Bridget McKenzie (Victoria, National Party, Minister for Emergency Management and National Recovery and Resilience) Share this | Hansard source

I absolutely agreed with setting up this board as the appropriate model of governance. Every other Commonwealth entity of this type has a similar governance arrangement to that we are proposing in this bill. I think it will give the right level of oversight, accountability and transparency and also ensure that the role of the CEO of the APVMA can focus on the day-to-day duties and leave that largely governance oversight to the appropriate mechanism in the board.

As to why vacant positions on the advisory board that have existed in the past have not been filled, obviously that's been a decision of government. As you know, currently there's a nine-person advisory board. It had no legislative powers to direct any course of action. So it being in existence or not didn't actually result in any direct kinds of specific actions out of the CEO. The course we've taken is appropriate. It's taken some time to get agreement to the changes that we have proposed. They're before the Senate now and, rightfully, we're looking for the Senate to support them.