Ethics Committee

The Company maintains an Ethics Committee composed predominantly of men and women who are independent of the Company and who are eminent in the community. The Committee will:

Scope of responsibilities

1. provide independent ethical review of research involving humans conducted by the Company, as required by the National Statement on Ethical Conduct in Human Research (National Statement), including by reviewing protocols and progress reports on such research. The Committee may establish procedures for the review of low risk research in accordance with the National Statement;
2. not generally provide ethical approval or monitoring of research by researchers not affiliated with the Company;
3. in addition to review of research involving humans, review from an ethical and community perspective all clinical and executive functions of the Company, by receiving and reviewing the minutes of executive meetings of the Professional Advisory Board, the Management Committee, the Risk Management Committee, and the Research and Development Committee;
4. pay special attention to the processes of consent and agreement by which members of the public are treated or have tests performed at or by the Company;
5. establish, implement and document working procedures to promote good ethical review;

   Membership and meetings

6. comprise a chair and members in at least such number and categories as is required by the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) to fulfil all functions required of an institutional Human Research Ethics Committee;
7. meet at least four times each year, and (at the discretion of the Committee’s Chairman) as requested by members of either the Committee or the executive;
8. for at least a part of each meeting, consider matters in the absence of executives of the Company;

   Accountability and reporting

9. report annually or otherwise as required to the NHMRC and its committees on the conduct of its business, and provide a copy of that report to the Board;
10. maintain its independence of the Company’s operations (including by the open disclosure by members to the Chairman of the Committee of any personal or commercial matter that could cause a conflict or an appearance of a conflict with the independent operation of the Committee);
11. maintain a direct link with the Chairman’s Committee of the Board, including the holding of at least one joint meeting each year of which a part will be conducted in the absence of executives of the Company;
12. directly, and without any necessary reference to the executive members of the Company, inform the independent directors of any substantial or unresolved concern the Committee may have in relation to any aspect of the Company’s conduct of its business;

    Remuneration

13. not charge fees for the provision of ethical review of the research and other activities of the Company; and
14. make public, in the Company’s annual report each year, the remuneration paid to the members of the Committee.

The membership of the Committee currently comprises:

• Canon Rev. Dr Ivan Head (Chair),
• Ms Paula Trigg (laywoman)
• Rev’d Peter Kurti (minister of religion)
• Dr Simon Longstaff PhD (layman),
• Hon. Jim Longley (layman),
• Rabbi Jacqueline Ninio (minister of religion),
• Ms Annette McInerney (counsellor),
• Mr James Lane (lawyer),
• Dr Edith Weisberg AM (doctor familiar with, but not of, the institution’s fields of research)
• Professor John Rasko (clinical haematologist with significant research experience).

Contact:
The Secretary
Genea Ethics Committee
Box 4384
Sydney NSW 2001