Every month lost to regulatory backlog is another month Australian farmers are denied access to innovations which could lift yields, cut emissions and strengthen food security – and all at a time when growing more with less has never mattered more.
In a submission to the Productivity Commission’s inquiry into creating a more dynamic and resilient economy, CropLife Australia has urged the APVMA board to confront this crisis before it erodes the country’s global competitiveness.
Farming productivity benefits all Australians, not just our agricultural sector.
That productivity, however, depends on farmers having timely access to modern tools and technologies.
This access is increasingly at risk.
The Productivity Commission’s interim report identifies reducing regulatory delays as essential to attracting investment – yet the APVMA is lagging badly.
At the moment, CropLife members alone face a staggering 40 years of cumulative assessment delays.
Barely half of all applications for new crop protection products are completed within legislated timeframes, and some individual applications are now 18 months overdue.
These delays push Australia to the back of the global queue for next‑generation plant science technologies.
They also undermine the very predictability upon which that investment – and innovation – depends.
The APVMA board has both a responsibility and an opportunity to fix this.
Modern software‑based assessment tools could replace slow, repetitive manual processes.
External scientific reviewers could be used more effectively to expand capacity.
Yet instead of lifting ambition, the APVMA’s latest corporate plan lowers performance expectations, disregards mandatory timeframes and effectively normalises underperformance.
This is at odds with the Federal Government’s stated priority of boosting productivity.
Worse, it makes the regulator one of the biggest barriers to progress for Australian agriculture.
The APVMA is not the only roadblock.
The Department of Health, Disability and Aged Care is now in its seventh year of what was meant to be an 18 to 24‑month process to update national biotechnology laws.
Until these long‑agreed, risk‑proportionate reforms are implemented, Australian farmers will remain without the modern crop varieties which could help further lift productivity while enhancing sustainability.
CropLife has outlined a clear path forward to government to address this challenge: restore APVMA on‑time performance; fund essential APVMA public‑good regulatory functions; implement the long‑overdue gene technology reforms; remove unnecessary low‑risk permits; and support proven stewardship programs such as drumMUSTER and bagMUSTER.
Australia’s farmers are ready to innovate.
Now the regulators need to catch up.
Matthew Cossey is CEO CropLife Australia. Prior to joining CropLife, he was a memberof the Australian executive leadership teamfor one of the world’s leading defence andtechnology companies, Raytheon.
