APVMA chemical regulation and Armidale move condemned in new report

The damning assessment of the Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority (APVMA) has left the government with much to consider, with the regulator falling short in every key area.

A report was released on Friday and found "serious and systemic issues" with the regulator's operations, conduct and governance. The chief executive and chair have quit in the wake of the damning review into the body.

The report also found former Nationals leader Barnaby Joyce's decision to move the regulator to Armidale resulted in "a loss of corporate knowledge, a loss of corporate culture and a loss of experience and knowledge of public-sector values".

"The matters identified by the review are very serious and point to systemic problems with the administration and governance of the APVMA," Agriculture minister Murray Watt said.

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"Concerningly, the review found serious allegations of chemical industry capture of the APVMA, which appears to have played a key role in the organisation not performing its full regulatory responsibilities."

The report was extremely critical of APVMA's internal goals, including an "unrealistic" expectation to assess and approve 100 per cent of chemicals within the expected time frame.

"Making timeframes the key driver and performance metric for registrations, assessments and approvals is not realistic, and does not reflect regulatory best practice or resourcing," the report stated.

The regulator is alarmingly close to the industry, with the APVMA prioritising industry engagement, while drastically reducing compliance and enforcement activities, adopting a "low-risk profile approach".

In one instance, the APVMA elected to proceed with educational enforcement measures, despite a recommendation for criminal or civil penalty prosecution, giving no reason for its decision.

"The APVMA's emphasis on timely registrations, assessments and approvals over monitoring, compliance and enforcement is a prioritisation that, on one view, best serves industry interests," the report stated.

"The APVMA appears reticent to take compliance and enforcement action against industry."

The majority of APVMA's ongoing chemical reviews have been in progress for nearly two decades. Of the 10 ongoing chemical reviews, eight have been in progress for over 15 years or more, with seven ongoing for nearly 20 years.

"There are concerns that this has resulted in some chemicals remaining in products in Australia where they have been banned in other jurisdictions," the report stated.

The review was triggered by shocking claims about its workplace culture, including a senior male manager leaving the organisation after urinating on staff members at a Christmas party.

The investigation uncovered a number of further allegations and complaints that were "very serious", and have been referred to police.

The report found an "unacceptable volume of personnel related complaints for an agency of its size", including allegations of serious misconduct.

"Both the seriousness of the allegations, the concentration of the allegations and the wide-ranging nature of the allegations requires immediate further assessment by the board," the report stated.

"The allegations also suggest a consistent theme of dissatisfaction in the manner that complaints were handled or progressed."

There were 21 complaints about inappropriate behaviour. Further complaints were made about conflicts of interest in recruitment, unauthorised publication of official information on social media and excessive work demands.

"There were clearly cultural issues with the organisation given that on average there was a formal complaint about once every 4 to 6 weeks for five years," the report stated.

The APMVA has an extremely high level of staff turnover, which is the result of the workplace culture, unreasonable expectation to meet 100 per cent of timeframes and the 2019 relocation from Canberra to Armidale.

The turnover has impacted the organisation's capability across all key operation and business areas and the is a desperate need to upskill staff with corporate knowledge.

The current governance structure, and in particular, the relationship between the CEO and the board, needs to be carefully examined and more clearly defined, report found.

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