Food Standards Australia New Zealand
Corporate Plan 2003 - 2006
Message from the Chairman of Food Standards Australia New Zealand
Food Standards Australia New Zealand is committed to protecting and informing consumers through the development of effective food standards, and doing so in a way that helps stimulate and support growth and innovation in the food industry. We do this for Australia and New Zealand.
We are only one part of a strong food regulatory partnership between governments at all levels in Australia and New Zealand. We develop the food standards which are consistent with food regulatory policies based on advice from Australian State and Territory agencies and New Zealand and which are endorsed by a Ministerial Council. Others in the Australian State and Territory agencies and New Zealand implement and enforce the standards.
Our standards development work is critically dependent on effective consultative arrangements with the food industry and consumers in two countries. It also relies on input from public health professionals and food scientists at home and overseas.
The organisation has only been in operation as Food Standards Australia New Zealand since July 2002. At this time, the food regulatory system in Australia was broadened to cover the whole food supply chain from primary production through to manufactured food and retail establishments. Since July 2002, we have worked hard to forge new relationships with new stakeholders and to strengthen existing relationships with our more familiar partners.
We look forward to working with our government partners, the food industry and consumers to ensure the most appropriate regulatory outcomes to protect public health and safety and provide consumers with accurate information about food.
This Corporate Plan highlights the four key areas that we plan to demonstrate results in over the coming year, lists the strategies we think will get us there and indicates how we plan to measure our progress.
The Hon Rob Knowles
Chairman
FSANZ Board
Who We Are
We are an independent statutory agency established by the Food Standards Australia New Zealand Act 1991. This was enacted following agreement between the governments of Australia and the States and Territories (through the Intergovernmental Food Regulation Agreement 2000) and the governments of Australia and New Zealand (under a Treaty), for a single binational food standards setting agency.
Our Vision
We aim to protect the health and safety of people in Australia and New Zealand through the development of effective food standards.
We do this collaboratively with States, Territories and New Zealand governments and our industry, consumer and public health stakeholders.
Our Mission
We will work as productive partners in the Australian and New Zealand food regulatory system. In doing so we will work closely with others to:
- develop, vary and review food standards and codes of practice;
- publish the Food Standards Code and interpretive guidelines to the Code;
- promote consistency between standards in Australia and New Zealand and those used internationally;
- facilitate harmonisation of State and Territory laws relating to food;
- assist the jurisdictions and the food industry to implement food standards;
- coordinate monitoring, surveillance and enforcement in relation to food in Australia;
- conduct research and surveys relevant to food standards;
- develop food education initiatives and publish information to assist the public;
- coordinate the recall of foods in Australia;
- undertake risk assessments of imported food;
- provide technical advice on food to Ministers; and
- participate in international, regional and bilateral negotiations on standards.
Our Values
In our work, we will:
- be impartial, open and accountable;
- use the best available science and evidence to guide decision-making;
- seek, respect and be responsive to the issues raised by others;
- provide a safe, caring, respectful and rewarding work environment; and
- uphold the public sector values.
In ourselves, we value:
- integrity;
- empathy;
- diversity;
- commitment;
- professionalism;
- skills and expertise; and
- mutual respect.
Our Key Result Areas
We will achieve all of our statutory and other obligations and meet the needs of our stakeholders through focussing in particular on four key result areas:
- our regulatory measures;
- our stakeholders;
- our people; and
- our accountability.
Our performance is of interest to many — the Ministerial Council, our government partners, the food industry, consumers, scientific colleagues, and those who enforce the standards.
Our Regulatory Measures
Our goals are to:
- continue to work with our government partners to develop food standards through the binational food regulatory arrangements;
- anticipate and work proactively to address new food regulatory challenges; and
- use good regulatory practice in delivery of food regulatory outcomes.
We will do this by:
- working with others to strengthen the evidence base for food standards decision-making;
- improving our practices for managing uncertainty;
- fostering national and international networks;
- gaining acceptance for our role and risk based approach in the primary products sector;
- developing primary production standards in Australia consistent with our existing regulatory practices;
- increasing capacity to respond to food emergencies;
- strengthening our technical contribution to food policy; and
- adopting an influencing role in the development of consistent enforcement and monitoring and surveillance strategies.
Our Performance
We will measure our performance in achieving our Regulatory Measures goals by monitoring:
- the number of standards Applications finalised within statutory timeframes and consistent with Ministerial policy guidelines;
- the number of regulatory impact statements satisfying the Office of Regulation Review’s requirements; and
- our management of food emergencies and public health issues arising from food.
Our Stakeholders
Our goals are to:
- strengthen productive working relationships with our external interest groups and government partners.
We will do this by:
- providing opportunities for stakeholders to participate in and inform our decision-making;
- identifying and engaging with key stakeholders;
- actively listening to, acknowledging and responding to stakeholder input;
- developing a constructive, outwardly focused, engaging culture across the organisation;
- further improving the readability and accessibility of our documents;
- enhancing communication with stakeholders about our role and processes; and
- developing strong effective stakeholder networks.
Our Performance
We will measure our performance in achieving our Stakeholder goals by monitoring:
- the level of stakeholder support for our regulatory approaches.
- the level and nature of stakeholder feedback, both formal and informal, provided through the industry advice line and information officer;
- the number of invitations to consultative forums by our government partners and stakeholders;
- the extent of stakeholder participation in our consultative processes; and
- the level of engagement between our stakeholders and ourselves.
Our People
Our goals are to:
- foster an encouraging and rewarding working environment; and
- enhance organisational capability and capacity.
We will do this by:
- creating a culture where staff feel challenged in their work, are valued and respected, that encourages diversity and actively seeks staff engagement and contribution;
- attracting, developing and retaining an appropriately skilled workforce;
- promoting a culture that encourages external input and review;
- developing skills and systems for more effective and appropriate use of internal and external resources to complement organisational capacity; and
- ensuring workforce planning aligns the organisational skill base with our priorities and strategic objectives.
Our Performance:
We will measure our performance in achieving our People goals by monitoring:
- the extent to which strategic human resource management plans and policies facilitate achievement of corporate objectives;
- the number and nature of professional development opportunities given to staff as identified in staff professional development plans; and
- the nature of comments from staff surveys.
Our Accountability
Our goals are to:
- ensure clear public understanding of our roles and priorities;
- strengthen and enhance our corporate governance arrangements ; and
- ensure clear understanding of our responsibilities and accountabilities in delivering statutory obligations.
We will do this by:
- aligning our structure, roles and responsibilities with the new regulatory system;
- clarifying and communicating the roles of our organisation as it relates to other agencies in New Zealand and the States and territories;
- reinvigorating the staff Performance Enhancement Scheme to ensure personal goals and work plans are effectively linked to corporate goals and work plans;
- developing new systems and processes to clarify and strengthen management accountabilities and agency wide collaboration;
- strengthening communication and understanding of our direction, accountabilities and performance expectations; and
- reviewing and amending or supplementing, as necessary, our corporate governance policies and practices.
Our Performance
We will measure our performance in achieving our Accountability goals by monitoring:
- the level of compliance with external reporting requirements, including departmental financial reporting;
- the extent to which our management reporting and planning processes track progress against agency priorities;
- the level of cooperation between ourselves and our jurisdictional partners;
- stakeholder response to our Strategic Review;
- the effectiveness of our strategic issues management; and
- the extent to which staff performance agreements are directly linked to corporate priorities.
