Senator the Honourable Judith Troeth  
Parliamentary Secretary to the  
Minister for Primary Industries and Energy  
Room S151  
Parliament House  
CANBERRA ACT 2600  

Dear Senator Troeth  

I am pleased to submit for your approval the enclosed Annual Operational Plan of the Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation for the financial year 1998-99, as required under Sections 25 and 26 of the Primary Industries and Energy Research and Development Act 1989.  

This Plan has been drawn from the Research and Development Plan 1997-2002 that Minister Anderson approved on 16 June 1997.  

The key R&D features of the 1998-99 Plan are summarised at pages 11 to 18. The budget underpinning the Plan is at pages 24 to 29. Details on the individual industry sub-accounts are at Appendix 2 beginning on page 73.  

In aggregate terms, the Corporation is proposing expenditure of $23.66 million, an increase of $2.43 million over 1997-98. The majority of this increase is in Sub-program 2.2 ‘Agroforestry’ and is based on additional funds from the Natural Heritage Trust. The Minister wrote to the Corporation proposing this on 16 February 1998.  

Corporation revenue in 1998-99 is budgeted at $22.86 million. The Commonwealth general appropriation of $10.99 million in the Plan is based on what is included in the Federal Budget presented to the Parliament on 12 May 1998.  

As proposed expenditure is above our revenue estimates, the balance will come from a draw-down of industry reserves held in the industry related sub-accounts. The total accumulated reserves of the Corporation are forecast to be $3 million at end June 1999.  

The ‘general appropriation’ account is expected, in accrued terms, to be in deficit at around $1.25 million at June 1998 and is forecast to be at the same level at end June 1999. Notwithstanding this, we still anticipate the general appropriation account to remain cash positive during 1998-99. In fact, we are forecasting an end June 1999 cash balance in this account of $0.52 million.  

There are significant uncertainties about these figures because the payments profile is dependant on contractor performance but, on balance, the Board has confirmed in its mind that there are sufficient reserves for the implementation of the proposed 1998-99 Plan.  

There is one element of the Plan on which there is likely to be some movement in the early part of 1998-99. At present we have Peter Cooke from ‘AgKnowledge’ undertaking a review of our communications efforts and he will report to the Board on 24 June 1998. The proposed Annual Operational Plan has a communications vote of $0.5 million for 1998-99 and, while we do not propose an increase in the total allocation, we will probably be making some adjustments in how these funds are employed. This is a matter I will report separately to you on.  

The attached Plan is submitted for your consideration. I have forwarded a copy of this letter and the Plan to the Minister for Primary Industries and Energy.  

Yours sincerely  
 

Prof Elizabeth Woods  
Chair