Part 1: Overview and operating environment

Strategic Framework

Looking Ahead

To ensure AMSA is anticipating and ready for its future, Looking Ahead – our environmental scan – outlines how our operating environment is likely to evolve, identifying the major challenges and opportunities that we are likely to experience over the coming decades.

AMSA Strategy 2030

Based on Looking Ahead, our Strategy 2030¹ sets out how we are readying ourselves to deal with these challenges and opportunities we are likely to face in the next ten years.

Nine areas of focus for our strategic objectives guide our work to build the foundations for our future:

1. Risk-based regulation: our actions and interventions as a safety regulator must be proportionate to the risk being managed and should not unnecessarily impede the efficient operations of those we regulate. Improving safety must be at the core of what we do.
2. Incident management capabilities: we want to take full advantage of improving capability in the areas of search and rescue by investing in our people, and integrating new systems and technologies into our existing capabilities.
3. Navigation services: our aim is to provide contemporary, fit-for-purpose, efficient and safe navigation services around Australia. Central to our navigation services is our network of some 480 aids to navigation (AtoN), ship routing and reporting systems, maritime safety information, coastal pilotage, vessel traffic services, and under keel clearance management system in the Torres Strait.
4. Responding to climate change: in recognition of the increasing impacts of climate change, the IMO have agreed goals that will significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions from international shipping. Australia has committed to these emission reductions and AMSA will be engaged in their implementation for many years to come.
5. International engagement: our multilateral international engagement aims to shape global standards and agreements to meet Australia’s maritime interests. Our engagement with our bilateral partners serves two purposes: to collaborate to share information, knowledge and technology; and to work with key partners to help build their capability and resilience in maritime safety, environment pollution response, and search and rescue.
6. Stakeholder engagement: stakeholder engagement is a critical element of our business. We engage with a diverse range of international and domestic stakeholders on a variety of issues, including seeking and receiving feedback, communicating regulatory and compliance issues, raising awareness and educating, shaping outcomes, delivering services, and coordinating responses, or other activities. It’s crucial that all our engagement activities are effective; i.e. coordinated, targeted, customised and fit-for-purpose.
7. Innovation: technology is important to our future for two reasons: it is being adopted by our stakeholders and regulated entities; and it offers opportunities to streamline and improve our own operations. It is important that we accommodate innovation in our regulated community; and we build an internal culture that supports innovation.
8. Information management and digital services: increasingly, AMSA’s systems are a key part of how it does business. Our stakeholders’ expectations of simple digital interactions with government continue to grow, as do their expectations of access to useful data. How we use and share the data housed in AMSA’s systems is critical and underpins our decisions and risk-based judgements. Our systems and information are two core components of how we operate, affecting both our efficiency and credibility.
9. Organisational capability and resilience: our organisation – its systems, people and processes – must continue to evolve to be ready for future challenges. We need to build organisational resilience to ensure we can readily adapt, deal with uncertainty, continue to change, and leverage new and emerging opportunities.

2021-22 Corporate Plan

The Corporate Plan distils the analysis and thought from Looking Ahead and our Strategy 2030, identifying the key activities we will undertake over the next four years in pursuit of our strategic objectives, with a specific focus on 2021-22.

It is important to note that the strategic objectives and subsequent key activities do not capture everything that AMSA does to achieve its purpose. This information is captured in the core business component of our Plan-on-a-Page, and indicative outputs and outcomes are described in our core business section.

¹ To be published later this year