Meeting the policy challenges of rural and peri-urban land use in Australia: Government, governance and public policy
1. Introduction and context
This paper explores rural and peri-urban land use in the state of Victoria, Australia, including pressures and drivers of land use change, land use policy objectives, challenges in achieving objectives, and policy tools that can facilitate desired land use outcomes. The focus here is to consider the role of government and governance in managing the complexities and conflicts of changing land use. In this context governance is broadly defined in line with Bellamy and Brown (2009) as the structures, processes and relationships by which power is shared and decisions are made. Governance arrangements and the role of government are intricately connected through public policy; this paper draws on policy tools and examples to discuss options for managing land use change when economic, environmental and social tradeoffs must be made.
The role of government in managing changing land use is well traversed in the literature and includes policy responses such as the introduction and enforcement of regulatory regimes or property rights and markets. These options are discussed in later sections of this paper. In much of the economic literature the role of government is based on the notion of market failure where markets have not provided an economically efficient allocation of goods and services (see for example Stiglitz 1988).
A trend in governance in Australia for land use policy is the devolution of resources and responsibilities to the community level. This is based, in part, on the principle that people who live in regions should have some influence over what happens in their region (Bellamy and Brown 2009). Others have identified the multi-functional aspect of rural and peri-urban landscapes as a driver behind changes in governance (see for example Marsden 1998). This recognises that land has value beyond being an input for the creation of goods and services (through, for example, agriculture and forestry production) because it generates recreational, environmental and cultural benefits for the community. The multi-functional aspect of land use brings with it a range of values which may be conflicting. An important role for public policy is to facilitate the distribution of land use activities in a way that maximises the total value created for the community.
The paper is organised as follows:
- Section 1 describes the relationship between government, governance and public policy and provides a brief overview of rural and peri-urban land use in Victoria.
- Factors influencing land use change in Victoria are considered in section 2.
- Section 3 discusses the range of values that the community ascribes to land use and the importance of clarifying public policy objectives.
- Challenges that need to be addressed by land use policy in Victoria are covered in section 4.
- Section 5 considers alternative policy instruments that can be directed at policy objectives, including case studies of innovative policy options used in Victoria.
- Aligning government, governance and public policy is discussed in section 6.
- Concluding remarks are made in section 7.
The paper does not evaluate current land use policy settings or governance in Victoria; however it can usefully contribute to such work by clarifying objectives, challenges and alternative policy instruments.
1.1 Government, governance and public policy
The concepts of ‘government’ and ‘governance’ have been defined and described in the literature over time and across academic disciplines, with considerable variation in the description of the relationship between the two. Governance has been defined as a synonym for government in the context of “the activity or process of governing” (Finer 1970 pp. 3–4 quoted in Rhodes 1996). Governance can also be broader than government in the context that government is only one aspect of governance as a system of agencies, institutions, interpersonal networks and inter-organisational co-ordination (Jessop 1998). Rhodes identified a number of uses of governance that encompass aspects of the size and role of government including the use of markets to deliver public services, the system by which organisations are directed and controlled, principles of ‘good governance’ such as efficiency and effectiveness, and the relationship between public and private institutions and public and private actors (Rhodes 1996).
In this paper governance is broadly described as the structures, processes and relationships by which power is shared and decisions are made. Australia has three levels of government — Commonwealth, State and Local. To the extent that governance arrangements are determined by government, this is the product of public policy interventions that devolve power and allocate or reallocate resources. This means that governance arrangements can include and be influenced by a range of agencies, institutions, regional and community bodies that are made up of a complex web that includes private and public agents, and elected and appointed officials from Australia’s three levels of government.
Traditionally, land use in Australia has been governed by state and local government mainly through public policy that relied on regulatory instruments to meet government objectives. State governments typically have powers of law and administration over ownership and use of land, the environment, urban, regional and rural planning and development (Buxton et al. 2006). Local governments also have planning responsibilities. In particular, they approve or disapprove land uses that require permits in a given zone and determine the conditions under which zones are administered, for example the minimum size of subdivision allowed in a farming zone.
Australia has 7222 local government bodies across a diverse range of metropolitan, regional, rural and indigenous communities (Buxton et al. 2006).
In the last 20 years there have been moves toward national agreements between the Commonwealth3 and state governments and partnerships between governments and voluntary sectors on environmental and natural resource management issues (Head 2009). The National Action Plan for Salinity and Water Quality (the Plan), for example, was an agreement between the Commonwealth and state governments to address environmental issues between 2000 and 2007. Regional natural resource management bodies were established to determine regional priorities and deliver programs under the Plan, essentially creating another level of governance.
Some states created new entities to deliver on the Plan while others used existing regional bodies to avoid disruption (Head 2009). In Victoria catchment management authorities are the principle body responsible for integrated catchment management and coordinate planning and management actions at the regional level. Under the Victorian Catchment and Land Protection Act 1994, Victoria is divided into ten catchment regions with a catchment management authority established for each region. The principles underpinning the authorities include generating social, environmental and economic outcomes for the State, a partnership approach between the community and Government and recognition of the linkages between land and water management (Victorian Government 2010). These regional bodies were required to engage with local communities in the course of seeking improved natural resource management outcomes.
2By way of comparison, the United States has 83,000 local government bodies (Buxton et al. 2006).
3The Commonwealth government also has potential powers over land use through sections of the Constitution involving taxation, grants, external affairs, corporations and trade and commerce (Buxton et al. 2006).
1.2 Victoria’s land use in a national context
Victoria makes up only three per cent of Australia’s 22.7 million hectare land mass (Australian Bureau of Statistics 2005). In contrast, Victoria’s residential population of 5.5 million is approximately 25 per cent of Australia’s population (Australian Bureau of Statistics 2010a).4 Victoria had the highest population density of all Australian states in 2008-09, at 23.9 people per square kilometre compared to the Australian average of 2.9.5 Victoria was also the only state in Australia that did not have any areas classified as “very remote” in 2008-09 (Australian Bureau of Statistics 2010b).6
Despite having a relatively small land mass, Victoria’s landscapes contain significant natural diversity. Variability in topography, climate and rainfall support woodlands, grasslands, alpine areas, estuaries, rivers and wetlands. There are semi-arid scrub lands in the north west of the State and temperate rainforests in the south east. These landscapes also support a diversity of Australian native fish, bird and animal species (Department of Sustainability and Environment 2009).
4 For comparison, France is roughly twice the size of Victoria with a population of 62.3 million – three times that of Australia (World Bank 2010).
5 For comparison, the population density of New South Wales was 8.9 people per square kilometre and 7.4 in Tasmania (ABS 2010b).
6 Criteria for remote areas are based on the Accessibility/Remoteness Index of Australia which measures the remoteness of a point based on the physical road distance to the nearest urban centre in each of the five size classes of major cities, inner regional, outer regional, remote and very remote (Australian Bureau of Statistics 2010b).
1.3 Victorian rural and peri-urban landscapes
The focus of this paper is two non-urban landscapes identified in Victoria –agricultural production landscapes in rural areas and peri-urban landscapes.7
Agricultural production landscapes
Victoria’s ‘production landscapes’ are described by Barr et al. (2005) as where agricultural production is one of the major forces shaping the social structure of the community. Figure 1 shows these production landscapes.
However, agricultural production takes place in all regions of Victoria and includes a wide range of products including dairy, wool, sheepmeat, beef, cereal and fodder crops, citrus, grapes, orchard fruits and vegetables.
Victoria is Australia’s main producer of mutton and lamb, dairy products and dried vine fruits as well as being the nation’s largest exporter of food and fibre (Department of Primary Industries 2010a).8 The agricultural sector in Victoria produces goods valued at around $A9 billion a year, approximately 26 per cent of Australia’s total value of agricultural production (Department of Primary Industries 2010b).
Figure 1: Agricultural production landscapes in Victoria9 (Source: Barr et al. (2005))
Peri-urban landscapes
Peri-urban landscapes commonly refer to land adjacent to an urban area that extends from the city edge to rural areas, although the boundary of a peri-urban can be difficult to determine. The extent of peri-urban landscapes in Victoria is constantly changing as the influence of cities on their hinterlands increases. Peri-urban landscapes in Victoria are used for agriculture and provide ecosystem services, landscape and other environmental values, often containing significant reserves of habitat and biological diversity. They also include urban water catchments and storages. These areas are important recreational and tourist areas, and contain essential infrastructure such as airports or waste disposal facilities. In general, peri-urban areas also fulfil important personal and social needs, allowing urban dwellers to continue to relate to countryside, and providing preventative health and other social services (Buxton et al. 2006).
There is some overlap of peri-urban areas with those Barr et al. (2005) describe as amenity landscapes. Amenity uses of land include hobby farms, weekenders and bush retreats. Demand for land for amenity rather than production uses has increased with improvements in transportation and urbanisation in these areas. Expansion of amenity landscapes in Victoria is also influenced by movement of the post-depression baby-boom generation who are moving from the city to retire (Barr et al. 2005, Department of Primary Industries 2008).
The discussion that follows considers drivers shaping land use in Victoria’s rural and peri-urban landscapes, the importance of clarifying policy objectives for land use, and policy tools that may best achieve these objectives.
7For a discussion of Victoria’s landscapes by region (Wimmera and Mallee; south-western Victoria; north and central Victoria; metropolitan Melbourne and the bays; north-eastern Victoria; and Gippsland) see Department of Sustainability and Environment (2009).
8The dairy sector is the largest agricultural industry in Victoria and is mainly focused on exports. In 2010, the Victorian dairy sector exported product valued at $A2.3 billion to more than 100 countries and accounted for 13 per cent of dairy products traded globally (Department of Primary Industries 2010c).
9These areas are indicative. They are derived from an analysis of statistical local area (SLA) boundaries in Victoria that considers the extent of production land use relative to other landscape functions. Variables considered included farm scales, population change, land transactions, land value, farm size, agricultural employment and in-migration. This analysis is indicative only as SLAs are heterogenous – one SLA may encompass a number of landscapes (Barr et al. 2005).
