Freedom of information (FOI)Operational Reporting
The Corporation publishes or holds the following categories of documents: those provided free to the public, while stocks are available, or displayed on the Corporation’s website; those sold to the public on a partial cost-recovery basis; and general administrative documents, including project files, personnel files, and planning/reporting documents.As required under the FOI Act the Corporation submits an Annual Section 9 Statement to the National Archives of Australia outlining the documents and processes used to make decisions in relation to the funding of R&D projects.
An up-to-date listing of projects funded by the Corporation in 2002–03 is set out in Research-in-Progress documents and on the website. Information on funding of individual projects is available, on request, from the Corporation.
The Corporation received two requests under the FOI Act in 2002–03. Both of these requests were denied after consultations with the relevant commercial third party on the basis that the requests would adversely affect the business or professional affairs of the third party. The Commonwealth Ombudsman was asked to investigate one of the requests and determined that the Corporation’s conduct and process in relation to the FOI Act was both appropriate and legally compliant.
General inquiries about access to documents or other matters relating to FOI should be directed to:
Mr Claudio Ciuffetelli
General Manager, Business & Finance
Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation PO Box 4776 , KINGSTON ACT 2604
Phone: 02 6272 4656 Fax: 02 6272 5877 Email: claudio.ciuffetelli@rirdc.gov.auHow our staff are employed
RIRDC staff are employed under Section 87 of the PIERD Act 1989. This legislation requires the Corporation to determine appropriate terms and conditions of employment for its staff.During 2002–03 all staff other than those on individual contracts were covered by the RIRDC General Terms and Conditions of Employment. These terms were reviewed in September 2002 and a new two year agreement endorsed by the Board and the staff. It took effect from 1 October 2002. Under these arrangements the Corporation reserves the right to employ new staff on either individual contracts or on the general terms and conditions.
Staff numbers and remunerations
At the end June 2003 the Corporation had 18 staff members engaged on a full-time basis. Eight of these were on individual contracts. Details on the salaries of full-time staff are summarised in the table below. Consistent with its legislative obligations, the Corporation is an equal opportunity employer.Remuneration of full-time RIRDC staff
Remuneration includes salaries, superannuation, and other benefits.
In addition to the resources above, the Corporation had eight external managers contracted to manage various R&D sub-programs. The organisational structure at the end June 2002 is shown in Figure 1.Staff training
The Corporation’s training investment in 2002–03 was $23,979. This compares with $20,025 in 2001–02. On a per capita basis for full-time equivalent staff, this represents an investment of nearly $1,332 in 2002–03. This investment focused primarily on on-going tertiary education and computer application courses.• to attract and retain an innovative, productive, creative and committed group of staff Key results• corporate systems that continue to meet accreditation standards with ISO 9001:2000 Quality Assurance from SGS International Certification Services Pty Ltd The year ahead
• no claims lodged with Comcare in 2002–03
• absenteeism of 28 hours per employee in 2002–03, up from 21 hours per employee in 2001–02
• $1,332 per person training investment• continued priority on staff undertaking work related continuing education programs to ensure their preferences continue to grow and they stay with the corporation.
• have a workplace which results in zero comcare claims.
• ensure the Corporation is in the lowest 25 per cent quartile on absenteeism when compared to industry benchmarks.
Commonwealth’s Disability Strategy
The Federal Government has decided that progress in implementing the Commonwealth’s Disability Strategy should be reported by all Commonwealth agencies. The Government is using this Strategy to ensure its policies, programs and services are as accessible to people with disabilities as they are to all Australians. The Corporation is committed to preparing indicators under the Strategy for future reporting and to identifying areas for improvement by systems changes or organisation-wide solutions.During the year a grievance officer was appointed. This role covers all grievances, including those related to disability. External counselling is also available to staff to consider personal and professional concerns, including any disabilities. The Corporation maintains an open recruitment policy with flexibility to cover disabilities.
Figure 1. Orgnisational Structure
• to nurture a climate of mutual trust and respect Accountability to industry
• to understand, accept and value individual differences and capabilities
• to recognise and respect the role of a cohesive and co-operative team, built on shared goals, successes and setbacks
• to communicate, question and consult openly and honestly throughout the whole organisation
• to clearly define roles, delegations, responsibilities and accountabilities
• to support and commit to personal and professional development
For the purposes of reporting on operations in 2002–03, RIRDC had three organisations prescribed by Section 7 of its legislation. This requires RIRDC to report annually on its activities each financial period. This accountability runs parallel to RIRDC’s Annual Report to the Minister and the Parliament. Separately, it is relevant to note that the Deer, Honeybee and Rice Industries are nominated as representative bodies for the Primary Industry (Excise) Levies Act 1999. Formal reporting during 2002–03 occurred as follows:• National Farmers’ Federation (NFF) 13 November 2002.
• The Australian Egg Industry Association (AEIA) 27 February 2003.
• Australian Chicken Meat Association (ACMA) 4 March 2003.RIRDC’s reporting to these three prescribed bodies was done when industry meetings were being held for their own purposes. The Corporation made no payments towards the costs of these meetings.
The reporting of these consultation arrangements is in accord with guidelines issued by the then Minister on 6 July 1998 on the ‘Funding of Consultation Costs by Primary Industry and Energy Portfolio Statutory Authorities’.
In relation to the guidelines, it should be noted that our representative organisations held operative research contracts with the Corporation in 2002–03, listed as follows:
Org Project No. Project Title NFF MS023-44 World Congress of Young Farmers - Focus on WTO issues Sponsorship of Participant NFF NFF-3A Increase Women’s Participation in National Farmers’ Federation (NFF) Decision Making ACMA WS001-07 Support for the 12th Australian Poultry and Feed Convention/7th WPSA Asian Pacific Federation Conference, Gold Coast, October 2002 Corporate publications
The Corporation continues to have a very active publications program. The Corporation now has more than 900 publications in its catalogue. Sales in 2002–03 amounted to $108,455. This compares with $122,207 in the previous year. Actual sales numbers in 2002–03 were 8756 compared with 9,284 in 2001–02. The widespread drought would have contributed to that decline. There has been a significant increase in downloading of reports from our website. Details on new publications issued in 2002–03 for each Sub-Program are set out under each respective Sub-Program.The Corporation’s pricing policy is based on recouping only the costs of printing and distribution for sub-program specific publications. corporate publications are free and, for 2002–03, included:
Corporate documents
• 2001–02 Annual Report Newsletters
• 2002–03 Annual Operational Plan
• 2003–04 Program Research Priorities
• 2002–03 RIRDC Research in Progress (issued as individual Sub-Program chapters)
• Publications Catalogue• Corporate newsletter (three issues) Five Year Plans
• newsletters for 12 of the Sub-Programs:• Agroforestry and Farm Forestry
• Organic Produce
• Tea Tree Oil
• Essential Oils
• Wildflowers and Native Plants
• Asian Foods
• Deer
• New Plant Products
• Honeybee – R&D Updates
• Fodder Crops
• Pasture Seeds
• Rice R&D Update Farmers’ Newsletter• all industry sub programs have plans that are available free to stakeholders. New five year plans released during 2002–03 were: Public relations• the Coffee Industry Five Year Plan 2003– 2008
• R&D Plan for the Australian Olive Industry 2003–2008
• R&D Plan for the Pasture Seeds Program 2003–2008
The primary goal of the Corporation’s public relations program is to encourage the rural community to adopt information contained in RIRDC research reports.During the past year, there has been ongoing development of promotion in agricultural, urban and regional media.
Traditional communications channels are employed, with targeted advertising and media releases.
The successful use of two monthly email newsletters, which have more than 2450 subscribers, shows there are opportunities for lower-cost communications. Delivery of information by email, as opposed to the traditional fax, is now preferred by a majority of journalists and many other stakeholders.
One newsletter contains short articles on RIRDC reports and other news, while the second is a full list of all news reports posted the website each month.
The Corporation also continued to market its products both directly and indirectly through:
• direct mail campaigns to libraries and known rirdc publication clients; and The Web www.rirdc.gov.au
• various corporation newsletters;
• distribution of brochures and catalogues;
• sponsorship of conferences, field days and other events
• media contact with placement of editorial copy, press releases and interviews.
The website continued to deliver a growing range of research reports and corporate information to stakeholders and target audiences important to the Corporation.All sub-program pages were re-designed as virtual "homepages" bringing together all internal and appropriate external links for each subject area. The pages were also made more attractive and easier to navigate. "Home pages" were created for the new Farm Health and Safety and Capacity Building research activities.
More than 100 new full research reports, together with their summaries were added to the site and to the online bookshop. Other additions included four corporate newsletters, a host of specialist newsletters for the various sub-programs and 21 media releases.
The new, improved server continued to deliver a stable, robust service. The dramatic jump in "hits" from an average of about 170,000 a month to more than 690,00 in March 2002, remained fairly stable in the 2003-03 year. While "hits" are sometimes considered a questionable measure because they include graphics and other page elements, in RIRDC’s case the figure is significant because the site is economic with graphics and other decorative page elements. As a result, when the graphics and other design elements are excluded, the total number of pages served to visitors represented more than 35% of the total hits figure - a very large ratio by web standards. This "pages served" figure (also known as "page impressions") is the main measure used by advertising agencies and their corporate clients as the closest electronic equivalent of the print media’s circulation and readership figures.
Most visitors entered the site through the "home" page. Most gained entry to other pages through the site search facility and most were referred to the RIRDC site through major search engines such as Google, Yahoo and NineMSN (in that order).
The online bookshop continued to average about 15 transactions a month valued at between $500 and $800. The emailed newsletter and the list of new research reports continued to be well received by nearly 2000 recipients each month with much positive feedback.
RIRDC rural women’s award 2003
www.ruralwomensaward.gov.au
This site was established in November 1999 when the Corporation first launched the RIRDC Rural Women’s Award 2000 and has been maintained in line with the recent launch of the Award’s year 2003 program. Access to the site can also be gained through RIRDC’s home page. This site grows in value as more information is added during each year’s award.RIRDC Extranet
The Corporation has also established an Extranet which enables its Directors and external research managers access to corporate information, previously only available as a local area networked Intranet.This site works both locally and online and is constantly updated and monitored. It is password protected so that only authorised users can gain access.
Project Listings
This Annual Report does not contain a listing of projects under contract. There were 616 at the end of June 2003. The comparable figure for last year was 590.As an aid to getting the details on each of these individual projects, the Corporation has finalised its Research-in-Progress report, which shows ‘current status’ of projects at the end of May 2003.
In addition, all projects completed in 2002–03 have summaries showing their key outcomes. As already noted, this report Research-in-Progress, June 2003 has been published on our website ( www.rirdc.gov.au ) under each respective program area.
Royalties
During 2002/2003 the Corporation received $93,429 (exclusive of GST) in royalty income from the following activities. Royalties of:Scholarships
- $42,518 were generated from sales in relation to vaccines developed for Mycoplasma gallisepticum and Mycoplasma synoviae, research commercialisation outputs of RIRDC’s Chicken Meat and Egg sub-programs
- $31,067 were received from the development and licensing of varieties of certain species of fodder legumes for sowing seed and seed export. This research and commercialisation was undertaken by RIRDC in association with Seedco Australia Cooperative Limited
- $14,962 were generated from two lines of forage crops developed as part of RIRDC’s Pasture Seeds and Fodder Crops sub- programs. This research and commercialisation was undertaken in association with the University of Western Australia and the Department of Agriculture WA.
- $1,270 were received from licensing arrangements in connection with the sale of vaccines for avian coccidiosis developed as part of the RIRDC’s Chicken Meat and Eggs sub-programs. This work was underaken with the Queensland Department of Primary Industries
- $969 were received from licensing arrangements in relation to Banksia varieties generated from the RIRDC’’s Wildflowers and Native Plants sub-program. The lines were developed in conjunction with the University of Adelaide
- $2,309 were received from the licensing of the PESKEM software developed jointly with the University of Queensland. The software provides information on registered Australian agrochemicals in a user friendly, easy to use database package
- $334 were received from sales of the Australian Rainman computer software developed under the Corporation’s Resilient Agricultural Systems sub-program. The software analysis information for approximately 4000 locations throughout Australia and incorporates the likely effects of the Southern Oscillation Index and of the Sea Surface Temperatures in the Indian Ocean on rainfall in the coming season
A key aim of the R&D program is to ensure that portfolio-related industries are supported by people with high-quality scientific, technical and leadership skills. In 2002/2003 the programs also continued to support conferences and field days aimed at providing the platform for transferring information and commercialising R&D outcomes.The formal postgraduate education program of the Corporation seeks to ensure the industries have a continuous supply of well-trained people. In 2002/2003 the Corporation spent $321,205 (GST exclusive) on this area, $229,288 for continuing scholarships and $91,917 for new scholarships.
Scholarships awarded in 2002/2003
In 2002/03 the Corporation funded 9 new scholarships as detailed below.
Name Sub-program Research topic Organisation Rose Andrew Agroforestry Genetic improvement of low rainfall eucalypts for pest resistance and non-wood products Australian National University Adam Dimech Wildflowers and Native Plants Micropropogation and genetic diversity of Doryanthes excelsa The University of Melbourne Sarah Pain Fodder Crops Palatability of fodder crops across species and their associated nutritive value University of Adelaide Justin Billing Resilient Agricultural Systems Herbivore nutrition and competitive grazing impacts Australian National University Catherine Simpson Agroforestry Relating dry schlerophyll forest spatial pattern, structure and values Australian National University Natalie Nagy New Plant Products Capsicum: Hybrid Seed Production The University of Sydney Nicholas Rogers Chicken Meat Relationships between grain quality, intestinal integrity, and performance of broiler chickens University of New England Kelly Mai Chicken Meat The molecular basis for oocyst wall formation in the apicomplexan parasite, Eimeria maxima University of Technology, Sydney Kristy Jenkins Chicken Meat; Egg Improved therapeutics for Marek’s disease virus infection CSIRO Livestock Industries (in association with Melbourne University Ongoing scholarships
The Corporation sponsored 14 ongoing post graduate scholarships in 2002/03.
Name Sub-program Research topic Organisation Wilson Leonard Resilient Agricultural Systems Value adding to effluents from intensive aquaculture using hydroponic crops Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology Allan Knight Essential Oils and Plant Extracts Bioactivity of eucalyptus oil and its derivatives Murdoch University Sundrela Kamhieh Horses Borna Virus immunomodulation and neuropathogenesis: epidemiology and pathology of infection in Australia University of Sydney Scott Sheedy Chicken Meat Live vectoring of therapeutic and prophylactic proteins and pathogenesis in necrotic enteritis CSIRO Livestock Industries (in association with Monash University) Megan Jolly Egg Infectious bronchitis vaccination of laying hens University of New England Manija Asif Chicken Meat; Egg Cytokines and innate molecules for enhanced mucosal immunity in the chicken CSIRO Livestock Industries (in association with Melbourne University) Amelia Martyn Wildflowers and Native Plants Physiology and control of bract burn in waratahs University of Sydney Wendy Coppin Wildflowers and Native Plants The genetics and disease resistance in kangaroo paw University of Sydney Robert Doupe Resilient Agricultural Systems Selection for faster growing black beam Murdoch University Nerida McGilchrist Horses The development of safe and efficient grain feeding practices for the Australian Horse Industry University of New England Jacqueline Kattenbelt Chicken Meat; Egg The reverse genetics of Newcastle disease CSIRO Animal Health (in association with Deakin University) Tyron Venn Agroforestry Socio-economic evaluation of management options for native forests on Aurakun community land, Cape York University of Queensland Andrew Beaton New Animal Products Factors that influence meat quality from kangaroos University of Sydney Jenifer Ticehurst Agroforestry Hydrological analysis of the spatially explicit integration of agroforestry into Australia’s farming systems Australian National University
 
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Last updated: October 2003
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