Corporate activities

Charter and function


Landcom is a state-owned corporation, operating under the Landcom Corporation Act 2001.

Principal objectives

Our principal objectives are:

  1. to be a successful business and, to this end:
    1. to operate at least as efficiently as any comparable businesses, and
    2. to maximise the net worth of the State's investment in it,
  2. to exhibit a sense of social responsibility by having regard to the interests of the community in which it operates,
  3. to protect the environment by conducting its operations in compliance with the principles of
  4. ecologically sustainable development contained in section 6 (2) of the Protection of the Environment Administration Act 1991, to exhibit a sense of responsibility towards regional development and decentralisation in the way in which it operates,
  5. to undertake, or assist the Government in undertaking, strategic or complex urban development projects,
  6. to assist the Government in achieving its urban management objectives,
  7. to be a responsible developer of residential, commercial and industrial land.

Principal functions


Our principal functions are to:

  1. undertake and participate in residential, commercial, industrial and mixed development projects
  2. provide advice and services related to urban development, on a commercial basis, to government agencies and others.

Board of directors, meetings and committees

Board of Directors


The Board is constituted under the Landcom Corporation Act 2001. It comprises six non-executive directors plus the Managing Director. The Directors are appointed by the Governor of New South Wales on the recommendation of the voting shareholders and after consultation with the Portfolio Minister.

During the reporting period, the Directors were:

  • Mr William Kirkby-Jones AM | Chairman
  • Mr Neil Bird AM | Deputy Chairman
  • Mr Sean O'Toole | Managing Director
  • Ms Bonita Boezeman AO | Director 1
  • Ms Robyn Clubb | Director
  • Ms Kim Cull | Director 2
  • Ms Madeline Dermatossian | Director 3
  • Mr Robert Hamilton | Director 4

The gender breakdown for the Board during 2010-2011 was as follows: for the six months to 31 December 2010, 50% women and 50% men; for the remainder of the year, 43% women and 57% men.

The role and responsibilities of Board members are set out in the Board’s Corporate Governance Charter. The Corporate Governance Charter sets out the duties, independence and ethical standards required of individual Board members, including procedures for declaring conflicts of interest. The role and responsibilities of the Board’s committees are set out in Terms of Reference for each of the committees.

1 Ms Boezeman was appointed to the Landcom Board effective 28 February 2011.
2 Ms Cull’s term concluded on 30 June 2011.
3 Ms Dermatossian’s term concluded on 31 December 2010.
4 Mr Hamilton was appointed to the Landcom Board effective 28 February 2011.

Board meetings


Unless otherwise agreed, the Board meets on the fourth Monday of each month. 16 meetings5 were held during this reporting period. The number of meetings attended by each director was as follows:

Attendence

5 There were 11 meetings and five special meetings held during the reporting period.

Committee meetings


The Board has established four committees1, the membership of which is reviewed on an annual basis. Membership of the committees during the reporting period was as follows:

Audit and Risk Management Committee:

  • Ms Robyn Clubb | Chairman
  • Mr Neil Bird AM
  • Ms Bonita Boezeman AO 2
  • Ms Madeline Dermatossian 3

Marketing and Sales Committee:

  • Mr Neil Bird AM | Chairman
  • Mr William Kirkby-Jones AM
  • Ms Bonita Boezeman AO
  • Mr Robert Hamilton 4
  • Mr Sean O’Toole

Information Technology Committee:

  • Mr William Kirkby-Jones AM | Chairman
  • Mr Neil Bird AM
  • Ms Kim Cull 5
  • Mr Sean O’Toole

Remuneration Committee:

  • All Directors

1 The Board does not have a committee that deals specifically with sustainability issues. Instead, the Board as a whole is responsible for the economic, social and environmental performance of the Corporation.
2 Ms Boezeman was appointed to the Landcom Board effective 28 February 2011.
3 Ms Dermatossian’s term concluded on 31 December 2010.
4 Mr Hamilton was appointed to the Landcom Board effective 28 February 2011.
5 Ms Cull’s term concluded on 30 June 2011.

Risk management and insurance

Risk management


Landcom is committed to good corporate governance and adopts a methodical approach to the process and practice of risk management. Our risk framework is compliant with the Australian/New Zealand Risk Management Standard AS/NZS ISO 31000:2009 and embodies the business principles approach to corporate objectives.

To ensure our risk management process works effectively and creates value, we have:

  • obtained commitment to risk management from the Board, Managing Director, executive and all staff
  • enhanced the integration of risk management processes with our organisational processes (i.e. ‘The Landcom Way’)
  • assigned risk management responsibilities within the organisation
  • refined our risk framework and improved guidelines on risk tolerance and reporting accountability
  • allocated appropriate resources to the training and development of all stakeholders in enhanced risk awareness and continual improvement.

The Board reviews the major strategic, business and operational risks to the organisation on a monthly basis. These are also reviewed by Board committees and the executive..

Business continuity


We continue to review and refine our business continuity management. Specific reviews of business process risk and impact analysis are conducted to refresh and validate our business continuity plan. This plan puts in place procedures to build operational resilience for adverse incidents, minimise the impact of a disaster and enable our business to continue with minimum impact on stakeholders.

Testing of the plan occurs periodically and focuses on rehearsing disaster recovery plans. This includes workplace recovery, response to pandemic illness and any impacts on critical business functions such as: communications; land titles data, property conveyance and sales processing and payables and receivables processing.

Insurance


Landcom’s insurance cover is provided by the NSW Treasury Managed Fund. This fund is based on the principles of self-insurance and as such places high priority on the implementation of sound risk management practice. The self-insurance scheme is administered by GIO General for
risks relating to motor vehicle, property, public liability and directors/officers liability. Workers Compensation Insurance is administered by Allianz Australia under the Treasury Managed Fund.

Landcom completed its 2011-2012 Renewal Declarations for the Treasury Managed Fund in November 2010 and renewed all covers for the 2011-2012 policy period.

Public access to information and the protection of privacy

Government Information (Public Access) (GIPA) formal access applications


During the reporting period, Landcom received two formal access applications under the Government Information (Public Access) Act 2009 (GIPA). Landcom did not hold any information in relation to the first application and agreed to the partial release of information in relation to the second application. Landcom did not receive any applications for disclosure of information for which there was a conclusive presumption of overriding public interest against disclosure.

The following tables contain statistical information about the formal access applications we received in 2010-2011.

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Authorised Proactive Release of Information under s.7 (3) of GIPA 2009

Landcom only received two formal access applications during the reporting period. Landcom reviewed the information already publicly available and did not add to it. Landcom will review this requirement within the next 12 months.

Privacy

Landcom is committed to ensuring that individual privacy is protected and our activities comply with the Privacy and Personal Information Protection Act 1998 (NSW) and the Privacy Amendment (Private Sector) Act 2000 (Commonwealth).
Our privacy management plan is based on 12 information protection principles of the Privacy and Personal Information Protection Act (PPIP), which establish standards for using personal information. These are:

PRINCIPLE 1 (S.8 PPIP Act)
Collection of personal information for lawful purposes
PRINCIPLE 2 (S.9 PPIP Act)
Collection of personal information directly from the individual
PRINCIPLE 3 (S.10 PPIP Act)
Requirements when collecting personal information
PRINCIPLE 4 (S.11 PPIP Act)
Other requirements relating to collection of personal information
PRINCIPLE 5 (S.12 PPIP Act)
Retention and security of personal information
PRINCIPLE 6 (S.13 PPIP Act)
Information about personal information held by agencies
PRINCIPLE 7 (S.14 PPIP Act)
Access to personal information held by agencies
PRINCIPLE 8 (S.15 PPIP Act)
Alteration of personal information
PRINCIPLE 9 (S.16 PPIP Act)
Agency must check accuracy of personal information before use
PRINCIPLE 10 (S.17 PPIP Act)
Limits on use of personal information
PRINCIPLE 11 (S.18 PPIP Act)
Limits on disclosure of personal information
PRINCIPLE 12 (S.19 PPIP Act)
Special restrictions on disclosure of personal information

There were no complaints about the use of personal information during the reporting year.

Landcom’s Right to Information Officer and Privacy Coordinator can be contacted by writing to:

The Right to Information Officer and Privacy Coordinator
Landcom
PO Box 237
Parramatta NSW 2124

or by emailing to: righttoinfo@landcom.nsw.gov.au or enquiry@landcom.nsw.gov.au

Occupational health and safety

Occupational health and safety


Landcom’s commitment to providing a safe and healthy work environment for employees, clients and stakeholders is highlighted by our commitment to continuous improvement in occupational health and safety (OH&S). This is achieved through effective planning, consultation, implementation of programs, training, monitoring and review.

The Board has endorsed continuous improvements to our OH&S framework, meeting targets outlined by the NSW Government’s ‘Taking Safety Seriously’ and ‘Working Together’ strategies. ‘Working Together 2010-2012’ initiatives have now been adopted.

Centralised accountability for the OH&S system is taken by the General Manager Finance & IT with underpinning processes managed by the Senior Manager Financial Systems & Risk. Landcom operates an OH&S consultation committee with staff volunteers and nominated management representatives in accordance with our OH&S policy which is reviewed as required. The committee meets quarterly to review previously raised issues, new issues and any near-miss incidents brought to its notice.

The OH&S system and processes have enabled:

  • a forum for employees and management to openly discuss OH&S concerns
  • a regime of prevention, inspection, identification and reduction of OH&S hazards
  • a philosophy of continuous improvement to OH&S
  • hazard identification inspections at all employee locations using defined checklists
  • maintenance of an OH&S actions database to monitor the status of hazard elimination or mitigation.

Landcom is committed to providing a safe and healthy work environment. One lost time workplace injury and one journey incident occurred during the reporting period. This has been further broken down as follows:

Miscellaneous activities


Promotion

During the reporting period, Landcom produced a number of publications that were designed to promote the release of land, with each land release being supported by a sales plan, price list and an advertising campaign.

In addition, information concerning our corporate activities was communicated to Landcom stakeholders through the Annual and Sustainability Report 2009-2010 and via Landcom’s website at www.landcom.com.au.

Production cost of annual report

The overall cost of producing, printing and building a website of the 2010-2011 Annual Report is estimated at $70,000.

Consultancies

We spent a total of $184,254 during the reporting period on consultants. These engagements were for upgrading our information technology system platform, developing policy and procedures documentation, and facilitating Landcom’s strategic planning workshop and business improvement program.

Overseas visits

During the 2010-2011 year there were two overseas trips undertaken.

The Director, Sustainability & Policy, undertook both trips in his capacity as Landcom’s representative on the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI). The GRI produces the world’s de facto standard in sustainability reporting guidelines. Landcom was invited by GRI to participate in this process as one of only two Australian representatives (Lend Lease is the other Australian participant). A total of only eight companies worldwide were invited to be involved in the working group.

Disclosure of approved exemptions

Following Landcom's corporatisation on 1 January 2002, approval was granted for the reporting exemptions (relevant to this Annual Report, shown in the table overleaf). The list of exemptions, some with conditions attached, was approved by NSW Treasury to overcome concerns about the loss of commercial confidentiality for statutory state-owned corporations.

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