Source Priority Register

Status:	Draft
Source file:	01 Scoping/08-source-priority-register.md
Sensitivity review:	Completed

This register ranks source types for later research. It does not assess any specific source content.

Source type	Priority	Why	Best use	Limitations	Perspective
Current state and Commonwealth regulation	High	Defines what is legally possible and what compliance costs may apply.	Licensing, transport, production and sale constraints.	Must be checked for currency.	Producer, Supply Chain, GBLC
Official statistics	High	Independent and methodologically transparent.	Regional context, land use, trade and economic baselines.	May not isolate hemp.	Producer, Supply Chain, Environment
Peer-reviewed agronomic studies	High	Useful for production suitability and limitations.	Yield, inputs, soil, water, pests and production systems.	Geographic transferability may be weak.	Producer, Environment
Peer-reviewed environmental studies and LCAs	High	Required to test environmental claims.	Soil carbon, emissions, water, biodiversity and lifecycle claims.	Often system-specific and not directly local.	Environment
Processor specifications and price schedules	High	Direct test of market access.	Quality, price, volume, timing and processing fees.	Commercial confidentiality.	Producer, Supply Chain
Buyer contracts or written purchase terms	High	Strong evidence of demand.	Market verification and price risk.	May be unavailable or conditional.	Producer, Supply Chain
Enterprise budgets and grower records	High	Direct test of producer economics.	Gross margins, costs and sensitivity analysis.	May be scarce or confidential.	Producer
Local climate, soil and land-use data	High	Determines regional relevance.	Suitability and comparator baseline.	Region boundaries may not align.	Producer, Environment
Agronomist expert interviews	Medium	Helps interpret local suitability and gaps.	Practical feasibility and risk.	Expert judgement needs corroboration.	Producer, Environment
Industry association reports	Medium	Useful for source discovery and industry structure.	Contacts, market categories and context.	Possible advocacy bias.	Supply Chain, Producer
Market research reports	Medium	May provide market size and trend context.	Background market analysis.	Forecast-heavy and methods may be opaque.	Supply Chain
International government and industry data	Medium	Useful where Australian evidence is limited.	Benchmarking and mature-market lessons.	Requires transferability assessment.	All
Media articles and trade press	Low	Useful for leads and timelines.	Identifying stakeholders and claimed developments.	Not sufficient for findings.	Supply Chain, GBLC
Promotional material	Low	May identify claims needing testing.	Claim discovery only.	High bias and low verification value.	All
Social media and informal commentary	Low	May reveal perceptions or leads.	Communications risk or stakeholder leads.	Not evidence for findings.	GBLC

Priority Criteria

Criterion	High priority indicator	Low priority indicator
Reliability	Transparent method, independent source, measured data.	Unclear method, unsupported claims, promotional purpose.
Relevance	Directly addresses a decision question.	General background only.
Geographic fit	Local or comparable Australian context.	Non-comparable climate, regulation or market.
Recency	Current enough for market, policy and regulation decisions.	Outdated for the question being tested.
Independence	Government, academic or independently verified.	Advocacy or commercial self-interest.
Evidence quality	Transaction, measured or documented data.	Opinion, aspiration or forecast without assumptions.