The current Australian Minister for Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities is Tony Burke

Tony Burke

Anthony Stephen 'Tony' Burke is an Australian politician representing the Labor Party, and the current Minister for Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities . He first entered public office in 2003 as a member of the New South Wales Legislative Council...

, who took over from Peter Garrett

Peter Garrett

Peter Robert Garrett, AM, MP , is an Australian musician, environmentalist, activist and politician.Garrett was lead singer of the Australian rock band Midnight Oil from 1973 until its disbanding in 2002...

 (whose portfolio was titled Minister for Environment Protection, Heritage and the Arts). The Minister and department change took effect in the Second Gillard Ministry

Second Gillard Ministry

The Second Gillard Ministry is the 67th Australian ministry. It is led by Julia Gillard of the Australian Labor Party. On 11 September 2010 she announced the makeup of her ministry, following the 2010 Federal election...

 on 14 September 2010. When the Rudd Labor Government

Kevin Rudd

Kevin Michael Rudd is an Australian politician who was the 26th Prime Minister of Australia from 2007 to 2010. He has been Minister for Foreign Affairs since 2010...

 came to power in December 2007, Water Resources and the responsibility for addressing Climate Change

Climate change

Climate change is a significant and lasting change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns over periods ranging from decades to millions of years. It may be a change in average weather conditions or the distribution of events around that average...

 were assigned to a new Ministry

Minister for Climate Change and Water (Australia)

The Australian Minister for Climate Change and Energy Efficiency is Greg Combet. Penny Wong was the first minister with this title, appointed on 3 December 2007 and amended on 26 February 2010. The Minister administers his portfolio through the Department of Climate Change and Energy...

.

Portfolio responsibilities

The minister administers their portfolio through the Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities and its component bodies:

• Antarctic Animal Ethics Committee
• Antarctic Ethics Committee (Human Experimentation)
• Antarctic Research Assessment Committees (ARACs)
• Antarctic Science Advisory Committee
• Australia-Netherlands Committee on Old Dutch Shipwrecks
• Australian Antarctic Names and Medals Committee
  Australian Antarctic Names and Medals Committee
  The Australian Antarctic Names and Medals Committee, abbreviated AANMC, was established to advise the Government on names for features in the Australian Antarctic Territory and the sub-Antarctic territory of Heard Island and the McDonald Islands...
  
  
• Australian Heritage Council
  Australian Heritage Council
  Australian Heritage Council was established on 19 February, 2004 as the Australian body responsible for advising the Australian Government on cultural heritage matters...
  
  
• Bureau of Meteorology
• Environment Protection and Heritage Council
• Great Barrier Reef Consultative Committee
• Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority
  Great Barrier Reef Marine Park
  The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park protects a large part of Australia's Great Barrier Reef from damaging activities. Fishing and the removal of artefacts or...
  
  
• Great Barrier Reef Ministerial Council
• Great Barrier Reef Structural Adjustment Package Technical Advisory Committee
• Hazardous Waste Technical Group
• Murray-Darling Basin Authority
• National Environment Protection Council
• National Environmental Education Council
• New South Wales World Heritage Properties Ministerial Council
• Office of the Renewable Energy Regulator
• Science Program Management Committee
• State of the Environment Committee 2006
• Stockholm Intergovernmental Forum
• Sydney Harbour Federation Trust
  Sydney Harbour Federation Trust
  The Sydney Harbour Federation Trust is an Australian Government agency established in 2001 to preserve and rehabilitate a number of defence and other Commonwealth lands in and around Sydney Harbour. These lands were off limits to the public, some for over 100 years...
  
  
• Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area Ministerial Council
• Threatened Species Scientific Committee
• Wet Tropics Ministerial Council

List of Environment Ministers

Minister	Party affiliation	Period	Ministerial Title
Peter Howson Peter Howson (Australian politician) Peter Howson, CMG was an Australian politician.-Biography:Howson was born in London, England in 1919 to Jessie and George Arthur Howson, and was educated at Stowe School and Trinity College, Cambridge...	Liberal Party Liberal Party of Australia The Liberal Party of Australia is an Australian political party.Founded a year after the 1943 federal election to replace the United Australia Party, the centre-right Liberal Party typically competes with the centre-left Australian Labor Party for political office...	1971–1972	Minister for the Environment, Aborigines and the Arts
Gough Whitlam Gough Whitlam Edward Gough Whitlam, AC, QC , known as Gough Whitlam , served as the 21st Prime Minister of Australia. Whitlam led the Australian Labor Party to power at the 1972 election and retained government at the 1974 election, before being dismissed by Governor-General Sir John Kerr at the climax of the...	Australian Labor Party Australian Labor Party The Australian Labor Party is an Australian political party. It has been the governing party of the Commonwealth of Australia since the 2007 federal election. Julia Gillard is the party's federal parliamentary leader and Prime Minister of Australia...	1972
Moss Cass Moss Cass Moses Henry Cass is a former member of the Australian House of Representatives. Born in Narrogin, Western Australia, Cass was educated in state schools before graduating in Medicine from the University of Sydney and worked as a Research Fellow at the Royal Children's Hospital in Melbourne and as...		1972–1975	Minister for the Environment and Conservation
		1975	Minister for the Environment
Jim Cairns Jim Cairns James Ford "J. F." Cairns , Australian politician, was prominent in the Labor movement through the 1960s and 1970s, and was briefly Deputy Prime Minister in the Whitlam government...		1975
Gough Whitlam Gough Whitlam Edward Gough Whitlam, AC, QC , known as Gough Whitlam , served as the 21st Prime Minister of Australia. Whitlam led the Australian Labor Party to power at the 1972 election and retained government at the 1974 election, before being dismissed by Governor-General Sir John Kerr at the climax of the...		1975
Joe Berinson Joe Berinson Joseph Max "Joe" Berinson is a former Labor member of the Australian House of Representatives from the 1969 election until his defeat by Ross McLean at the 1975 election, representing the division of Perth, Western Australia...		1975
Andrew Peacock Andrew Peacock Andrew Sharp Peacock AC, GCL , is a former Australian Liberal politician. He was a minister in the Gorton, McMahon and Fraser governments, and was federal leader of the Liberal Party of Australia 1983–1985 and 1989–1990...	Liberal Party	1975
Ivor Greenwood Ivor Greenwood Ivor John Greenwood was an Australian politician and barrister.-Biography:Greenwood was born in North Melbourne and educated at Hartwell Central State School, Mont Albert Central State School, Scotch College and the University of Melbourne...		1975–1976	Minister for Environment, Housing and Community Development
Kevin Newman Kevin Newman (Australian politician) Kevin Eugene Newman AO was an Australian soldier and politician. He rose to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel in the Australian Army, serving in Malaysia and the Vietnam War....		1976–1977
Ray Groom Ray Groom Raymond John "Ray" Groom, AO is a lawyer and former Australian sportsman and politician, representing the Liberal Party in the Federal Parliament 1975–84 and the Tasmanian Parliament 1986–2001. He was a Federal and state minister for a total of 13 years...		1977–1978
James Webster James Webster (Australian politician) James Joseph Webster is a former member of the Australian Senate.Educated at Caulfield Grammar School and the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, he worked as an accountant and farmer prior to entering politics...		1978–1979	Minister for Science and the Environment
David Thomson		1979–1980
Robert Ellicott		1980–1981	Minister for Home Affairs and the Environment
Michael MacKellar Michael MacKellar Michael John Randal MacKellar, AM is an Australian politician and was the Liberal Member for Warringah from 1969 until 1994. He is the current president of the National Ageing Research Institute , Melbourne, Australia....		1981
Ian Wilson Ian Wilson (politician) Ian Bonython Cameron Wilson , solicitor, company director and Australian politician, was born in Adelaide, South Australia, the son of Sir Keith Wilson, a prominent United Australia Party and Liberal Party politician...		1981–1982
Tom McVeigh Tom McVeigh Daniel Thomas "Tom" McVeigh is a former Australian politician.McVeigh was born in Allora, Queensland and was a farmer before entering the Australian Parliament...		1982–1983
Barry Cohen Barry Cohen Barry Cohen AM is a former Australian Labor politician. He was a minister in the government of Bob Hawke.-Biography:He was born in Griffith, New South Wales and educated at Griffith High School, Sydney Grammar School and North Sydney Technical High School. He received a Bachelor of Arts from the...	Australian Labor Party	1983–1984
		1984–1987	Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Environment
John Brown		1987–1988	Minister for Arts, Sport, the Environment, Tourism and Territories
Graham Richardson Graham Richardson Graham Frederick Richardson , a former Australian politician, was a Senator for New South Wales from 1983–94 for the Australian Labor Party, a senior minister in Hawke and Keating governments, and is now a political lobbyist, public speaker, and media commentator. During his time in politics,...		1988–1990
Ros Kelly Ros Kelly Ros Kelly AO was a member of the Australian House of Representatives for the Division of Canberra from 18 October 1980 to 30 January 1995. She was a minister in the governments of Bob Hawke and Paul Keating....		1990–1991
		1991–1993	Minister for Arts, Sport, the Environment and Territories
		1993–1994	Minister for the Environment, Sport and Territories
John Faulkner John Faulkner John Philip Faulkner is an Australian politician. He has been a Labor member of the Australian Senate since 1989, representing the state of New South Wales. Following a period serving on various Senate Committees and as Deputy Whip, he was a Minister in the Keating Labor government 1993-96...		1994–1996
Robert Hill Robert Hill (Australian politician) Robert Murray Hill is Chancellor of the University of Adelaide and a former Australian politician. He also currently heads the Australian Carbon Trust.-Early life and family:...	Liberal Party	1996–1998	Minister for the Environment
		1998–2001	Minister for the Environment and Heritage
David Kemp		2001–2004
Ian Campbell Ian Campbell (Australian politician) Ian Gordon Campbell , Australian politician, was a Liberal member of the Australian Senate representing Western Australia between 1990 and 2007.-Early life:...		2004–2007
Malcolm Turnbull Malcolm Turnbull Malcolm Bligh Turnbull is an Australian politician. He has been a member of the Australian House of Representatives since 2004, and was Leader of the Opposition and parliamentary leader of the Liberal Party from 16 September 2008 to 1 December 2009.Turnbull has represented the Division...		2007	Minister for the Environment and Water Resources
Peter Garrett Peter Garrett Peter Robert Garrett, AM, MP , is an Australian musician, environmentalist, activist and politician.Garrett was lead singer of the Australian rock band Midnight Oil from 1973 until its disbanding in 2002...	Australian Labor Party	2007–2010	Minister for the Environment, Heritage and the Arts
Peter Garrett Peter Garrett Peter Robert Garrett, AM, MP , is an Australian musician, environmentalist, activist and politician.Garrett was lead singer of the Australian rock band Midnight Oil from 1973 until its disbanding in 2002...		2010	Minister for Environment Protection, Heritage and the Arts
Tony Burke Tony Burke Anthony Stephen 'Tony' Burke is an Australian politician representing the Labor Party, and the current Minister for Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities . He first entered public office in 2003 as a member of the New South Wales Legislative Council...		2010 – present	Minister for Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities

Minister for Sustainable Population

The Minister for Sustainable Population was a ministerial portfolio administered through the Department of the Treasury

Department of the Treasury (Australia)

The Department of the Treasury is an Australian Government department. Its role is to focus and develop economic policy.-History:The Commonwealth Treasury was established in Melbourne in January 1901....

 responsible for "planning properly for the infrastructure needs, for the housing needs, for the transport needs, for the regional needs" of the Australian population of the future. Originally entitled the Minister for Population by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd

Kevin Rudd

Kevin Michael Rudd is an Australian politician who was the 26th Prime Minister of Australia from 2007 to 2010. He has been Minister for Foreign Affairs since 2010...

, his successor, Julia Gillard

Julia Gillard

Julia Eileen Gillard is the 27th and current Prime Minister of Australia, in office since June 2010.Gillard was born in Barry, Vale of Glamorgan, Wales and migrated with her family to Adelaide, Australia in 1966, attending Mitcham Demonstration School and Unley High School. In 1982 Gillard moved...

, renamed the portfolio to the Minister for Sustainable Population to reflect her policy changes on the matter of population growth and the need for a sustainable future for Australia, saying the change sends a clear message about the new direction the Government is taking. After the 2010 Federal Election the portfolio was subsumed by the Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities portfolio.

Minister	Party affiliation	Period	Ministerial Title
Tony Burke Tony Burke Anthony Stephen 'Tony' Burke is an Australian politician representing the Labor Party, and the current Minister for Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities . He first entered public office in 2003 as a member of the New South Wales Legislative Council...	Australian Labor Party Australian Labor Party The Australian Labor Party is an Australian political party. It has been the governing party of the Commonwealth of Australia since the 2007 federal election. Julia Gillard is the party's federal parliamentary leader and Prime Minister of Australia...	3 April28 June 2010	Minister for Population
		28 June14 September 2010	Minister for Sustainable Population