Shifting use of policy instruments for environmental problems: New South Wales, Australia, 1979-2010

It is generally accepted that choice and use of environmental policy instruments has changed over recent decades, however this has rarely been investigated empirically. A quantitative analysis of 505 policy instruments to address environmental problems between 1979-2010 in New South Wales, Australia, was undertaken to explore this further, in a jurisdiction reasonably typical of advanced economies. The data do show a shift in the use of instrument types, with the most common type of policy instrument being regulation. However, there was no trend away from regulation as a way of delivering policy outcomes, but a relative strengthening in the importance of newer policy instrument types such as strategy, education, incentives and schemes, compared with foundation policy types including regulation and land reservation. Foundation policies dominated the earlier years and provided significant structural elements of the policy system, including setting up organisations, assigning roles and responsibilities and prescribing rules. The political party holding government at the time does not drive the selection of policy instruments. The methods in this paper could be applied in other jurisdictions or to other policy areas.