Australian Politics and Policy - Senior, 2019a

Environmental policy
• First order change: policy instrument settings are changed in light of experience
and new knowledge, while overall policy goals and instruments of policy
remain the same
• Second order change: the instruments of policy as well as their settings are
altered in responses to experience although the overall goals of policy remain
the same
• Third order change: a simultaneous change in all three components of policy:
the instrument settings, the instruments themselves, and the hierarchy of goals
behind policy. 27
Drawing on this typology, Carter suggests that ‘although incremental changes in
environmental policy are possible within the traditional paradigm [i.e. incremental
approaches to policy] an accumulation of first and second order changes will not
automatically lead to third order change, because genuinely radical change requires
the replacement of the traditional policy paradigm with an alternative’. 28 Debates
about what should be done also inevitably involve debates about who should be
doing it. In broad terms, in recent decades the relative roles and responsibilities of
government (the institutions of the state), the private sector (private companies and
industry sectors) and the community (the general public or members of particular
groups or communities) have attracted considerable attention. 29
In relation to government and the broad apparatus of the state, central
questions relate to the role and capacity of government (and the state) in dealing
with environmental issues. Views about the role and capacity of the state are
contested. 30 Therearequestionsaboutthedispositionofgovernmentstointervene
in policy matters, as highlighted by debates between Keynesian and neo-classical
economic perspectives on the role of government. 31 However, there are limitations
in using these terms in discussing the role of government in environmental policy
issues, as they both remain wedded to promoting economic growth, and only differ
in terms of the role of government. By contrast, some environmentally oriented
economists highlight the need for government to encourage a shift beyond the
paradigm of economic growth. 32
The ‘public’ may also occupy various roles in relation to environmental matters
and can be viewed as either consumers (where their only form of agency is through
spending decisions), or citizens (where people have important rights and responsibilities
within democracy). 33 Finally,theroleoftheprivatesectorinenvironmental
matters is also subject to considerable debate, with a central issue being whether
27 Hall 1993, 278–9.
28 Carter 2018, 196.
29 Rhodes 1997.
30 Marsh, Smith and Hothi 2006.
31 Fenna 2004.
32 Jackson 2009.
33 Dobson 2003; Latta 2007.
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