in 2017 when the Australian Government of the day decided it had other priorities!
Fortunately, Anne Leitch at Griffith University was able to procure other support especially from the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) to review and rebuild CoastAdapt. Her funding from NEMA has now run out. However, in collaboration with Sarah Boulter at the University of Tasmania, and working with NESP and colleagues in CSIRO and BoM, Anne has managed to work on a revision of the online portal (planned for release in June). She is also oversighting the production of new manuals related to coastal climate change. They include one on planning approaches, another on legal risk, a third on revising the 2016 manual on community engagement, and also one that brings together and updates various CoastAdapt materials on sea-level rise. Anne is also exploring new topics for developing into manuals such as application of indigenous knowledge, social justice issues and how to use creative tools like photography, past and present, to educate communities on coastal change. I want to commend Anne for her great efforts in maintaining and re-invigorating CoastAdapt.
All these initiatives involving various federal agencies now require two things: first a political/administrative commitment at the federal level to see a role for sustained investment in Coastal Australia; and second, agreement between respective federal groups to find a way to communicate information in a collective usable way, especially to local government. What Anne refers to as “join the data by connecting the dots”. This is not a new idea as it was expounded in the House of Representatives coastal report 2009 ( “Jenny George Report” as we have come to know it by). None of the programs discussed here should be sacrificed for budget efficiencies. There may be others I have missed but our precious coast deserves federal engagement.
But we can do more; the climate change era demands it. As sea levels continue to rise, cities and coastal towns will have to modify public infrastructure. Coastal drainage and major facilities in our ports will be increasingly threatened. It will be more than states and local councils can individually handle and so it is time for those federal agencies involved in infrastructure to step up and openly plan at a national scale for such future threats.
Is the victorious Labor Government of 2025 up to these challenges?
Bruce Thom
Words by Prof Bruce Thom. Please respect the author’s thoughts and reference appropriately: (c) ACS, 2025. For correspondence about this blog post please email admin@australiancoastalsociety.org.au
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