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| Rural Industries |
RIRDC Staff
Structure
The Corporation staff are employed according to section
87 of the PIERD Act 1989, under which the Corporation
has established terms and conditions of employment.
Development and Training
Corporation staff have maintained an active program
of personal development and training during 1994-95.
This was achieved through formal studies at the Canberra
Institute of TAFE, the University of Canberra, and
the Australian Society of Certified Practising Accountants;
and less formally through public lectures, seminars,
workshops, conferences and general reading.
A number of staff have undertaken advanced software training as well as training in the program management system database.
The Corporation also provided opportunities for employees to become involved in the broader range of RIRDC activities, which has allowed office staff to move outside Canberra to meet with researchers and industry representatives.
A staff workshop at Jindabyne, NSW, in June provided staff with the opportunity to review their achievements over the previous 12 months, to begin formulating performance indicators, and to discuss new opportunities for the Corporation. Group discussions provided the opportunity for all staff to become actively involved in improving corporate operations.
The Corporation is an equal opportunity employer.
Occupational Health and Safety
Regular health and safety audits are conducted. Staff are encouraged to discuss any issues of concern and action taken to remedy the issues where possible. All staff have ergonomic furniture including desks with dropped keyboards, fully adjustable chairs and screen glare guards.
Inter-Corporation Collaboration
When established in 1990, RIRDC was given the role of ensuring important national issues did not 'fall between the cracks' of the levy based, commodity-specific R&D Corporations.
However, RIRDC has neither the capacity nor the financial resources to address all issues of significance. We have therefore involved other R&D Corporations and Commonwealth programs such as the Rural Industry Business Extension Service (RIBES), the Marketing & Skills Program (MSP), the Innovative Agricultural Marketing Program (IAMP), Austrade, and the Agri-Food Council secretariat wherever possible and when interests coincided.
RIRDC is taking a lead role in inter-RDC collaboration on agribusiness and trade issues, agroforestry, crop pest and disease control and farmer occupational health and safety research. It also collaboratively manages the Commonwealth's special drought research initiative with LWRRDC. In addition the Corporation will be a member of inter-RDC collaboration groups on pastures, biotechnology, ESD and animal feeds which are co-ordinated by counterpart R&D Corporations.
In 1995-96 new collaborative projects are proposed within RIRDC's programs on Asian Foods, Wildflowers and Native Plants, Agroforestry and Farm Trees, Pest and Diseases, Extension and Information Systems, and Structure and Change. The Corporations involved will include DRDC, GRDC, HRDC, MRC, LWRRDC and IWS. In total some 65 of the 1995-96 projects are expected to involve collaborative funding with counterpart RDCs.
The Corporation's Managing Director represents R&D Corporations on the Management Committee for the Australian Rural Research in Progress research database and the Australian Bibliography of Agriculture research database.
RIRDC's R&D program is focused to address the international market place for Australian products and processes and to address international developments in research.
During the year the Corporation sponsored Australian researchers to attend international conferences and overseas study tours. Such support for researchers is a relatively low cost way for RIRDC to develop international research linkages and to capture overseas knowledge for Australian linkage.
In 1995-96 RIRDC will review its international linkages and activities and develop specific policies and activities to address the key goal identified for 1995-2000. This review will address how it can best support other portfolio initiatives such as the Australia-China and the Australia-Indonesia Agricultural Co-operation Agreements.
Research and Development Councils
During 1994-95 the Chicken Meat, Egg Industry, Honeybee, Dried Fruits and Tobacco Research and Development Councils operated under RIRDC's corporate umbrella.
The members of each Council are appointed by the Minister for Primary Industries & Energy independently of the Corporation and report separately to the Minister. The Councils are required to consult with the Corporation on their proposed five year research and development plans, their annual operating plans, any proposed amendments to these plans and also on their annual reports prior to submission to the Minister.
The Corporation administers and is responsible for all the research and development and operational funds utilised by the Councils to effect their programs. The Councils hold no funds of their own. These are held 'in trust' by RIRDC as components of Corporation funds and are included within Corporation accounts.
The Corporation also executes research and development agreements for Council activities. During the year almost 200 such agreements were executed. No applications for patents, other intellectual property or licensing arrangements were made on behalf of Councils during the year.
However, from 1 July the Dried Fruits R&D Council will remain the only R&D Council operating under RIRDC's corporate umbrella. On 1 July, the chicken meat, egg industry and honey bee R&D programs will be incorporated within RIRDC and the tobacco R&D program will be managed by a new Corporation.
RIRDC will facilitate the residual reporting requirements for the four former Councils and the transfer of tobacco program records and funds to the proposed new Corporation.
Board
The Board held six meetings during the year: three in
Canberra, and one each in Perth, Hobart and Cairns.
At each meeting board members took the opportunity
to meet with industry representatives and inspect research
in progress.
Meeting attendance during 1994-95 was as follows:
Bob McCarthy (4), John Herbert (5), Margaret Britz (5),
Mike Hitchens (5), Tony Gleeson (6), Rodney Field (6),
Bruce Gowrie Smith (5), Alan Trounson (6), Keith Hyde
(6).
Committees
Audit Committee - comprising John Herbert (Chairman),
Bob McCarthy, Margaret Britz, and Mike Hitchens met
twice during the year.
Remuneration Panel - comprising Bruce Gowrie Smith and Keith Hyde met twice during the year.
Budget and Planning Committee - comprising Alan Trounson (Chairman), Bob McCarthy, Rodney Field, Tony Gleeson, and Keith Hyde met twice during the year.
The Corporation and two of its Directors, Mr Bruce Gowrie Smith and Mr Keith Hyde, are founding members of the Australian Rural Leadership Foundation Ltd. Mr Gowrie Smith is a Director of the Foundation.
In September 1994 the first round of graduates completed the inaugural Australian Rural Leadership Program course after two years of leadership skills development, examination of key national and international issues, and interactions with leaders in industry, government and the community.
The second course commenced in April 1995 with an outdoor leadership development activity in the Kimberleys. A wide range of sponsors provided 32 scholarships ($1.12m) and pledged a similar number of scholarships for the third course (April 1996-Sept 1997). The new participants include two Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders sponsored by the Commonwealth Department of Employment, Education and Training.
The Foundation continues to diversify its funding support base with RIRDC support as a percentage of Foundation income reducing from 53% in 1993-94 to 24% in 1994-95 and to a projected 10% in 1996-97.
Membership of the Foundation increased from 5 to 50 during the year.
During 1994-95, RIRDC received royalties of approximately $3,000 in connection with sales of Geraldton waxflowers and Brachyscome daisies attributable to the results of RIRDC funded research in its wildflowers and native plants program.
The Corporation also received approximately $15,000 during the year attributable to various forms of project income generated by RIRDC funded research.
FREEDOM OF INFORMATION STATEMENT
FOI Contact Officer
General enquires about access to documents or other
matters relating to FOI should be directed to:
Ms Kathryn Edwards
Administrator
Rural Industries Research & Development Corporation
PO Box 4776
KINGSTON ACT 2604
Telephone: (06) 272 4735 Fax: (06) 272 5877
FOI Procedures & Information Sources
Facilities for access to documents are available at
the Corporation office.
A full listing of projects funded by the Corporation during 1994-95 is contained in RIRDC's 'Program Plans' booklet. Funding information on individual projects is available, on request, from the Corporation. Information about RIRDC projects is also available through the Australian Rural Research in Progress (ARRIP) database (which can be accessed through most Australian research and public libraries), RIRDC's research paper series of published final reports, and its research compendiums which contain one page summaries of all completed projects.
No requests under the Freedom of Information Act were received by the Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation in 1994-95.
Categories of Documents Held
| Category | Nature | Access |
| Administration | files | D |
| Annual operating plans | files | D |
| Annual reports | files, publications | D, C |
| Applications, guidelines and contracts | files, forms | D, C |
| Assets register | files | D |
| Financial management | files | D |
| Five year plans | files, publications | D, C |
| Project lists | files, publications | D, C |
| R&D program plans | files, publications | D, C |
| Research reports | files, publications | D, C |
| Workshop reports | files, publications | D, C |
Access C: documents customarily made available.
Access D: documents not customarily made available due
to privacy or commercial-in-confidence reasons.
Last updated: 9 August 1996
Copyright © RIRDC
http://www.rirdc.gov.au/pub/anrep95/anrep8.html