Portfolio: Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry
https://apvma.gov.au/
$65M
2026-27 Budget (Budget Paper No. 4)$50M
2024-25 Total Revenue250
Headcount (2024-25)Notable upward shift in 2026-27 funding (+23.5%, $12M change). 2025-26 estimated actual $53M → 2026-27 budget $65M. Source: Budget Paper No. 4, Agency Resourcing tables.
Digital Services to Take Farmers to Markets (TFTM)
Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry
Total Budget
$322.9M
Digital Budget
$322.9M
October 2020 — June 2026
The TFTM program is transforming Australia’s agricultural export systems with the delivery of contemporary digital products and services for trade and exporter engagement. Tranche 1 established the foundations for the digital reforms by uplifting existing systems onto modern and reliable platforms and developing new digital services. Tranche 2 builds on the capabilities delivered in Tranche 1 by delivering a dynamic program of work that enables the department to be a risk-based, data-enabled regulator.
Capital Security, Technology, and Asset Refresh (CapSTAR)
Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry
Total Budget
$287.9M
Digital Budget
$201.2M
July 2024 — June 2028
The CapSTAR program aims to refresh and maintain essential property and ICT assets, reduce risk in service delivery and ensure critical business systems are supported, patched and resilient. The outcome will be a sustainable and efficient technology and physical infrastructure portfolio, through reduced technical debt and increased physical and cyber maturity.
Simplified Targeting and Enhanced Processing Systems (STEPS)
Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry
Total Budget
$144.9M
Digital Budget
$144.9M
July 2023 — June 2026
The STEPS program will transform the border process for cargo importers who depend on the department to mitigate and regulate biosecurity risk in a challenging global marketplace. At the time of preparing this report, this project is subject to the escalation protocols set out in the Assurance Framework for Digital and ICT Investments. These protocols are designed to support agencies in the timely resolution of delivery challenges.
Supporting a Stronger and More Sustainable Agriculture Sector
Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry
Total Budget
$9.5M
Digital Budget
$9.5M
July 2023 — June 2026
This project aims to uplift the ICT, data and statistical systems’ capabilities to meet the department’s needs. This will improve the accessibility of agricultural data and information, improve and remediate survey processing systems, rebuild geospatial infrastructure, and gather requirements on future capabilities necessary to transform and enable agricultural data and information products to suit changing needs.
Climate Services for Agriculture (CSA) Program
Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry
Total Budget
$22M
Digital Budget
$11.5M
July 2025 — July 2028
The CSA Program aims to build drought resilience by enabling users to anticipate future climate conditions, compare those conditions with historical climate records, and consider potential impacts on the food and fibre products they produce. CSA provides climate projections for specific commodities at a local scale via a free online platform, ‘My Climate View’.
Knowledge Management (Dorper2)
Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry
Total Budget
$7.6M
Digital Budget
$7.6M
April 2025 — June 2028
This project aims to make the knowledge generated by the Future Drought Fund (FDF) more accessible, and promote wider adoption through a systematic and strategic approach. It will develop a knowledge management system (Dorper2) to collect and store FDF knowledge, such as program outputs and outcomes, project data and information, and contract management information.
12 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
To regulate agricultural and veterinary chemicals to protect the health and safety of people, animals and the environment, and to support primary industries, biosecurity and international trade for all Australians.
VISION
“To be a global leader in agricultural and veterinary chemicals regulation for the benefit of Australia.”
Corporate Plan 2025 · p.7PURPOSE
To regulate agricultural and veterinary chemicals to protect the health and safety of people, animals and the environment, and to support primary industries, biosecurity and international trade for all Australians.
Corporate Plan 2025 · p.7Strategic priorities
· 5
Outcomes
· 5
Outcome 1: Being a trusted, transparent and fair regulator
Regulate in an open, accountable and predictable way that encourages participation by all stakeholders.
KEY ACTIVITIES
Outcome 2: Supporting a contemporary regulatory system
Actively contribute to the domestic and global agvet chemical regulation policy development agenda.
KEY ACTIVITIES
Outcome 3: Building regulatory foresight capability
Be vigilant to global and national trends, to identify issues and changes in chemical application and use and implement ways of working and building our capability to support innovation within the agvet chemical sector and respond to Australia’s future regulatory needs.
KEY ACTIVITIES
Outcome 4: Striving for operational excellence
Ensure the regulatory process does not pose an undue burden on the Australian agvet chemical sector.
KEY ACTIVITIES
Outcome 5: Attracting, developing and retaining talented people
Develop and empower a high-performing, diverse and agile workforce that is highly engaged with our purpose.
KEY ACTIVITIES
Values
· 6
Impartial
Committed to service
Accountable
Respectful
Ethical
Stewardship
Performance measures
· 10
| Code | Measure | Target 2025-26 | Latest result | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
CCE01 | Proportion of stakeholders surveyed who agree that the APVMA has been a trusted, transparent and fair regulator over the past 12 months | 65% Corporate Plan 2025 · p.26 | Not available | Not achieved |
CCE02 | Proportion of all applications finalised within legislative timeframes | 90% Corporate Plan 2025 · p.26 | Not available | Not achieved |
CCE03 | Number of Proposed and Final Regulatory Decisions for chemical reconsiderations released in accordance with the timeframe specified in the workplan | All planned milestones/projects planned for delivery in the reporting period have met schedule Corporate Plan 2025 · p.26 | Not available | Not achieved |
CCE04 | Proportion of serious adverse experience reports received and assessments completed by the APVMA within 20 business days of being received | 75% Corporate Plan 2025 · p.26 | Not available | Not achieved |
CCE05 | Number of audits, recalls, and compliance actions the APVMA undertakes, including those with state and territory partners that require action, and a percentage of how many of these were resolved | 200 Corporate Plan 2025 · p.27 | Not available | Not achieved |
CCE06 | Number of contributions to the domestic and global policy development agenda | 45 Corporate Plan 2025 · p.27 | Not available | Not achieved |
CCE07 | Proportion of stakeholders surveyed who believe the APVMA has effective regulatory foresight capability | 60% Corporate Plan 2025 · p.28 | Not available | Not achieved |
CCE08 | Average time taken to finalise applications for new active constituents with accompanying new product(s) relative to the relevant legislative timeframe | 0 days Corporate Plan 2025 · p.28 | Not available | Not achieved |
CCE09 | Proportion of regulatory and business enabling activities that pass quality audits | 95% Corporate Plan 2025 · p.29 | Not available | Not achieved |
CCE10 | Proportion of APVMA staff who report a high level of engagement with the APVMA | >= 75% Corporate Plan 2025 · p.30 | Not available | Not achieved |
Source documents
· 1
Ideas distilled from this entity's strategy & evidence
· 12
KPI evidence register with named owners
Create a simple register mapping each KPI to source data, owner, frequency, target, and last result.
25-29)
Outcome dashboard linking budget, delivery, and public impact
Build a public-facing outcome dashboard showing spend, outputs, outcomes, and delivery confidence.
25-29)
Regulatory burden scan for forms, guidance, and reporting
Identify the top 10 highest-friction reporting obligations and simplify guidance, forms, or evidence requirements.
APVMA%20Corporate%20Plan%202025-29.pdf)
Adaptive regulation program with live feedback loops
Create an adaptive regulation model using sandboxes, industry data, risk scoring, and regular rule updates.
APVMA%20Corporate%20Plan%202025-29.pdf)
Recommendation tracker for audits, reviews, and inquiries
Publish a single internal tracker for audit/review recommendations, owners, due dates, and implementation evidence.
ohs-part-6)
Integrated assurance and lessons-learned system
Create an assurance system that connects audit findings, risk registers, delivery reviews, and investment decisions.
ohs-part-6)
Reusable briefing and summary assistant for internal documents
Create controlled templates for summarising reports, submissions, minutes, and ministerial briefs.
detailed-response-final-report-future-structure-governance-arrangements-apvma.pdf)
Department-wide knowledge and briefing platform
Build a secure knowledge platform that lets staff search, summarise, and cite approved departmental material.
detailed-response-final-report-future-structure-governance-arrangements-apvma.pdf)
Consultation feedback summaries with response tracking
Summarise consultation submissions by theme and publish what changed in response.
detailed-response-final-report-future-structure-governance-arrangements-apvma.pdf)
Always-on policy participation platform
Create a standing participation platform where citizens and stakeholders can propose, vote, and track ideas.
detailed-response-final-report-future-structure-governance-arrangements-apvma.pdf)
Triage queue for stuck or ageing cases
Use existing case data to flag ageing, duplicate, incomplete, or high-risk cases for earlier intervention.
ohs-part-6)
End-to-end case processing redesign
Redesign the case pathway around risk-based triage, reusable evidence, and automated eligibility checks.
ohs-part-6)
KPI evidence register with named owners
Create a simple register mapping each KPI to source data, owner, frequency, target, and last result.
25-29)
Outcome dashboard linking budget, delivery, and public impact
Build a public-facing outcome dashboard showing spend, outputs, outcomes, and delivery confidence.
25-29)
Regulatory burden scan for forms, guidance, and reporting
Identify the top 10 highest-friction reporting obligations and simplify guidance, forms, or evidence requirements.
APVMA%20Corporate%20Plan%202025-29.pdf)
Adaptive regulation program with live feedback loops
Create an adaptive regulation model using sandboxes, industry data, risk scoring, and regular rule updates.
APVMA%20Corporate%20Plan%202025-29.pdf)
Recommendation tracker for audits, reviews, and inquiries
Publish a single internal tracker for audit/review recommendations, owners, due dates, and implementation evidence.
ohs-part-6)
Integrated assurance and lessons-learned system
Create an assurance system that connects audit findings, risk registers, delivery reviews, and investment decisions.
ohs-part-6)
Reusable briefing and summary assistant for internal documents
Create controlled templates for summarising reports, submissions, minutes, and ministerial briefs.
detailed-response-final-report-future-structure-governance-arrangements-apvma.pdf)
Department-wide knowledge and briefing platform
Build a secure knowledge platform that lets staff search, summarise, and cite approved departmental material.
detailed-response-final-report-future-structure-governance-arrangements-apvma.pdf)
Consultation feedback summaries with response tracking
Summarise consultation submissions by theme and publish what changed in response.
detailed-response-final-report-future-structure-governance-arrangements-apvma.pdf)
Always-on policy participation platform
Create a standing participation platform where citizens and stakeholders can propose, vote, and track ideas.
detailed-response-final-report-future-structure-governance-arrangements-apvma.pdf)
Triage queue for stuck or ageing cases
Use existing case data to flag ageing, duplicate, incomplete, or high-risk cases for earlier intervention.
ohs-part-6)
End-to-end case processing redesign
Redesign the case pathway around risk-based triage, reusable evidence, and automated eligibility checks.
ohs-part-6)
Bodies within the Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry portfolio
Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation (trading as AgriFutures Australia)
Corporate Commonwealth Entity
Grains Research and Development Corporation
Corporate Commonwealth Entity
Fisheries Research and Development Corporation
Corporate Commonwealth Entity
Cotton Research and Development Corporation
Corporate Commonwealth Entity
Wine Australia
Corporate Commonwealth Entity
Australian Fisheries Management Authority
Non-corporate Commonwealth Entity
Regional Investment Corporation
Corporate Commonwealth Entity
Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation Selection Committee
Statutory Body
Grains Research and Development Corporation Selection Committee
Statutory Body
Fisheries Research and Development Corporation Selection Committee
Statutory Body
Cotton Research and Development Corporation Selection Committee
Statutory Body
Wine Australia Selection Committee
Statutory Body