11-10-2001

High profile natural resource management administrator Kevin Goss has been appointed new Chair of Australia's National Dryland Salinity Program (NDSP).

Mr Goss replaces former Chair and highly respected Western Australian farmer Alex Campbell, who was recently appointed Chair of the new Co-operative Research Centre for Plant-Based Management of Dryland Salinity.

Mr Goss is a long-standing NDSP Board member and brings a wealth of experience in natural resource management and sustainable agriculture to the position. He has extensive experience working on salinity issues in some of Australia's most severely affected areas, including Western Australia and the Murray-Darling Basin, and is currently General Manager, Natural Resources and Deputy Chief Executive of the Murray Darling Basin Commission.

NDSP National Manager, Richard Price, welcomed the decision by the NDSP Board to elect Mr Goss as Chair for the next two years.

'Kevin Goss is widely respected throughout the natural resource management community as a strategic thinker and effective communicator and is well equipped to bring a national perspective to this position,' Mr Price said.

Mr Price said Mr Goss' recent appointment comes at an exciting time for the Program.

'A number of landmark dryland salinity research, development and extension projects are currently being finalised that will further strengthen the effort in tackling the dryland salinity threat to our land and water resources,' Mr Price explained.

Mr Goss said he was looking forward to his new role as NDSP Chair, and aims to focus on building stronger relationships between catchment management and industry development in coming months.

'The NDSP has a role in promoting research into industry and through this role the Program can build an effective cross-industry R&D program for salinity management,' Mr Goss explained.

He said organisations such as the NDSP must lead the way because, for understandable reasons, industry corporations have limited capacity to push for significant shifts in agricultural practices within their industries. Mr Goss acknowledged that the major dryland industry R&D corporations are ready to work with industry and the NDSP to redefine what is possible within current farming systems, and this is the basis for his enthusiasm for the new job.

'However, as well as working within current enterprises, we need to consider the future of catchments and landscapes and investigate radical changes to the way we do business in agricultural Australia,' Mr Goss stressed.

NDSP is uniquely placed to direct investment into forming new industries as the lead knowledge broker of research, development and extension solutions to tackle the salinity risk to Australia's land and water resources, he said.

Profile: Kevin Goss

Newly appointed Chairman of the National Dryland Salinity Program (NDSP), Kevin Goss, has extensive experience working on salinity issues.

Mr Goss has been a long-standing member of the National Dryland Salinity Management Board and has taken a leading role in the public debate relating to salinity over many years. He is currently General Manager, Natural Resources, and Deputy Chief Executive of the Murray-Darling Basin Commission.

Mr Goss holds an MA (Communication) from Michigan State University and a BSc (Agriculture) Hons from the University of Western Australia.

Mr Goss' professional career began as an agricultural extension officer in the WA Department of Agriculture (1970). Within five years he returned to further studies at both Michigan and Pennsylvania State Universities to train in extension theory, agricultural communication and rural sociology. After several years as an extension research and development specialist he headed up media and information services branches in two Western Australian agencies (Departments of Agriculture and Conservation and Land Management), through the 1980's.

His involvement in natural resources management came relatively late (1989) when he lead the Western Australia Department of Agriculture's Landcare program, and then the joint appointments of Commissioner of Soil and Land Conservation (1993) and Executive Director Sustainable Rural Development (1995). Throughout this period and to the present, he has guided specific initiatives in sustainable agriculture dryland salinity, vegetation and rangeland management, and rural community development.

ENDS


For further information please contact:

Please contact Land & Water Australia
Email:land&wateraustralia@lwa.gov.au
Phone: 02 6263 6000