Our Accountability
Objectives
Ensure clear public understanding of our roles and priorities.
- Strengthen and enhance our corporate governance arrangements.
- Ensure clear understanding of our responsibilities and accountabilities in delivering statutory obligations.
Performance
- Level of compliance with external reporting requirements, including departmental financial reporting.
- Extent to which our management reporting and planning processes track progress against agency priorities.
Level of cooperation between ourselves and our jurisdictional partners.
- Effectiveness of our strategic issues management.
- Extent to which staff performance agreements are directly linked to corporate priorities.
Highlights
- Aligned our Corporate Plan with the reporting requirements of the FSANZ Budget Statement.
- Received ‘satisfactory’ responses from the Parliamentary Secretary on the quality and timeliness of our briefings and advice.
- Met the reporting requirements of theCommonwealth Authorities and Companies Act 1997and Section 69 of theFood Standards Australia New Zealand Act 1991.
Overview
There are many aspects to accountability.
Each year, FSANZ prepares a Budget Statement, within the Health and Ageing Portfolio, giving details of how the agency intends to spend its budget allocation from the Australian Parliament. These details include priorities for the year and measures and indicators by which to measure our performance.
This is accountability at the highest level. We are similarly accountable to the New Zealand Government for the expenditure of funds to provide joint standard-setting services.
But we are also accountable to our stakeholders and regulatory partners for the goals and objectives that we set ourselves and for the strategies we develop to achieve successful regulatory outcomes. Specifically, they require certainty of process, so that they can plan their allocation of resources to food issues. We address this through the FSANZ Food Standards Development Work Plan, an online document that tracks the progress of Applications and Proposals and indicates the anticipated starting date for the work.
This year, we have sought to strengthen our governance and reporting arrangements. Because these arrangements depend so extensively on the planning function, we reviewed the nexus between the FSANZ Corporate Plan and the Budget Statements. We also re-examined the way key strategic directions are being interpreted and reflected at all levels of the agency, including by individual members of staff through the Performance Enhancement Scheme of appraisal.
Our Corporate Plan 2006-09 now has the capacity to accommodate annual updates to reflect key strategic directions in the Budget Statement. We report against priorities and performance measures listed in the Budget Statement in the annual report. We have also taken on board several recommendations from an audit of last year’s annual report, including changes aimed at improving clarity of presentation. And, for the first time, this report identifies outcomes against the FSANZ Workplace Harassment Policy.
The challenge for 2006-07 will be to align the various planning elements of the agency more closely, both to each other and to our reporting obligations.
We recognise, for example, that external considerations can have a considerable impact on our business planning, including social issues, technological change, and economic and political factors. Despite the pressures on FSANZ to address the immediate needs of standards setting, we need a strong strategic capacity to deal with such issues and to incorporate them into the prudent governance of the agency.
Our goal is to implement a specific performance management and planning program capable of capturing and reporting the high levels of achievement currently being attained by FSANZ.
Public understanding of our roles and priorities
For the food regulatory system to operate effectively, stakeholders in the process must be aware of the roles and responsibilities of agencies within the system in Australia and New Zealand, the standards-setting processes and the mechanisms available for individuals and organisations to influence regulatory decision making.
In 2005-06, we continued to articulate these messages in the media, on our website and in direct discussions with stakeholders. We have done this in close association with our regulatory partners, so that the system as a whole speaks with one voice on a given food matter. Our goal is to achieve ‘an alignment of arrows’ across Australia and New Zealand in the way that we, as an integrated system, communicate with our external stakeholders.
Food Standards Australia New Zealand
Organisational structure
Our Chief Executive Officer leads the agency and works closely with the other members of an Executive – the Chief Scientist (Scientific Risk Assessment and Evaluation Branch), the General Manager Food Standards (Canberra) Branch, the General Manager Food Standards (Wellington) Branch, and the General Manager Food Safety and Services Branch.
The Food Standards Branch in Canberra and Wellington are largely responsible for risk management in relation to the compositional and labelling standards in the Food Standards Code. Staff at the Wellington office have responsibility for the development of labelling standards and contribute to other areas of the agency’s work.
A Food Safety and Services Branch manages the development of standards for the primary industries and food safety standards, as well as various operational programs, while o ur Scientific Risk Assessment and Evaluation Branch carries out the scientific evaluation of risks to human health through food.
Fourteen Sections, the Chief Medical Advisor and the Chief Public Health Nutrition Advisor report directly to one of the four General Managers. At 30 June 2006, the Sections were:
- Communication
- Corporate
- Economic, Social Analysis and International
- Food Safety
- Labelling and Information Standards
- Modelling, Evaluation and Surveillance
- Office of Legal Counsel and Secretariat
- Planning and Capability
- Product Safety Standards
- Public Health Nutrition Standards
- Risk Assessment - Chemical Safety
- Risk Assessment - Microbiology
- Risk Assessment - Public Health Nutrition
- Strategic Science
Senior management
The Executive’s role is to provide leadership, stewardship and control of the agency. It manages the implementation of the statutory functions of FSANZ in line with the strategic priorities set by the Board.
A Management Group, comprising Section Managers and the Executive, facilitates the two-way information between Sections and the Executive on our progress against strategic directions, day-to-day management and the coordination of section activities. Section Managers, and their General Managers, are responsible for supervising the activities of staff to ensure milestones are met, budgets and staffing resources are appropriately utilised and the Section outputs contribute effectively to our goals and outcomes.
During the year, 4 senior executive (SES) staff received performance bonuses totalling $44,441.00 and 22 managers received payments totalling $98,950.00
We form multi-disciplinary teams to manage each Application and Proposal to vary the Food Standards Code. The teams are led by project managers selected for their particular knowledge and experience. These multi-disciplinary teams typically require scientific expertise from a variety of disciplines and skills in social or economic analysis, legal drafting and communication.
FSANZ’s Executive team comprises:
Graham Peachey – Chief Executive Officer
As Chief Executive Officer, Mr Peachey is responsible to the Board for the efficient administration of the agency and, in conjunction with the FSANZ Board, for the corporate and strategic directions of FSANZ. He is also an ex officio member of the Board.
Dr Marion Healy – Chief Scientist
As Chief Scientist, Dr Healy has executive responsibility for FSANZ’s scientific work and the risk assessment of hazards affecting public health safety, data collection activities, development of collaborative relations with scientific institutions and the program that evaluates the impact of our standard setting activities. She also coordinates our scientific relations with international agencies, especially Codex.
Melanie Fisher – General Manager
As General Manager, Food Standards (Canberra), Ms Fisher is responsible for the risk management functions associated with the development of food standards that primarily address health and safety matters as well as for the agency’s legal, communication, consultation and international activities. She is also responsible for coordinating our relations with food regulatory bodies in the Asia-Pacific region and for the provision of Board services.
Claire Pontin – General Manager
As General Manager, Food Safety and Services, Ms Pontin is responsible for the development of primary production and processing standards and food safety standards, coordination of enforcement, compliance and recall activities, risk assessment for imported foods and has senior management responsibility for corporate services, financial management and corporate governance arrangements.
Dean Stockwell – General Manager
Mr Stockwell is General Manager, Food Standards (Wellington). He is responsible for the risk management functions associated with the development of food standards that primarily address labelling and information matters. He is the senior FSANZ representative in New Zealand and is responsible for managing our relationships with consumers, industry, government and other stakeholders in that country.
Accountability to stakeholders
Requests under FOI legislation
During the year, we received two requests for information under the Freedom of Information Act 1982 , one of which was subsequently withdrawn.
FSANZ Service Charter
We revised our Service Charter during the year, outlining the standard of service that stakeholders can expect from us . The Service Charter identifies our stakeholders and regulatory partners, sets out the service standards by which we wish to be judged, and provides targets for the delivery of services. We also describe the complaints procedures that can be used by individuals or organisations who believe that we have not met their expectations.
Regulatory partnerships
The Australia and New Zealand Food Regulation Ministerial Council decides on policy guidelines based on advice from the Food Regulation Standing Committee, comprising senior government officials from New Zealand and the Australian, State and Territory governments.
FSANZ must have regard to the Ministerial Policy guidelines when it develops or reviews food standards.
We notify the Ministerial Council of changes to the Food Standards Code approved by the Board. The Ministerial Council may then seek a review of a food standard, otherwise it becomes law in each State, Territory and New Zealand once it is gazetted.
In 2005-06, the Department of Health and Ageing commenced reviews of the Food Regulation Agreement 2002 between the Australian Government and the States and Territories and the Treaty between Australia and New Zealand on the joint system for food standards. The terms of reference for the reviews focus on the effectiveness of each agreement measured against their stated objectives. We have provided significant technical assistance to the Department on both reviews, which are scheduled for completion in December 2006.
Australian States and Territories
Under a 1991 Inter Governmental Agreement (IGA) between all Australian governments, the States and Territories adopt, without variation, food standards recommended by the National Food Authority (now FSANZ). The purpose of the 1991 agreement was to consolidate responsibility for developing food standards in one specialist agency and to ensure the uniformity of food standards across all States and Territories, which continue to have primary responsibility for enforcing food laws.
The Australian Government and the States and Territories became signatories to an Inter Governmental Agreement for a new food regulatory system on 3 November 2000, including the creation of FSANZ as a bi-national standard setting agency. The Australian Parliament passed an amendment Act setting up these new arrangements, which came into effect on 1 July 2002.
New Zealand
On 1 July 1996, a Treaty between Australia and New Zealand to establish a single joint food-standards system came into force. The joint arrangement aims to harmonise food standards between the two countries, reduce compliance costs for industry and help remove regulatory barriers to trade in food.
The Treaty does not cover maximum residue limits, food hygiene provisions and export requirements relating to third country trade. It also contains provisions that allow New Zealand to opt out of a joint standard for exceptional reasons relating to health, safety, trade, environmental concerns or cultural issues. In such cases, FSANZ may be asked to prepare a variation to a standard to apply only in New Zealand.
The Treaty to develop joint food standards requires that FSANZ and the New Zealand Minister of Health conclude a funding and performance agreement. This agreement details the services FSANZ is to provide and includes quarterly performance reporting, details of New Zealand’s contribution and the payment schedule