Animal Health Australia's mission is to ensure that Australia's national animal health system delivers a competitive advantage and preferred market access for Australia's livestock industries.

Key contributors to the national animal health system include livestock producers, the Commonwealth, state and territory governments, private animal health service providers, education institutions and research and development organisations as well as other participants in the livestock production and value chains.

The National Animal Health Performance Standards were developed to ensure that contributors to the national animal health system perform to appropriate standards in all activities that impact on the national animal health status and to ensure continuous improvement in the capability of the Australia's animal health system.

Version 1 of the standards was developed by Animal Health Australia in 2001 following extensive consultation with all stakeholders. Animal Health Australia continued to work with the Animal Health Committee and others to refine and restructure the standards to produce Version 2. During the course of 2003 all government and most industry members of Animal Health Australia conducted self-assessments of their performance against Version 2 of the standards. The experience and feedback from those involved in the self-assessments and further consultation with stakeholders has been taken into account in developing Version 3.

The Need for National Performance Standards

The Animal Health Services Program was formed by Animal Health Australia's members to improve the national capability and performance of the national animal health system. A major focus of the program to date has been the development of performance standards to provide an objective means of measuring agreed outputs from the system.

Under Australia's Federal system, animal health services are provided under a number of separate and autonomous jurisdictions. Programs to meet national objectives are managed and delivered on a regional basis, with varying approaches. The aim of this program is to achieve consistency in outcomes, rather than uniformity in delivery, which is not realistically achievable under a Federal system.

The key stakeholders in the livestock industries are producers and governments - Commonwealth, states and territories, and local governments where appropriate. Other important stakeholders include processors and traders of livestock and livestock products.

All stakeholders have an interest in the efficient and effective performance of the national animal health system. All stakeholders also have individual roles and responsibilities in ensuring the integrity of the system as a whole. It is essential that these roles and responsibilities are accepted and mutually recognised.

Several Animal Health Australia reviews of the national animal health system (eg the 1997 Review of Animal Health Services; Strategic Priorities for Animal Health in Australia 1998-2003; 1998 Review of National Laboratory Services; 1998 Review of Constituency Roles and Responsibilities) have stressed the need to establish national standards and to measure the performance and outputs of the system.

To meet its national and international obligations, Australia's national animal health services need to meet certain minimum performance standards. These standards need to be determined, agreed and subjected to on-going monitoring.

The Animal Health 2010 study commissioned by Animal Health Australia in 1999-2000 indicated that developments in domestic and international policy will pose significant challenges for Australia's animal industries over the next decade. These industries will face increasing pressuring posed by new technologies, and mounting consumer and political sensitivity to issues of animal health and product integrity. Australia's national animal health system will need to be able to respond to these challenges and to position Australia to take advantage of opportunities as they arise.

Assessment and evaluation of performance

Government and livestock industry members will undertake assessment against the National Animal Health Performance Standards Version 3 during 2006. Compliance with Version 3 of the performance standards will be ascertained by the use of a risk assessment protocol developed for this purpose.

The standards are organised into a matrix of six core functions and nine core capabilities. Within this there are measures required to achieve the outcomes specified. In undertaking an evaluation of performance against a measure the member will be required to first identify and assess the risks associated with the measure, that are faced by the member. In this way each member will be able to focus attention to areas where they have identified the risk to be greater.

The assessment will be web-based, allowing members to view and review the risks they face and their performance against the standards. It will also enable Animal Health Australia to monitor trends in performance across governments and livestock industries and allow more efficient auditing of compliance with the performance standards.

Next steps

The National Animal Health Performance Standards are considered a working document that will be further tested and refined through use and evaluation.

The National Animal Health Performance Standards and the assessment process will improve community, consumer and competitor awareness of, and confidence in, Australia's animal health status and system.

Further information

For further information please contact:

Karin Ahrling
Project Manager
Animal Health Australia
Phone: (02) 6203 3912
Fax: (02) 6232 5511
Email: Kahrling@animalhealthaustralia.com.au

Page Updated: 17 October 2006