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Federal
Corporate Commonwealth Entity
Transport and Infrastructure

Australian Maritime Safety Authority

Portfolio: Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications, Sport and the Arts

http://www.amsa.gov.au

Annual Budget

$283M

2026-27 Budget (Budget Paper No. 4)
+10.8%vs prior year ($256M)
Total Revenue

$250M

2024-25 Total Revenue
Staff

450

Headcount (2024-25)
Budget Commentary

Material upward shift in 2026-27 funding (+10.8%, $28M change). 2025-26 estimated actual $256M → 2026-27 budget $283M. Source: Budget Paper No. 4, Agency Resourcing tables.

Major Digital Projects
5

New Vehicle Efficiency Standard (NVES) Regulator and IT Build

Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications, Sport and the Arts

Tier 2
DCA: Medium
Active

Total Budget

$79.2M

Digital Budget

$23.8M

July 2024January 2026

The establishment of a NVES for light vehicles will deliver more fuel-efficient cars for Australians and support the government’s commitment to achieve net zero by 2050. This investment is for the development of an effective ICT environment in which to manage the regulatory obligations around the NVES, such as data capture from vehicle suppliers/importers, reporting, facilitation of compliance and audit functions, and the establishment and maintenance of a NVES credit trading scheme.

Reporting and Program Management (RPM) System

Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications, Sport and the Arts

Tier 2
DCA: High
Active

Total Budget

$30.8M

Digital Budget

$14.2M

July 2023June 2026

The RPM project is improving the administration of grant payments to states and territories for land transport infrastructure projects. Following recommendations from the Australian National Audit Office, the department is developing a new system, which has been designed to address evolving business needs and transition the current legacy system to a more scalable and flexible system. The RPM Project Objectives are: (1) Develop a new system to automate, simplify and streamline business processes; (2) Provide a single source of data for all grant process stages that is validated and accurate, easy to access and analyse; (3) Ensure the new system is intuitive, easy to use and flexible, and can be extended to meet future needs; and (4) Migrate data from the existing data sources into a consolidated source of truth for infrastructure investment.

Digital First (DF) Program

National Archives of Australia

Tier 3
Active

Total Budget

$25.1M

Digital Budget

$20.6M

July 2023June 2026

The National Archives of Australia has established the DF Program to uplift its ability to manage, preserve and provide meaningful access to an increasingly digital collection of records that hold national significance. In late 2025, the DF Program was rescoped to realign the work of the program to support implementation of the new Strategy 2025–2030: Evolving National Archives. The program will finish in June 2026, with additional scope relating to account and workload management to be addressed through strategy implementation.

Fighting SMS Scams

Australian Communications and Media Authority

Tier 3
Active

Total Budget

$10.9M

Digital Budget

$3.2M

October 2024July 2026

This project is enabling the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) to develop, operate and maintain an SMS ID registry to help prevent scammers from impersonating brands and entities in texts, using message headers (such as myGov), and to create a trusted communications channel.

Spectrum Management

Australian Communications and Media Authority

Tier 3
Active

Total Budget

$22.7M

Digital Budget

$20.9M

October 2022May 2027

The digital spectrum management system will include a range of new and enhanced digital and ICT capabilities to support improved spectrum management.

Ideas relevant to this department

8 tagged

Reform proposals on YourGov that name this department as a delivery partner — drawn from citizen voice, government strategy, research, international examples and gap analysis.

STRATEGY SUMMARY

As Australia’s national maritime regulatory body, we promote the safety and protection of our marine environment and combat ship-sourced pollution. We provide the infrastructure for safety of navigation in Australian waters, and maintain a national search and rescue service for the maritime and aviation sectors. [CP p.8]

VISION

Safe and clean seas, saving lives. [CP p.8]

PURPOSE

As Australia’s national maritime regulatory body, we promote the safety and protection of our marine environment and combat ship-sourced pollution. We provide the infrastructure for safety of navigation in Australian waters, and maintain a national search and rescue service for the maritime and aviation sectors. [CP p.8]

Strategic priorities

· 4

1

Managing risks to safety and the environment

2

Delivering the national system for domestic commercial vessel safety

3

Providing incident preparedness and response

4

Ensuring a vibrant and progressive organisation

Outcomes

· 4

Outcome 1: Managing risks to safety and the environment

Develop maritime safety and environment protection standards, make regulations to give effect to those standards, monitor compliance with and enforce those standards. [AR p.20-34]

KEY ACTIVITIES

  • Develop maritime safety and environment protection standards
  • Make regulations to give effect to those standards
  • Monitor compliance with and enforce those standards

Outcome 2: Domestic commercial vessel safety

Ensuring regulated vessels are operated safely and meet standards, preventing pollution from shipping, supporting safe navigation, contributing to and implementing international conventions. [AR p.31-37]

KEY ACTIVITIES

  • Ensuring regulated vessels are operated safely and meet standards
  • Preventing pollution from shipping
  • Supporting safe navigation
  • Contributing to and implementing international conventions

Outcome 3: Incident preparedness and response

Pre-emptively intervening to assure vessel safety, saving lives daily through search and rescue, delivering an effective incident response capability, delivering an effective marine pollution response capability. [AR p.39-48]

KEY ACTIVITIES

  • Pre-emptively intervening to assure vessel safety
  • Saving lives daily through search and rescue
  • Delivering an effective incident response capability
  • Delivering an effective marine pollution response capability

Outcome 4: Organisational capability

Workforce engagement, development and safety, good governance, sound financial management, reliable and responsive information technology. [AR p.49-56]

KEY ACTIVITIES

  • Workforce engagement, development and safety
  • Good governance
  • Sound financial management
  • Reliable and responsive information technology

Values

· 4

Promote maritime safety and protection of the marine environment

Prevent and combat ship-sourced pollution in the marine environment

Provide infrastructure to support safe navigation in Australian waters

Provide a national search and rescue service to the maritime and aviation sectors

Performance measures

· 3

CodeMeasureTarget 2025-26Latest resultStatus

CCE01

Sulphur cap

0.50 per cent

Effective implementation

Annual Report 2019-20 · p.28
Achieved

MAR01

Maritime Labour Convention deficiencies

<0.5

0.19

Annual Report 2019-20 · p.24
Achieved

NAV01

Average number of deficiencies per inspection

<3.25

2.03

Annual Report 2019-20 · p.20
Achieved

Ideas distilled from this entity's strategy & evidence

· 8

Regulation & Policy

Increase pollution inspection frequency

Introduce more frequent inspections of vessels to reduce pollution incidents.

Impact: High
Effort: High
Large

2019-20.pdf

Procurement & Delivery

Streamline vessel registration process

Simplify vessel registration to reduce delays and administrative burden.

Impact: Medium
Effort: Medium
Small

2019-20.pdf

Data & Performance

Enhance maintenance of navigation aids

Increase frequency and quality of maintenance for navigation aids to improve safety.

Impact: High
Effort: High
Large

2019-20.pdf

Regulation & Policy

Adopt international pollution control protocols

Implement internationally recognised pollution control protocols to enhance regulatory effectiveness.

Impact: Very High
Effort: High
Large

association-worldbank.org-governance.txt

Citizen Services

Enhance search and rescue response times

Reduce response times for search and rescue operations to save more lives.

Impact: High
Effort: High
Large

2019-20.pdf

Data & Performance

Implement real-time vessel monitoring

Use real-time data to monitor vessel compliance with safety and environmental regulations.

Impact: Medium
Effort: Medium
Small

consulting-deloitte.com-government-public.txt

Citizen Participation

Reduce paperwork for vessel owners

Eliminate unnecessary paperwork to reduce administrative burden for vessel owners.

Impact: Low
Effort: Low
Small

2019-20.pdf

Regulation & Policy

Adopt global pollution standards

Adopt global standards for marine pollution control to align with international best practices.

Impact: Very High
Effort: High
Large

university-ash.harvard.edu-Harvard-Kennedy-School-Ash-Center.txt

Regulation & Policy

Increase pollution inspection frequency

Introduce more frequent inspections of vessels to reduce pollution incidents.

Impact: High
Effort: High
Large

2019-20.pdf

Procurement & Delivery

Streamline vessel registration process

Simplify vessel registration to reduce delays and administrative burden.

Impact: Medium
Effort: Medium
Small

2019-20.pdf

Data & Performance

Enhance maintenance of navigation aids

Increase frequency and quality of maintenance for navigation aids to improve safety.

Impact: High
Effort: High
Large

2019-20.pdf

Regulation & Policy

Adopt international pollution control protocols

Implement internationally recognised pollution control protocols to enhance regulatory effectiveness.

Impact: Very High
Effort: High
Large

association-worldbank.org-governance.txt

Citizen Services

Enhance search and rescue response times

Reduce response times for search and rescue operations to save more lives.

Impact: High
Effort: High
Large

2019-20.pdf

Data & Performance

Implement real-time vessel monitoring

Use real-time data to monitor vessel compliance with safety and environmental regulations.

Impact: Medium
Effort: Medium
Small

consulting-deloitte.com-government-public.txt

Citizen Participation

Reduce paperwork for vessel owners

Eliminate unnecessary paperwork to reduce administrative burden for vessel owners.

Impact: Low
Effort: Low
Small

2019-20.pdf

Regulation & Policy

Adopt global pollution standards

Adopt global standards for marine pollution control to align with international best practices.

Impact: Very High
Effort: High
Large

university-ash.harvard.edu-Harvard-Kennedy-School-Ash-Center.txt

Legislation administered

· 6

Act

1990

Australian Maritime Safety Authority Act 1990

The entity administers this Act to promote maritime safety and combat marine pollution.

Act

1983

Protection of the Sea (Prevention of Pollution from Ships) Act 1983

The entity administers this Act to prevent pollution from ships.

Act

2012

Navigation Act 2012

The entity administers this Act to ensure safe navigation in Australian waters.

Act

2012

Marine Safety (Domestic Commercial Vessel) National Law Act 2012

The entity administers this Act to ensure safe operations of domestic commercial vessels.

International Agreement

1973

International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships (MARPOL)

The entity implements regulations under this international agreement to prevent marine pollution.

International Agreement

1979

International Convention on Maritime Search and Rescue 1979

The entity implements search and rescue services under this international agreement.

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