In order to achieve its Organisational outcome, the department’s objectives, set out in its corporate plan, are to:

• continue to develop expertise in the constitutional and procedural bases of the Senate and its committees
• ensure the highest standard of accurate and prompt procedural advice
• maintain and improve services to the Senate, its committees, senators and other users of departmental resources using efficient and up-to-date technology
• publish a greater range of information about the Senate’s role and work, faster and in a variety of formats, and
• ensure our workforce planning, recruitment and staff development practices deliver a highly skilled, knowledgeable and motivated workforce.

The department delivers its outcome through a single departmental program, which is described in the next chapter.

The department also participates on a range of interdepartmental committees through which the parliamentary departments coordinate common and joint activities. Chief among these are regular meetings of the heads of the four parliamentary departments; the Parliamentary Administration Advisory Group; the Security Management Board; the Parliamentary ICT Advisory Board and its subsidiaries; and numerous boards managing joint projects and endeavours such as the implementation of the Parliament’s Reconciliation Action Plan.