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Appendix 6

BUREAU OF METEOROLOGY

CORPORATE STRATEGY 1999-2004

Corporate Vision

Corporate Goals

Corporate Goal - Consolidating Basic Operations

Corporate Goal - World Class Service Provision

Corporate Goal - Preparing for the Future

Corporate Vision

A model of efficiency, professionalism and scientific and technical leadership in the provision of user-orientated meteorological, hydrological and oceanographic services in support of the safety, security and general welfare of the Australian community.

The achievement of this vision will depend on continued government commitment to ongoing funding of the public interest functions of the Bureau and an integrated and streamlined approach to the maintenance and operation of its basic infrastructure and essential public services and other outputs. It will also require that the Bureau move aggressively to capture new opportunities for the provision of cost-recoverable and commercial services and position itself to anticipate and respond effectively to new scientific and technological opportunities and to emerging community needs and expectations in the early decades of the 21^st century.

The successful implementation of this strategy will require sustained Bureau-wide commitment to the four corporate goals and 24 corporate strategic objectives set out below. These represent the overall policy framework for the identification of corporate priorities for the whole Bureau and for the formulation of specific five-year and annual objectives for its individual programs and Regions to complement and reinforce the ongoing objectives in all of the key areas of Bureau operations.

Corporate Goals

· Consolidating basic operations. To consolidate and maintain the integrity of the Bureau's essential basic infrastructure and ensure its efficiency, effectiveness and ongoing renewal.

· World class service provision. To upgrade and enhance the Bureau's essential services to the community at large and to the major statutorily-defined sectors of its user community.
· Capturing new opportunities. To promote and expand the range of cost recoverable and commercial services to specialised users and identifiable user groups.
· Preparing for the future. To anticipate and respond effectively to new needs, opportunities and trends in the application of meteorology, oceanography and hydrology to national environmental, economic, social and cultural goals.

Corporate Goal - Consolidating Basic Operations

The collection and custodianship of the national climate record, the achievement of a comprehensive understanding of the mechanisms of Australian weather and climate and the provision of effective national meteorological, oceanographic and hydrological services to the community at large represent the basic rationale for the existence of the Bureau as a public interest agency of government. The 1996 Review of the Operation of the Bureau of Meteorology (the Slatyer I Report) reaffirmed the Bureau's operational model as an appropriate framework for Australia's meteorological operations and stressed the importance of restoring the Bureau's basic weather and climate networks to benchmark levels. Through the 1996-97 Budget, the government provided initial funding to commence the restoration of the Bureau's basic infrastructure. It maintained this support through the 1999-2000 Budget and, through the appropriation of depreciation funding under the accrual budgeting framework, has provided a mechanism for maintaining the integrity of the basic national meteorological infrastructure on a continuing basis. The Bureau's strategy for continuing restoration and consolidation of its essential ongoing operations is thus based on the following corporate strategic objectives for 1999-2004:
· Long-term development strategy. To ensure broad internal and external understanding and acceptance of the long-term development strategy of the Bureau;
· Consolidation of basic infrastructure. To complete the restoration and modernisation of the Bureau's basic observational networks and associated data processing and service systems and ensure their maintenance on an ongoing basis;
· Integrated systems development. To collaborate closely with relevant external and international public and private sector organisations in the development of new observing, data processing and service delivery systems suitable for efficient integration into Bureau operations;

· Staff development and renewal. To strengthen the skills, motivation and productivity of Bureau staff by providing a range of technical, professional and management development opportunities for experienced staff and accelerating the recruitment of a new generation of younger staff into Bureau operations and research;
· Management information. To give very high priority to the further development and maintenance of a comprehensive integrated financial and performance management information system for the Bureau; and
· Streamlined administration. To exploit all available opportunities for streamlining administration and reducing the complexity of management processes associated with the introduction of accrual accounting and other Service-wide developments in public sector management without compromising essential information flow or accountability.

Corporate Goal - World Class Service Provision

Following Government acceptance of the basic conclusions of the Review of the Operation of the Bureau of Meteorology as the policy foundation for the future development of the Bureau and the provision of additional ongoing funding through the 1999-2000 Budget for implementation of the recommendations of the Review in support of world class weather forecasting, it is essential that the Bureau focus its efforts on achieving continuous improvement in the quality, reliability and user orientation of its services. This must include, in particular, a stronger emphasis on the upgrading of services to major community sectors including marine and rural communities, enhanced public access to Bureau information and the more effective use of existing service delivery mechanisms through Regional and Field Offices. It will be especially important to incorporate the lessons learned from the major warning system successes and failures of 1998-99 into improved strategies for severe weather and flood warning systems nationwide. The Bureau must also give high priority to upgrading its role in ocean monitoring and prediction and related environmental services including air pollution and intraseasonal to interannual climate prediction. The five-year strategy for upgrading and enhancement of Bureau services is based on the following corporate strategic objectives for 1999-2004:
· Continuous improvement. To strengthen the culture of continuous improvement and personal and organisational commitment to excellence in all of the scientific, technical, administrative and service functions of the Bureau;

· Stronger user focus. To give higher priority to establishing and maintaining effective mechanisms for determining the requirements of the users of Bureau services and for remaining attuned and responsive to changing user community needs and priorities;
· World class weather forecasting. To maintain and strengthen the Bureau's vital weather forecasting and warning services in support of community safety, security and general well being and the efficiency and prosperity of Australian industry with a particular focus on improved forecasting and warning on the mesoscale;
· Enhanced community access. To enhance and extend the scope and flexibility of information services accessible to the public through the Bureau, consistent with the demands of an information society, emerging legal and policy regimes and the capabilities provided by new data processing and communications technologies;
· Increased public benefit. To give higher priority to informing the community of the nature and value of weather and climate information and on how to obtain maximum benefit from both the basic and specialised services provided by the Bureau; and
· Upgraded ocean and environmental services. To implement a systematic program for the upgrading of all Bureau environment-related services with a particular focus on improved ocean monitoring and prediction and on air pollution and intraseasonal to interannual climate forecasting.

Corporate Goal - Capturing New Opportunities
Given Government commitment to continued public funding of the basic national meteorological infrastructure and the provision of the basic service, but recognising the need to ensure that all services beyond the basic service should, in future, be provided on a user-pays basis, the Slatyer II Report on Capturing Opportunities in the Provision of Meteorological Services identified a number of mechanisms for expanding the range and volume of useful services provided by the Bureau on a self-funding or commercial basis. In order for the Bureau to capture these opportunities and enhance its revenue generation, it will be necessary, over the next five years, to focus a substantial effort on the policy mechanisms and technology for cost recovery for an expanded range of meteorological and related services directed to the needs of specialised users; and also to more aggressively promote the provision of specialised commercial services through the Bureau's Special Services Unit. The five-year strategy for capturing these additional opportunities for expanded service provision and enhanced revenue generation is based on the following corporate strategic objectives for 1999-2004:

· New charging policy. To finalise and implement an integrated and simplified formulation of Bureau charging policy based on final Government decisions on the findings of the Slatyer I and Slatyer II Reports;
· Competitive neutrality. To ensure that all of the Bureau's commercial and potentially competitive services conform to the requirements of competitive neutrality;
· Increased cost-recoverable services. To expand the range and volume of services, additional to the basic product set and basic public service, provided on a user-pays cost-recoverable basis;
· Expansion of commercial services. To expand the range and volume of specialised services provided on a commercial basis by the Bureau's Special Services Unit to individual customers and customer groups within Australia and, as appropriate in the light of World Meteorological Organization guidelines, overseas;
· Enhanced access for service users. To develop and implement improved and expanded mechanisms for enabling users to access the Bureau's user-pays services; and
· Increased revenue generation. To progressively increase the revenue achieved from both cost recoverable and commercial services, consistent with broader policies on service provision and funding.

Corporate Goal - Preparing for the Future

Effective response to the challenges facing Australia and the global community in the pursuit of the goals of safety, security and sustainable development in the 21^st century will depend significantly on effective integration of meteorological and related data and knowledge into decision making at all levels of government and of society at large. The science and technology associated with environmental monitoring and service provision are evolving rapidly and new national and international policies and structures are being put in place which will impact significantly on the future requirements for, and arrangements for provision of, Bureau services. Despite the continuing tightly constrained resource situation, it will be vitally important for the Bureau to anticipate and be ready to respond effectively to the information needs for sustainable development and to meet emerging national requirements for new activities and services that fall within its charter and competence. The corporate strategic objectives for 1999-2004 are:

· Investment in research. To maintain and strengthen the Bureau's commitment to long-term scientific progress and the scientific integrity of its products and services through investment in a strong in-house research effort, managed according to proven research leadership principles, along with effective collaboration with CSIRO and University research groups and active participation in the Cooperative Research Centres of which the Bureau is a member;
· Integration of earth system science. To establish more effective cooperation and integration of atmospheric, oceanographic and hydrological monitoring, research and service provision and stronger linkages between the physical and biological sciences involved in climate and global change, both nationally and within an increasingly coordinated international framework; and especially to strengthen the Bureau's scientific and operational commitment to hydrological and oceanographic observation, research and service provision;
· Support for environmental strategy. To harness the scientific expertise and operational capabilities of the Bureau in support of effective meteorological, hydrological and oceanographic input to national strategy for protection of the natural environment and international strategy for addressing such global environmental problems as greenhouse warming, desertification and ozone layer depletion;
· Commitment to education and training. To contribute as effectively as possible to enhancing the quality of school and university education in meteorology and related fields;
· Sustained international involvement. To contribute to the long-term provision of national and international public benefits through continued effective investment in the international meteorological infrastructure coordinated by the World Meteorological Organization; and
· Cooperation in the South-West Pacific. To collaborate with the National Meteorological Services of the South-West Pacific and South-East Asia and with relevant national and international aid agencies and other appropriate organisations in strengthening the meteorological and related networks and services of the developing countries of the region.

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