Board meeting communique of matters - 23 September 2026

This meeting  

• The Board received its annual report from the Chair of the Board Audit and Risk Committee. This report provides the Board with a summary of the Committee’s activities and areas of focus in discharging its responsibilities during 2025-26.
• The Board approved for publishing AMSA’s 2025-26 Annual Report and 2025-26 Financial Statements, noting the receipt of ANAO’s unmodified audit report, to meet reporting requirements.
• The Board approved AMSA’s Statement of Intent to the Minister for the period 1 July 2026 to 30 June 2028 and noted the revised Statement of Regulated Approach (SORA). The revised SORA provides a clearer, more contemporary and strategically aligned description of how AMSA will regulate in a way that is risk-based, data-driven, proportionate, transparent, collaborative and accountable.
• The Board received a presentation on AMSA’s long-term financial sustainability and the parallel development of funding reforms. The Board discussed a structural funding gap arising from the declining real value of revenue, increasing costs, against levies, fees and charges, some of which have not been reviewed since 2015.  
• The Board received an update on AMSA's Essential Eight Compliance Program and noted the significant progress in cyber security maturity. The Board also noted the upcoming changes to the Australian Government cyber security framework and agreed to review AMSA’s current cyber risk appetite remains appropriate in light of improved cyber maturity and increasing digital, data and AI capabilities.
• The Board noted the update on AMSA’s Enterprise Risk Register and the changes to risk governance, process simplification, current risk priorities and planned updates to the Board.
• The Board received an update from the Chair of the People and Culture sub-committee meeting from 14 August and noted the discussions on AMSA’s 2026 Australian Public Service Census results and the proposed Workforce Insights Framework.

Next meeting

The next Board meeting will be held in Canberra on 8 December 2026.

Capt. Jeanine Drummond

Chair, AMSA Board