A performance audit of the management of Australia’s Commonwealth national parks has found it to be ineffective and inadequately planned as well as poorly reported.
In his report Management of Commonwealth National Parks, Auditor-General, Grant Hehir assessed the effectiveness of the Director of National Parks’ management of the six terrestrial Commonwealth national parks under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999.
Those national parks are Kakadu, Uluru-Kata Tjuta and Booderee which are jointly managed by the Director and traditional owners and three island national parks in the territories of Norfolk, Christmas and Cocos (Keeling) Islands.
In his report Mr Hehir determined that the Director of National Parks had not “established effective arrangements to plan, deliver and measure the impact of its operational activities”.
“As a result, it is unable to adequately inform itself, joint managers and other stakeholders of the extent to which it is meeting its management objectives.”
The auditor found that governance arrangements did not adequately support the delivery of corporate services, risk management, planning or engagement with traditional owners.
“The Director has not established robust arrangements,” Mr Hehir said.
“Park activities are not effectively measured, monitored and reported on.”
He found that the Director’s performance measures were not complete and lacked rigour as well as clear targets, baselines and descriptions of measurement methods.
The audit report made seven recommendations including that the Director review its risk management and planning frameworks; strengthen its arrangements to monitor park management and operational plans; improve its governance of projects; and improve its performance measures.
All recommendations were agreed.
The Auditor-General’s 70-page report is online at this PS News link and a printed copy can be downloaded at this link.
The audit team was Mark Rodrigues, Shay Simpson, Taela Edwards, Pauline Ereman, Kate Wilson, Isaac Gravolin and Michael White.
