Our mission of growing sustainable and competitive regions in South Australia

View PIRSA Strategic Direction 2012-15 (PDF 2.4 MB)

Our vision for the future

We will involve all sectors that intersect with our food production system - energy, land use, conservation and tourism. People throughout our region and the world will know that South Australian produce is clean and green.

Our vision

The South Australian food industry will be a vibrant, robust and sustainable industry contributing $20 billion per annum to the South Australian economy, by the year 2020.

The state's regional population will have increased to 320 000 with employment across a range of industry sectors.

The regional economy will continue to be underpinned by primary production but will be supported by a more diversified economy through an increasing focus on value added food, fibre and beverage processing, tourism and resources.

The increased economic wealth of the regions will support an improved level of amenity making regional South Australia one of the most desirable locations in the world to work and live.

Our mission

PIRSA's mission is to grow sustainable, competitive regions.

Our focus on growing industries and regional development includes policy development, research, biosecurity and integrated solutions for agriculture, seafood, forestry, fibre, wine and food. PIRSA is also responsible for the continued development of our regional areas through the harnessing of opportunities for regional industries and their communities.

PIRSA’s strategic objectives are built around -

• Securing sustainable access to resources such as land, water and stock;
• Enhancing and growing the efficiency and value of production;
• Ensuring and expanding access to markets; and
• Working with South Australia’s regional communities to enhance sustainable, economic prosperity.

Critical to achieving the goals of South Australia’s Strategic Plan (SASP) is PIRSA’s ability to provide leadership and expertise, and to develop constructive partnerships with industry, other levels of government, and the wider community.

PIRSA has people working in locations across metropolitan and rural South Australia and the knowledge, skills and experience of its people are integral to achieving PIRSA’s objectives.

Our risks and challenges

PIRSA has undertaken an extensive risk assessment of our strategic objectives, resulting in a number of key strategic priorities being identified as follows.

Our strategic priorities

1. To effectively influence state and national policy agendas to ensure decisions impacting water, land use, natural resource management and climate change adaptation support sustainable primary production and other regional industries;
2. Drive greater connection between government policy making to develop a whole-of-government policy framework that enables industry to innovate, adapt and compete in a rapidly changing international marketplace;
3. Build on Australia’s clean and green reputation and South Australia’s world class biosecurity practices to enhance the value of primary production outputs and secure access to existing and emerging markets;
4. Harness the value-adding opportunities from primary production such as food and wine tourism and food and beverage processing;
5. Involve and engage with regional communities and government agencies to integrate the implementation of plans for each region on issues such as regional development, tourism, infrastructure, resource allocation and workforce attraction, retention and skilling; and
6. Encourage and assist the development of existing, new and diversified regional business activities through a fully integrated case management approach that supports access to capital attraction, investment attraction, marketing opportunities (including export marketing), mentoring, and government grant funding.

Our partnerships

PIRSA recognises the importance of developing partnerships so that these objectives can be achieved. This is reflected in our commitment to a highly collaborative approach.

PIRSA will develop a close working relationship with the South Australian Tourism Commission, leveraging the opportunity from both portfolios coming under the one Minister. This approach will be the hallmark of our interaction with regional communities and other State Government agencies, particularly Department for Water and the Department for Environment and Natural Resources and Department for Manufacturing, Innovation, Trade, Resources and Energy as well as federal and local government.

As a key government agency with a presence in and connection to the regions, PIRSA also has a significant role in meeting whole-of-government responsibilities around emergency planning and response.

To achieve our goals PIRSA will:

Harness greater value from the food, fibre and wine sectors, together with other primary industries, to significantly contribute to the state exceeding the national economic growth rate and to meeting its target of $25 billion in export income by 2020.

Reinvigorate and strengthen regional communities and renew confidence in the future of our regions to ensure South Australia is on track to reach a regional population of 320 000 by 2020.

Our values

We will provide strong and effective leadership to our staff through a commitment to our values of:

• Integrity – committing to PIRSA’s values in everything we do;
• Respect – actively valuing what our people bring and providing an environment that encourages all of us to achieve great things;
• Collaboration – building trusting relationships to influence change and deliver solutions;
• Innovation – challenging ourselves and being open to the ideas and contributions of others; and
• Achievement – enabling PIRSA to continue to deliver solutions that make a real difference.

Our governance

Our corporate governance framework will ensure that our leadership, staff, the government, the Parliament and the public can rely on us to deliver on our commitments and promises whilst ensuring a high level of probity and accountability.

Our corporate governance commitments are to ensure -

The health, safety and wellbeing of our workforce, volunteers and others in our workplace through commitment to continuous improvement of the PIRSafe system and the creation and upholding of a positive culture towards safety and wellbeing.

1. Our financial management system enables appropriate budgeting to resource divisions to deliver on commitments and strategic priorities and ensures effective monitoring and reporting against budgets.
2. Our risk management framework identifies and assesses all material risks and ensures that key risk controls are regularly reviewed and audited for effectiveness and relevance.
3. People initiatives are focussed on leading, managing and developing staff to achieve our objectives in an environment where people can learn, develop, excel and achieve. 
4. A customer oriented organisational culture where customer service is an integral part of PIRSA’s activities and management philosophy.
5. A commitment to advancing reconciliation and creating respectful long term relationships and opportunities for Aboriginal people through the PIRSA Reconciliation Action Plan.
6. Opportunities for women in leadership roles within PIRSA and equal representation on all boards and committees associated with PIRSA.