Corporate plans must be given to the responsible Minister and Finance Minister before they are published on an entity’s website by the last day of the second month of the reporting period for which the plan is prepared. For entities who report on a financial year basis, this is 31 August each year. The giving and publishing needs to be completed in line with the guidance below. The submission and publication steps for corporate plans are outlined in the 4 steps below.
Give the corporate plan to your responsible Minister.
Email the corporate plan to the Minister for Finance via the Department of Finance (Finance) at PGPA@finance.gov.au.
Publish the corporate plan on your entity's website by 31 August each year.
→ Entities are encouraged to advise Finance once the plan has been published.
Finance uploads your entity's published corporate plan onto the Transparency Portal after your entity has completed the steps above.
Giving corporate plans to the Responsible Minister and the Finance Minister
Accountable authorities are required to give a copy of the corporate plan to the responsible Minister and the Minister for Finance as soon as practicable after the plan is prepared and before it is published on their entity’s website.
There is no legal requirement under the Public Governance, Performance and Accountability Act 2013 (PGPA Act) or Public Governance, Performance and Accountability Rule 2014 (PGPA Rule) for the responsible Minister to approve an entity’s corporate plan. However, an entity’s enabling legislation may require the Minister’s approval. Entities should follow any arrangements that they have agreed with the relevant Minister’s office on finalising their corporate plans.
In practice, entities typically provide the draft and final version of the plan to their responsible Minister.
To meet the requirement to give the corporate plan to the Finance Minister, a copy of the corporate plan should be sent to Finance at PGPA@finance.gov.au. Entities do not need to send a copy of the corporate plan to the Office of the Finance Minister directly.
Once the plan has been sent to Finance, entities may then publish the plan on their entity’s website. It is good practice to advise Finance once the plan has been published.
Finance is responsible for publishing the entity’s corporate plan on the Transparency Portal after the plan has been 1) sent to PGPA@finance.gov.au, and 2) published on the entity’s website.
Deadline for publishing corporate plans
Entities must publish their corporate plan on their website by the last day of the second month of the reporting period for which the plan is prepared. For most entities, this is 31 August each year.
Entities who report on a financial year basis, must publish their corporate plans on their website by 31 August each year.
Entities that report on a calendar year basis, must publish a corporate plan
by the end of February each year.
An entity's enabling legislation may specify another date for the publication of its corporate plan.
Extensions to publishing deadlines
Where an accountable authority considers it is unable to publish the corporate plan by the legislative deadline (for example, 31 August) they may apply for an extension from their responsible Minister. The Acts Interpretation Act 1901 allows for an application to the responsible Minister (see sections 34C(4) to (7) of that Act). An extension should only be sought if the accountable authority considers that it is not reasonably possible for the corporate plan to be given to the responsible Minister by the legislated deadline.
Should your entity’s responsible Minister grant an extension, the corporate plan must be tabled within 15 sitting days after the day on which the responsible Minister received the corporate plan.
Please contact PGPA@finance.gov.au if your entity is considering requesting an extension from your responsible Minister.
