At a glance
The Office of the Cross Border Commissioner’s role is to facilitate improved outcomes for people and businesses living in or near South Australia's borders.
Key highlights for the 2024-25 financial year:
- Signed an MoU between South Australia and Victoria on Cross Border Collaboration and Priority Focus Areas.
- An agreement for Cross Border collaboration with New South Wales on cross border matters.
- Commencement of skills and labour mobility examination report in South Australian cross border communities.
- Stocks and flows analysis of South Australia's cross border communities and benchmarking of economic opportunity across local government areas.
- Increased co-operation across jurisdictions through vehicles including the Victoria, NSW and SA Border Health Forum, Limestone Coast and South West Victoria local government forum and Cross Border Local Government Forum in Canberra.
- Agency improvements in trade and flow including the import of hay in drought conditions from Western Australia, special conditions at Naracoorte and Mount Gambier saleyards for footrot restrictions, the extension of Alert SA to Western Victoria and commencement of Green Triangle Freight Action Plan review.
- 284 formal stakeholder engagements, resulting in issues and advocacy across over 50 cross border matters.
| Agency objectives | Indicators | Performance |
|---|---|---|
| Review the issue monitoring and triaging system used by the Office of the Cross Border Commissioner. | Improved issue identification and enhanced capability to capture outcomes. |
The Cross Border Commissioner adopted the previous PIRSA systems. A new issue monitoring and triaging system is in the final stages of development. The Office of the Cross Border Commissioner (OCBC) by 30 June was triaging over 50 cross border issues raised, of various scale. |
| Re-establish the Office of the Cross Border Commissioner and presence. | Open, accessible and operational Office of the Cross Border Commissioner. |
The OCBC was re-opened at 27 Sturt Street, Mount Gambier in October 2024. The Cross Border Commissioner was appointed on 8 October 2024 and a Project Support Officer to manage the office commenced on 17 February 2025. |
| Work with the Cross Border Commissioners Forum to co-operate on common opportunities and challenges across jurisdictions. | Build strong relationships with the other Cross Border Commissioners and jurisdictions to foster collaboration. |
The CBC undertakes routine engagement with counterparts from Queensland, Victoria, New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory. This includes a quarterly Cross Border Commissioner forum encouraging jurisdictional collaboration and ongoing issue-based forums jointly led by all Cross Border Commissioners. The CBC’s collective advocacy has included a presentation and submissions to the National Emergency Management Agency, Jobs and Skills Australia Commissioner, Regional Australian Institute and Australian Productivity Commission. In addition, the South Australian CBC hosted the annual cross border local government forum in Canberra bringing together more than 60 local government representatives alongside the Jobs and Skills Commissioner. |
| Deliver on MOU arrangements with Victoria and New South Wales through agreed priorities. | MOUs both signed and Priority Focus Areas agreed upon between South Australia and New South Wales and Victoria. | The Victoria MoU has resulted in the development of joint areas of work including the holding of a local government forum annually. |
| Ease of doing business and promoting economic outcomes. | Reducing regulatory barriers and improve business and industry needs. |
Led a joint CBC submission to the National Competition Policy Analysis 2025 on training and licensing recognition to improve productivity outcomes. Commissioning of economic stocks and flows data for all cross border local governments and health and journey to work movements. |
| Improve workforce skills and education mobility. | Greater access and equity for educational opportunities across borders and strengthening outcomes for workforce in cross border communities. |
Undertaken, with Skills Frontiers, a skills and labour mobility examination report with CBC response to findings in consultation and planning. Convened a TAFE access roundtable with all Cross Border Commissioner regionals and TAFE representatives regarding Fee Free TAFE access across borders. |
| Integrated programs, service and infrastructure planning. | Support improvements in service delivery and planning. | The Victoria | New South Wales |South Australia Health Border Forum was held Renmark which was led by Riverland Mallee Coorong Local Health Network and the Victoria Cross Border Commissioner. All the health services along the three borders attended. This has resulted in co-operation areas in electronic records management, workforce and ambulance services. |
| Resilient and connected communities. | Improve cross border cohesion in approaches to emergency management, national resource management and social justice. | The CBC held the second roundtable with emergency services and notes SAFECOM’s work to extend Alert SA, a nationally consistent framework used to communicate the risk and severity of emergencies, to Western Victoria. |
The Office of the Cross Border Commissioner is resourced through the Department of the Premier and Cabinet (DPC). Therefore, administrative and operational functions comply with DPC's policies and procedures, established in accordance with public sector requirements. This report will refer to DPC’s Annual Report where appropriate.
| Total number of employees (as at June 30 2025) | Current year 2024-25 | Past year 2023-24 | % Change (+ / -) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Persons | 2 | 2 | 0% |
Please refer to the Department of the Premier and Cabinet's Annual Report.
| Performance Management and Development System | Performance |
|---|---|
| Participation in monthly discussions with the Chief Executive of the Department of the Premier and Cabinet (DPC) and/ or Executive Director of Strategic Engagement, DPC | The Cross Border Commissioner meets regularly with the Chief Executive and Executive Director of Strategic Engagement of DPC to discuss key initiatives for the Office of the Commissioner. |
| Participation in discussions with the Minister | The Cross Border Commissioner regularly briefs the Premier and Ministers on key initiatives of the Office of the Commissioner. |
| Program name | Performance |
|---|---|
| Workplace Health Safety (WHS) & Injury Management System | All staff participated in training programs in accordance with the Department of the Premier and Cabinet's policy directions and were provided with information about WHS committee updates, incident reporting requirements and other relevant information. |
The Office of the Cross Border Commissioner leverages programs supported by DPC which include:
- Injury and Workers Compensation Management
- Wellbeing and Engagement
- Self-Insurer Audit and Verification System (AVS) results.
Further information is provided in the DPC Annual Report.
| Workplace injury claims | Current year 2024-25 | Past year 2023-24 | % Change (+ / -) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Total new workplace injury claims | 0 | 0 | 0% |
| Fatalities | 0 | 0 | 0% |
| Seriously injured workers* | 0 | 0 | 0% |
|
Significant injuries (where lost time exceeds a working week, expressed as frequency rate per 1000 FTE) | 0 | 0 | 0% |
*number of claimants assessed during the reporting period as having a whole person impairment meeting the relevant threshold under the Return to Work Act 2014 (Part 2 Division 5)
| Work health and safety regulations | Current year 2024-25 | Past year 2023-24 | % Change (+ / -) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Number of notifiable incidents (Work Health and Safety Act 2012 (SA) Part 3) | 0 | 0 | 0% |
| Number of provisional improvement, improvement and prohibition notices (Work Health and Safety Act 2012 ISA) Sections 90, 191 and 195) | 0 | 0 | 0% |
| Return to work costs** | Current year 2024-25 | Past year 2023-24 | % Change (+ / -) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Total gross workers compensation expenditure ($) | 0 | 0 | 0% |
| Income support payments – gross ($) | 0 | 0 | 0% |
**before third party recovery
The Cross Border Commissioner is a statutory appointment as is recorded as the only executive.
The Office of the Commissioner for Public Sector Employment (external site) (external site) has a workforce information (external site) (external site) page that provides further information on the breakdown of executive gender, salary and tenure by agency.