Chapter One: Who we are
Principal objective
The Ministry for the Environment is a government department established under the Environment Act 1986. It reports to the Minister for the Environment and the Minister of Energy.
The Ministry’s principal objective is to make a significant contribution towards achieving a good environment for New Zealanders through good governance. Later we describe what we mean by a ‘good environment’ and ‘good governance’.
Statutory functions
The Ministry’s functions under the Environment Act 1986 can be summarised as: [See Appendix One for transcript of the Environment Act 1986 Section 31 Functions of the Ministry.]
- to advise the Minister on all aspect of environmental administration
- to obtain information ... and conduct and undertake research
- to advise the Government and its agencies on:
- environmental legislation
- assessment and monitoring of environmental impacts
- pollution management and control
- identification and reduction of natural hazards
- control of hazardous substances
- to assist in resolving conflict regarding policies and proposals that may affect the environment
- to provide and disseminate information and services to promote environmental policies, including education and mechanisms for promoting participation in environmental planning.
That same Act defines ‘environment’ very widely.
The Ministry also has specific functions under the:
- Resource Management Act 1991
- Hazardous Substances and New Organisms Act 1996
- Ozone Layer Protection Act 1996
- Climate Change Response Act 2002.
New directions
Following considerable consultation with stakeholders during the past year, the Ministry has embarked on a new direction. We heard a clear message that stakeholders wanted us to show leadership on the environment, to work in partnership with other sectors and organisations, and to fix problems. Also we have clear expectations in the ‘key government goals to guide the public sector in achieving sustainable development’. In the same way that Treasury looks across agencies on money issues, and State Services Commission does on public service, we will work across government on environment issues.
We are changing what we do to be more relevant to the challenges of today. We are changing how we are structured so that we may deliver on that. And we will focus on new skills to enable us to operate at a more senior level.
The Ministry has re-organised its structure to reflect its new directions. Most importantly our work about the environment will focus on:
- leading whole of Government initiatives
- working in partnership with central government
- working in partnership with local government
- promoting sustainable industry
- encouraging community activities.
The many individual issues (water, waste, air, soils, Resource Management Act, Hazardous Substances and New Organisms Act, etc) that determined structure and function in the past have been subsumed in a model designed to focus on augmenting and enhancing the roles of the many others in the environment field.
This will enable us to give better effect to new Government policy and initiatives, most significantly the Sustainable Development for New Zealand Programme of Action and, to a lesser extent, to contribute with others to initiatives under the Government’s Growth and Innovation Framework.
In the short term we aim to give credibility to our expectation for good governance, fix what is not working well, and firm up the framework that protects our environment. In the longer term, we see ourselves giving a stronger emphasis to action on sustainability – encouraging businesses and other sectors to perform better than they are required to. We recognise that high standards of environmental and social performance are what society wants and increasingly expects of organisations in both the public and private sector.
To help achieve this we have:
- started a new way of working, based on developing strong partnerships with other government agencies and other key sectors
- reorganised the Ministry from being focused on dimensions of the environment to being focused on working with major stakeholder groups, such as local government, on specific issues
- actively recruited new people with specific skills, and embarked on a professional development programme for staff.
This will enable us to fix the problems stakeholders identified and exercise true leadership through action and getting results that matter to stakeholders.
Vision and values
As a part of our development we will review our vision and mission, but for the time being we will retain the previous vision and mission.
Vision
A healthy environment which sustains people and nature
Mission
Making a difference through environmental leadership
Values
- Effective
- Trusted
- Influential
Objective and role
The focus of our endeavours is the environment and people of New Zealand – a good environment where biodiversity and natural areas are protected and enhanced, where productive areas are husbanded sustainably, and the places where people live are clean, healthy and safe. A New Zealand reinforced by its sense of place.
We are one important player in the delivery of this. The principal role of the Ministry is to ensure purposeful and consistent environmental governance at all levels, with the objective being a good environment through good governance. Our job is to interact with and influence the others who manage and operate in our environment. Obviously a different approach will be taken depending on the issues: sometimes prescriptive if it must be done, sometimes encouraging if it is nice to be done.
We will use a range of measures, such as:
- leading the development of polices which result in legislation that guides or prescribes behaviour
- developing bottom-line environmental standards
- encouraging organisations to work beyond the ‘bottom-line’ standards
- implementing legislation
and sometimes, as a last resort, intervening to fix things where existing governance systems have not worked and the environment is damaged or at risk.
All of these interventions will be designed to achieve a good environment through good governance by central and local government, private and community organisations and individuals.
We will build strong relationships with other organisations to lead new or whole of government initiatives, partner with others to lift the game beyond compliance, and work to fix problems and to prevent them recurring.
Development of the Statement of Intent
This is the Ministry’s first Statement of Intent. It has largely been a top-down exercise. With more time we will be more inclusive next time. We will continue to develop greater clarity of direction, hone our outcomes and develop measures and indicators around them. We acknowledge we do not yet have these, but will be working on them over the next 12 months. We will also continue to learn and to develop our organisational capability to lead and manage, to ensure that what we do makes a significant contribution to achieving a good environment.
