Introduction
In March 2015, the Senate Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport Legislation Committee (the committee) reported an overview of its examination of annual reports for the 2013-14 financial year tabled by 31 October 2014.
The committee is responsible for examining the annual reports of departments and agencies within the following portfolios:
- Agriculture and Water Resources
- Infrastructure and Regional Development.
Senate Standing Orders require the committee to examine the annual reports referred to it to determine whether they are timely and ‘apparently satisfactory’, including compliance with relevant legislation and guidelines for preparation.
The committee found the 2013-14 Annual Report tabled by the Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority (APVMA) to be satisfactory.
Senate recommendation
As shown in Chapter 2.9 of the meeting report (Attachment A), the committee made the following recommendation to the APVMA for drafting annual reports:
2.9 The Committee considers APVMA’s 2013-14 report to be of a high standard and compliant with the reporting requirements. However, the committee recommends that in future annual reports, APVMA consider incorporating a table outlining a collated list of the numerous performance measures allocated across the eight strategy areas, including information on whether these have been achieved.
Government Response
The Australian Government offers the following response to the Senate’s recommendation:
- The APVMA’s 2014-15 and 2015-16 Annual Reports comply with the committee’s recommendation.
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- The 2015-16 report includes the suggested summary table as an appendix.
- In the 2014-15 report, the information was not consolidated into a single table but was specifically reported on under each strategy area.
- The APVMA intends to continue including a summary table as suggested by the committee in future annual reports, subject to any changes in government requirements.