Marine systems face pressures that require adaptive, multi-level governance. However, at all levels—from local communities to international treaties—environmental governance is shaped by moral questions about what matters, who is responsible, and what should be done. Local Government Areas (LGAs) occupy a critical translation point: they are embedded in the political economy of their electorates and are the ones who convert both global-scale climate discourse and national strategy into local planning decisions.
In this talk, we suggest that examining how Great Barrier Reef (GBR) adjacent LGAs frame their roles and responsibilities matters for realizing the goals of Australia’s Strategy for Nature. Specifically, we argue that how LGAs, as translators of policy, articulate the urgency, spatial and temporal scales of climate and environmental impacts on their marine environment; attribute or deflect responsibility for (in)action, and mobilize local interests in planning; represent moral decisions that open or foreclose responsibility for reef stewardship. The talk draws on a discourse analysis of 155 LGA documents, to highlight the need to pay attention to the local normative commitments that shape whether and how the Strategy for Nature's goals are realized, resisted, or reshaped.