You Not Us.
We chose these three simple words as the theme of our Annual Report to tell you that we understand that the sole reason we exist is to serve you, the people of Victoria.
Our job is to protect, care for and improve your environment.
This report aims to tell you a bit about how we did this in 2008-09.
Our starting point, for all of our work was to try to understand what was important in your world.
What was the world like for Victorians last year?
The drought continued for another year and there was less water available for the environment and for human use.
The concern and debate about climate change continued in the community. How will Victoria’s environment change? Will climate change policies make our economy stronger or weaker?
The Global Financial Crisis affected Victoria. If you managed a business, you had to work out how to keep it viable and plot a course to survive. Employees wondered whether their jobs were secure. Everyone watched to see whether the economic system would cope.
On Black Saturday, Victoria suffered the worst natural disaster in Australia’s history. This single tragic event, more than anything else, defined 2008-09 for Victorians.
These general experiences and each person and organisation’s own particular experiences shaped and defined your lives.
So what did we do with this understanding of your world?
We set about powerfully reinventing your EPA.
Why?
Simply because when we looked at the data about the environmental challenges of the 21st century and when we listened to what you were experiencing, we knew we had to change.
We did this in three major ways.
First, we established a new business model. We defined our work as providing services to you, our clients.
This could be providing information to householders about safe disposal of asbestos, responding to pollution reports from members of the public, issuing environmental licences to companies and so on.
Second, we implemented the biggest change to our organisational structure since the mid 1980s. We set up a dedicated ‘client relationship’ function and employed twenty people whose sole role is to manage the relationship between EPA and you, our clients.
Third, we specified our preferred internal culture. We will make EPA an even better place to work. Our people will enjoy their work more and get greater job satisfaction from delivering even better environmental outcomes for you.
But these activities are internal to EPA. You will experience the benefits they bring, but we don’t need to take up your time describing them in detail in this Annual Report.
Instead, the pages that follow provide a snapshot of some of the ways we worked for you and with you in 2008-09.
Finally, 2008-09 was also the last full year at EPA for our Chairman and CEO of the past seven years, Mick Bourke. Everyone at EPA is grateful for the inspirational leadership that Mick provided throughout this period and we wish him well for his critical new role as CEO of the Country Fire Authority.
As this document goes to print, EPA’s new Chairman, Cheryl Batagol, has just joined us and we are excited about the opportunity to work with Cheryl as she leads EPA in delivering for you in this next phase of EPA’s history.
