Our executive

Daryl Quinlivan has been the Secretary of the department since June 2015. Mr Quinlivan is the department’s accountable authority, and is responsible for its efficient and effective operation. His other roles include chairing:

• the National Biosecurity Committee
• National Management Group for nationally coordinated emergency responses to pest and disease incursions
• the Agriculture Senior Officials Committee.

Table 13 details of accountable authority during the reporting period 2018–19

Deputy secretaries assist the Secretary across a range of issues and departmental functions and oversee the work of particular divisions. Our deputy secretaries are:

Cindy Briscoe—responsible for the Agricultural Policy Division, Agvet Chemicals, Fisheries and Forestry Division, and Rural Policy and Farm Performance Division.

Neal Mason (acting)—responsible for the Assurance and Legal Division, Corporate Strategy and Governance Division, Finance and Business Support Division, and Information Services Division.

Lyn O’Connell PSM—responsible for the Biosecurity divisions and the Compliance Division, and oversees the Australian Chief Veterinary, Chief Environmental Biosecurity and Chief Plant Protection Officers.

Malcolm Thompson—responsible for the Exports Division, Live Animal Exports Division, Trade and Market Access Division, Water Division and the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences (ABARES).

Governance framework

The Executive Management Committee (EMC) oversees the implementation and improvement of our governance structures and business operations, shares responsibility for building capability and promotes collaboration between business areas, other agencies and our stakeholders.

In 2018–19 the EMC was supported by 4 subcommittees (Table 14):

• Business Transformation Committee
• Information and Data Management Committee
• People, Safety and Culture Committee
• Security and Business Continuity Committee.

As part of building the department’s performance, capability and efficiency, the EMC and its subcommittees have focused on informed strategic discussion and streamlined decision-making. Each committee’s meeting agenda item links to the department’s Corporate Plan, enabling targeted strategic and operational discussion. Any risks associated with each proposal or item under discussion are also a standing item.

Governance committee memberships have been revised to ensure best practice arrangements are in place for effective decision-making. We have implemented a Governance module in our online Planning Hub system to produce, track and manage action item reports.

Table 14 Executive committees—roles and membership, 30 June 2019

Audit Committee

This committee provides independent advice to the Secretary (as the accountable authority) on the department's risk, finance, control and compliance frameworks and its external accountability responsibilities.

Under its charter, the Audit Committee must include:

• at least 3 people, who have appropriate qualifications, knowledge, skills or experience to assist the committee to perform its functions
• a majority of members who are not officials of the department (Table 15).

The committee oversees an annual internal audit work program, undertaken by an independent internal audit team and contracted service providers. The work program is developed in consultation with senior management and is reviewed regularly to ensure it is relevant and responsive to changes and business risks. The program is approved by the Secretary.

Table 15 Audit Committee—role and membership, 30 June 2019

Committee	Role	Membership
Audit Committee— met 5 times in 2018–19	The Audit Committee provides independent assurance and advice to the Secretary on the department’s risk, finance, control and compliance framework.	Geoff Knuckey (Chair, Independent Member) David Bryant (Independent Member) Malcolm Thompson (Deputy Chair, Deputy Secretary, Department Member)

Managing our risk

Our Enterprise Risk Management Policy and Framework are administered in line with the requirements of the Commonwealth Risk Management Policy, and are approved by the Secretary. The Audit Committee reviews our systems of risk oversight and management. We take a risk-based approach to policy and program development, integrating risk management with governance, planning and performance management processes.

Our risk management includes identifying areas of strategic risk that, if realised, could affect our ability to achieve our organisational objectives. The EMC monitors these risks, including the effectiveness of identified controls and mitigation strategies. During the year, we reviewed the strategic risks to align them with the objectives and functions in the Corporate Plan 2018–19. We identified 8 areas of strategic risk to be monitored in 2019–20 (Figure 16).

Figure 16 Strategic risks 2019–20

We continued to review our risk appetite. This refers to the level of risk that we are willing to accept in carrying out our work. The department faces a range of risks that reflects its responsibilities, and we recognise that it is not possible, or necessarily desirable, to eliminate all of the risks inherent in our work.

Accepting some degree of risk in our business practices promotes efficiency and innovation. However, in other areas, such as the safety of our staff and biosecurity threats to human, animal and plant health and the environment, our risk appetite will always be very low.

We are committed to integrating climate risk management across the portfolio. We are embedding climate risk considerations in policy development and program delivery. This is vital to ensure we achieve our strategic objectives, given climate change is relevant across the breadth of departmental business. It is consistent with the Climate Compass framework, a whole-of-government approach to climate risk management. To support this, we are implementing a strategy for ongoing capacity building in climate risk identification and management.

We participate in the annual Comcover Risk Management Benchmarking Program survey. The survey measures the department’s risk management performance against the 9 elements of the Commonwealth Risk Management Policy and contemporary risk management best practice.

In the 2019 survey, we maintained our overall risk maturity rating of ‘Optimal’, which is the highest level in Comcover’s maturity model. In reporting the optimal rating, Comcover noted we had continued to make improvements in our risk management. Our benchmarked rating continues to be higher than the average maturity level of ‘Integrated’ across all 155 entities taking part in the survey.

Our department is also involved in the whole-of-government Chief Risk Officers Forum and the Commonwealth Risk Managers Forum. The forums provide an opportunity to discuss and share risk management approaches, issues, lessons learnt and best practices to improve risk management across the Commonwealth.

Strengthening integrity

Maintaining a strong integrity culture is essential to meet our legislative and parliamentary requirements, and to maintain the trust of the Australian Government, the public and our business partners.

We have continued to implement our integrity strategy to further strengthen our prevention, detection and response capabilities. This will enable us to maintain and support a strong integrity culture. A key component of this strategy has been the use of our existing employment framework and practices, with enhancements to support integrity checking. These are the foundations of the department’s integrity framework.

The integrity framework includes:

• the APS Values, Employment Principles and Code of Conduct
• integrity checking, using risk factors pertinent to different staff roles
• declaration of interests (including conflicts of interest)
• the Engaging in Outside Employment or Voluntary Work Policy
• the Workplace Drug and Alcohol Policy.

The framework builds on the capabilities and approaches developed in 2017–18. It supports employee awareness and compliance through the development of clear and concise policies, training and easily accessible reporting mechanisms that reinforce a pro-integrity culture.

We are committed to actively promoting the standards of behaviour outlined in the:

• APS Values, Employment Principles and Code of Conduct
• Public Interest Disclosure Act 2013
• Public Governance, Performance and Accountability Act 2013.

Our Fraud and Corruption Control Plan is informed by independent fraud and corruption risk assessments. These assessments evaluate existing and emerging fraud and corruption risk, and detail controls and treatment strategies to address these risks.

We have invested in greater resourcing and capability to prevent and detect fraudulent behaviour. This includes increasing resourcing across our fraud, corruption and integrity functions to enable us to prioritise and direct resources to areas of highest impact. Our fraud, corruption and integrity teams work in conjunction with our enterprise risk management and internal audit teams to strengthen our control environment.

Figure 17 Integrity snapshot, 2018–19

Our security

The department’s commitment to a strong security culture is set out in our Protective Security Policy. The policy outlines our obligations to mitigate security risks to our people, information and assets in accordance with the Australian Government Protective Security Policy Framework.

We evaluate the department’s maturity and compliance against the Protective Security Policy Framework through regular reporting to our Security and Business Continuity Committee, the Attorney-General’s Department and other key stakeholders.

In 2018–19 we increased the department’s capability and understanding of relevant vulnerabilities and delivered a program reflective of our risk profile and resourcing. Initiatives included:

• appointing a Chief Security Officer and Departmental Security Advisors
• consolidating our access systems and assets
• improving the performance of security guarding and after hours monitoring services
• establishing a national 24/7 security helpdesk
• developing guidelines to address security risks, and delivering personal safety awareness training for our officers who travel overseas for work
• developing the Protective Security Policy
• rolling out a Security Month, where security awareness sessions were delivered nationally.

Disclosure of protected information under the Biosecurity Act

Section 590 of the Biosecurity Act 2015 requires the Director of Biosecurity to prepare a report on the use of protected information for the period from 1 July 2018 to 30 June 2019.

During the reporting period, there were 16 written authorisations to disclose protected information under section 580(3) of the Act.

Grants

Information on grants awarded by the Department of Agriculture during 2018–19 is available on the GrantConnect website.