Key  Strategic Directions  

Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) has a well-developed system for establishing objectives and priorities. At the highest level, we have the objectives contained in the FSANZ Actand the policy guidelines issues by the Australia and New Zealand Food Regulation Ministerial Council.  Beneath this tier lies the goals and performance measures set by the FSANZ Board.

Key Result Areas (KRAs)

In our Corporate Plan 2006-09 we allocate our goals to four Key Result Areas:   

• Our regulatory measures
• Our stakeholders
• Our people
• Our accountability

We undertake to measure our performance against these goals by monitoring a range of activities under each KRA.  However, the corporate plan has a three-year timeframe.   This means that it has been prepared as an outcomes-based document, with the scope to adjust as circumstances arise.

Key Strategic Directions (KSDs)

FSANZ’s Key Strategic Directions are contained in the  Portfolio Budget Statements 2006-09 for the Health and Ageing Portfolio of the Australian Government.  They represent the priorities of FSANZ during the next financial year.  They are consistent with the goals set out in the Key Result Areas, but refined to focus on aspects of FSANZ’s work requiring more immediate attention.  KSDs therefore change from year to year.  

In 2006-09, our KSDs are to:

• develop and maintain effective food standards;
• enhance the evidence base for standard setting;
• improve the efficiency of organisational processes;
• strengthen engagement with consumers and other stakeholders; and
• collaborate more effectively with our regulatory partners to produce a seamless regulatory system.

Associated with each KSD are a number of major activities that FSANZ undertakes to pursue during the year and qualitative or quantitative performance measures.  

Reporting against KRAs and KSDs

We report performance against KRAs and KSDs in our Annual Report.   In effect, this closes the accountability loop to Parliament, which began with the undertakings in our Portfolio Budget Statement.