By the Book: New Database Collates Australian Ag Sustainability Regulations

A new online database has been launched to assist Australian agricultural stakeholders, including farmers and agribusiness operators, in identifying sustainability and environmental, social and governance (ESG) regulations relevant to their business.

The Sustainability-related Regulations Database (SR-Database) collates and explains current Australian laws relating to agricultural sustainability. It allows Australia’s strong legislative infrastructure to be communicated to wider audiences and used as an evidence base to demonstrate governance and social attributes of the sector.

Deputy Secretary of Agricultural Trade and Regulation Tina Hutchison said the database was developed by the Australian Farm Institute and funded by the Department’s Sustainability Reporting Uplift Grant. 

“Australia enjoys a strong regulatory focus on employment rights, workplace health and safety and fair trading,” Ms Hutchison said. 

“Most Australian agricultural businesses already comply with social and governance sustainability-related expectations.”

“Now, with the SR-Database, stakeholders can find links to current legislation and regulation information relevant to agricultural sustainability in one place.”

The SR-Database uses the Australian Agricultural Sustainability Framework (AASF) to collate relevant data. Information can be filtered by a range of topics, such as commodity and location, and can be transferred to sustainability reporting platforms.

The database, which can be found at srdatabase.farminstitute.org.au, will undergo continued development until July 2025 and users are encouraged to provide feedback to improve functionality. The Australian Farm Institute can be contacted at [email protected] for more information.