Communication and engagement

Targets

Established a new model of engagement for working with the community and industry.
Increased stakeholder satisfaction about engagement and engagement mechanisms.
Increased collaboration with other environmental regulators to enable better regulation and implement continuous improvements.
Implemented a deliberate communication and education program that aims to build greater trust and respect of the community and industry.

We are committed to building constructive, respectful and productive relationships with our stakeholders to deliver the best possible environmental outcomes.
We regularly work with other regulators across Australia to inform and improve our regulatory actions. For example, we are working with the NSW Environmental Protection Authority to develop a new waste tracking system for NSW and Queensland.

The 2023 Progress Report includes details about the delivery of this action.

We completed our first annual review of the effectiveness of the stakeholder charter in 2023 through an online survey of targeted stakeholders.
This survey will be completed again in 2025 to identify changes in stakeholder satisfaction about engagement.

We regularly work with other regulators across Australia to inform and improve our regulatory actions.
We are a principal member of the Heads of EPA Australia and New Zealand (HEPA). HEPA is an informal alliance of environmental regulation leaders from Australia and New Zealand that provides collective leadership across all jurisdictions in Australia and New Zealand to protect the environment and communities.
Officers within the department are members of the Australasian Environmental Law Enforcement and Regulators network (AELERT). This allows the officers to participate in capability building and knowledge sharing with other regulators.
Our officers also participate in functions hosted by the ANZSOG National Regulators Community of Practice (NRCoP). The NRCoP is an active network of public sector regulators from all three levels of government and from every regulatory sector, professional background, role and level of seniority.

We facilitate regular industry specific engagement meetings, for instance with the waste industry, heavy construction materials industry, aquaculture industry and resources industry. These meetings provide opportunities to discuss operational matters for the particular industry sector.
In addition to addressing specific needs, we meet regularly with a broad range of community, wildlife and conservation groups.

We are taking steps to embed the Gurra Gurra Framework 2020-2026 (Gurra Gurra) including establishing a Cultural Safety staff working group to support and guide the implementation of the Cultural Safety Roadmap and development of Cultural Safety plans. We are engaging with traditional owners as part of our regulatory activities such as site visits with traditional owners for environmental impact statement projects and consideration of human rights and cultural impacts in our decision making processes.
We have established the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Local Government, Environmental Services Support Program whose primary focus is to develop a regulatory relationship with Queensland’s 17 Indigenous Council’s that enables positive environmental and community outcomes by being fit for purpose, place and people.