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The Department of Agriculture administers some grants and financial assistance programmes to boost productivity and exports in the agricultural sector. These include a competitive grants programme for (...) sustainable agriculture projects under the National Landcare Program; (...)

Australia notifies its expenditures on agricultural programmes to the WTO Committee on Agriculture on a regular basis. The latest such notification, covering the period 1 July 2017 to 30 June 2018, was circulated in October 2019.[13] Nearly all the notified support concerns measures falling within the Green Box, in particular general services and environmental programmes (Chart 4.2). At times, natural disaster relief has also been an important component of Australia's Green Box support in the past, but such payments have been insignificant since the Exceptional Circumstances programmes ended in 2013.

[13] WTO documents G/AG/N/AUS/129; and G/AG/N/AUS/130, 9 October 2019.

Current support programmes target risk management, environmental conservation, and provision of general services. Total support to agriculture amounts to approximately 0.2% of GDP.

According to the OECD, total factor productivity (TFP) growth in Australia's agriculture sector averaged 2% per year during 2006-15, which was well above the world average (1.5%) during that period. (...) However, productivity growth is increasingly being constrained by water availability, which may be exacerbated by climate change.

The OECD notes that resource constraints, particularly access to water, remain the greatest challenge to Australia's agricultural sector. Recent water reforms have been a step in the right direction, as pricing mechanisms are being employed to reflect the scarcity of water to producers. The OECD welcomes the more unified approach towards drought management embodied in the NDA as a tool to end sometimes-contradictory incentives provided until recently. However, it is also noted that, while it is widely accepted that Australian agriculture is affected by a changing climate, its contribution to emissions that drive climate change is relatively overlooked in terms of policy response.

Australia's 200-mile Fishing Zone (AFZ) is the third largest in the world, and is larger than Australia's land area. However, biological productivity in the marine territory is relatively low, due to the generally shallow waters of the continental shelf and the scarcity of nutrient-rich currents. Regulatory responsibilities affecting the fisheries sector fall within eight jurisdictions, each of which develop their own policies with respect to resource management, research, reporting, and environmental standards. (...) The sustainability of Australia's fisheries has improved markedly over the last ten years. The 2018 Status of Australian Fish Stocks Reports showed that, of the 120 species made up of 406 separate stocks, no more than 7% of Australia's fish stocks (29 stocks in all) were depleted.[16] These reports are used by the Government as the foundation for reporting on the Sustainable Development Goals – Indicator 14.4.1 Proportion of fish stocks within biologically sustainable levels.[17]

[16] Fisheries Research and Development Corporation, Key results. Viewed at: http://fish.gov.au/reports/key-results.
[17] The Government's Reporting Platform on the SDG Indicators. Viewed at: https://www.sdgdata.gov.au/goals/life-below-water/14.4.1.

At the Commonwealth level, three separate institutions are entrusted with the formulation of policy and international negotiations, fisheries management and fisheries research, based on the Fisheries Management Act, 1991, the Fisheries Administration Act, 1991, and related regulations. The Department of Agriculture is responsible for the setting of regulatory policies for fishing in Commonwealth waters, operationalized by the Australian Fisheries Management Authority (AFMA), a statutory authority governed by an independent Commission. Further, around 80% of fisheries are assessed under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act, 1999, which promotes the ecologically sustainable management of fisheries and provides for the assessment of environmental performance.

The AFZ spans approximately 165 commercial wild-capture fisheries, with about 600 species being caught and traded commercially. (...) Resource management systems have gained ground over the last 15 years.

Australia is a party to numerous regional and bilateral treaties, conventions and agreements for the establishment of joint bodies, for the sustainable management of shared fish resources, and for the combat of illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing. These include the establishment of the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission, the South Pacific Forum Fisheries Agency, and the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission, the Convention for the Conservation of Southern Bluefin Tuna, the Convention on the Conservation and Management of High Seas Fishery Resources in the South Pacific Ocean, the Southern Indian Ocean Fisheries Agreement, the Convention on the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources, the Treaty on Fisheries between the Governments of Certain Pacific Island States and the Government of the United States of America (1988), and the Niue Treaty on Cooperation in Fisheries Surveillance and Law Enforcement in the South Pacific Region. Australia also concluded two Memoranda of Understanding, one with Indonesia regarding the operations of Indonesian traditional fishermen in the AFZ and the continental shelf, and the other with New Zealand regarding the conservation and management of orange roughy on the South Tasman Rise.

The Government regulates national issues that also affect the aquaculture sector, such as disease control, quality aspects, labelling, and trade. (...) a licensing system is in place to mitigate these concerns and the sector's impact on the environment.