PHA Board Meeting 111 Communique
The Plant Health Australia (PHA) Board recently travelled to Sydney for Board Meeting 111 (BM 111) on 30 May 2023. The meeting was held in conjunction with the 35th Plant Industry Forum, the 12th Plant Health Australia Member Forum, the 22nd General Meeting and the 37th Emergency Plant Pest Response Deed (EPPRD) Signatories meeting, held 31 May and 1 June at Rydges Sydney Central hotel.
The BM 111 agenda included discussion of strategic issues, a review of financial reports, risk management plans and policy, as well as management and compliance activities of the EPPRD.
The Board discussed several topics and issues relevant to implementation of company strategy, operations and PHA Members including:
- Reviewing and assessing the company’s time spent on increasingly complex and concurrent plant pest incursion responses. Although no specific requirement exists in the EPPRD for PHA to have defined normal commitments, they were established by the Board in 2015/16 (and agreed by the signatories), to provide transparency in what may be considered additional to PHA’s ordinary operating costs
- The national deployment of PHA’s digital systems and associated project progression of AUSPestCheck® as a cross-sectoral application with delivery of new user enhancements and noting the governance arrangements for the cost shared diagnostic applications, the Australian Plant Pest Database (APPD) and Pest and Disease Image Library (PaDIL).
- Receiving a briefing on the increased cybersecurity protections that PHA have incorporated into their corporate ICT infrastructure
- Planning the Board’s Strategic Planning workshop in July which will focus on sustainable business modelling in concert with effective business strategy metrics and horizon scanning to understand the changing compliance and funding landscape. It includes a joint meeting of the PHA and Animal Health Australia Boards.
The Board also provided endorsement of the 2023-24 Annual Operational Plan (including the operating budget) which was subsequently presented to and approved by members at the 22nd General Meeting.
Board meeting 112 will be held in Darwin in September and will include the opportunity to spend time with members and stakeholders to experience their operating environment and hear their views on plant biosecurity.
