Gender Balance on Australian Government Boards

Overall gender balance on government boards

The existing targets for gender balance on government boards are:

Women to hold 50% of all Australian Government board positions
Women to hold at least 40% of Australian Government board positions at the individual board level.

The 2023-24 annual report was released on 23 January 2025. As at 30 June 2024 women held:

54.4% of positions on Australian Government boards. This meets the government's target for women to hold 50% of overall Australian Government board positions and maintains the highest overall result since reporting began in 2009.
at least 40% of Government board positions on 78.4% of individual Australian Government boards. This means that 21.6% of individual boards did not meet this target.
45.3% of Chair and Deputy Chair positions on Australian Government boards.

The government strengthened its commitments to achieving and maintaining gender balance on Australian Government boards by agreeing to two new targets through the release of Working for Women: A Strategy for Gender Equality.

The new targets for the 2024-25 annual report will be:

Women to hold 50% of Australian Government board positions at the portfolio level.
Women to hold 50% of Chair and Deputy Chair positions on Australian Government boards at the portfolio level

Baseline data for the two new targets as at 30 June 2024 indicates:

11 out of 17 portfolios met or exceed 50% representation of women on Australian Government boards.
Seven out of 17 portfolios met or exceed 50% representation of women in Chair and Deputy Chair positions.

The government also agreed to expand the scope of gender balance on Australian Government boards reporting to include all positions on reportable boards and advisory bodies. The expanded scope and the new and existing targets will be reported on in the 2024-25 annual report.

Annual reports

The Gender Balance on Australian Government Boards Report 2023-2024 provides a gender analysis of the composition of Australian Government boards for the period 1 July 2023 to 30 June 2024.

Available reports:

To access previous years’ Gender Balance on Australian Government Boards reports, you can visit Trove.