About the CDPP
The Office of the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions (CDPP) is a statutory agency that was created by the Director of Public Prosecutions Act 1983 (the DPP Act) and is an independent prosecuting agency tasked with prosecuting alleged offenses made against the Commonwealth of Australia.
Purpose of the corporate plan
Section 35(1)(b) of the Public Governance, Performance and Accountability Act 2013 (PGPA Act) requires the CDPP to publish an annual corporate plan that identifies the goals of the CDPP, how it will achieve them, and how the organisation evaluates its performance.
Contents of report
Across four sections (Operating context, Enabling capability, Our relationships, and Our performance), the 2025-29 corporate plan addresses the principal purpose of the report, and then identifies and discusses its four strategic themes and two key activities.
Strategic themes
The four key strategic themes (broad, long-term objectives key to an organisation’s success) were identified as being:
- Practice support
- People
- Prosecution practice
- Partnerships
These four strategic themes complement the organisation’s goal of contributing to a “fair, safe and just society by delivering an effective, independent prosecution service” through its two key activities of prosecuting with integrity and working with and supporting its partners.
Enabling capability
The corporate plan addresses three areas that allow the organisation to succeed and identifies how these areas are supported to ensure success and continued improvement.
People
The report identified the importance of protecting, training, retaining, and attracting staff and the steps taken to ensure these goals are met.
Technology and Information Communications Technology (ICT)
Though the primary focus of the ICT team is on current in-progress initiatives and ensuring all systems are safe from cyber attacks, regular internal improvements are made courtesy of a feedback system. In addition, the report identified a strategy plan and roadmap that’s intended to improve systems and identify new possible improvements.
Governance
The CDPP’s governance structure ensures it operates smoothly, meets all administrative and legislative requirements, and allows the Director to do her job. The corporate plan also provides a window into the organisation’s six governance forums:
- Executive Committee
- Legal Forum
- Project Board
- National Health and Safety Committee
- National Consultative Committee
- Audit and Risk Committee
Risk Management Process
The CDPP’s risk management process is informed by the Commonwealth Risk Management Policy and Risk Management Framework. A comprehensive review, audit, and treatment process is also in place for all risks, which are “managed within acceptable boundaries which balance opportunities and threats”.
The five main risks identified by the CDPP in a strategic management table reflect and touch upon the key strategic themes identified in the introduction:
- Failure to attract and retain staff
- Failure to develop and maintain the capability of our people
- Failure to manage the impacts of our work environment
- Failure to manage partner agency relationships
- The evolving environment threatens the security, resilience and integrity of our data and information.
Relationship management
As part of its strategic themes, the CDPP mentioned its partnerships, which are central to ensuring the delivery of its services.
Partners
80% of the matters referred to the CDPP come from seven partners:
- Australian Federal Police (AFP)
- Australian Fisheries Management Authority (AFMA)
- NSW Police
- Victoria Police
- Other state and territory police
- Australian Border Force (ABF)
- Services Australia
The CDPP’s actions, intended outcomes, and partner engagement is driven by the Partner Agency Engagement Strategy 2024-26, which provides an overarching framework for partner engagement and actions. The engagement strategy also provides a robust monitoring and evaluation framework as well as four focus areas:
- Early and ongoing engagement to focus investigative and prosecution resources
- Reciprocal upskilling of investigators and prosecutors
- Embedding partnership culture
- Fit-for-purpose criminal legislation and policy
Performance framework and measures
The CDPP has a performance framework that is made public to ensure the organisation has an “appropriate level of public accountability” and show that it’s meeting the requirements laid out in the PGPA Act.
Survey methodology and changes
The report reveals that the CDPP has a robust system in place to measure its performance and determine if it has achieved its targets. As stated in the corporate plan, “[p]erformance is assessed against three performance measures, which cover four targets – three prosecution targets, measured annually, and a partner agency engagement target, measured through a survey conducted every two years”.
Key takeaways
The CDPP’s corporate plan provides valuable insight into how the department operates, its priorities, and how it measures and reviews its performance, thus ensuring that it is meeting its obligation of delivering an effective and independent prosecution service.
