Our material issues are defined as having the most impact on our ability to create value for our members, the organisation and the broader community. We acknowledge that there are some trade-offs between material issues. A material issue may negatively impact value creation for one capital, but create value in another capital; changes to our operating model have been necessary to ensure a financially sustainable organisation and to capitalise on our investment in technology, however this has negatively impacted social and relationship capital.

To inform this report and our operations we gather a wide range of input across our day to day activities. Specific report feedback is undertaken annually and focuses on identifying the topics of most importance to value creation and where improvements can be made from previous years. Stakeholders interviewed include Board members, our CEO, executive team and a selection of other employees. We also conducted an online survey that reflected the structure of the interviews with members of our Divisional Councils to gather input from members. We continue to review these issues each year to ensure they reflect our value creation story and strategy.

In 2023, this included consideration of new issues based on changes in the external environment and matters raised in the media and other sources throughout the year.

Three new issues have been added in 2023 as follows:

• digitisation and cyber security
• changing higher education market-place
• trust in the profession.

The issue determined to have lower materiality in 2023 and thus not included in the report as a distinct issue is the geopolitical environment.

Through the interview process, stakeholders mentioned that some issues had some crossover and could be merged and definitions expanded:

• reputation of the designation has been expanded to include governance
• lead the future of the accounting profession has been expanded to include climate-action

In looking at our material issues, consideration is given to the order of priority of the issue, its definition, the horizon over which it will impact value creation, and the level of control CPA Australia has over the issue.

Interested in more detail?

For more information about our performance in this area please download the Integrated Report on the downloads page.