Gender Balance on Australian Government Boards Report — guidelines

The Australian Government has committed to a gender diversity target of women holding 50 per cent of Government board positions overall, and women and men each holding at least 40 per cent of positions at the individual board level. These targets took effect from 1 July 2016.

To track progress towards these targets, each year the Office for Women publishes a Gender Balance report on the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet website. In addition to reporting on the overall Government result, the report covers portfolio results, new appointments to Australian Government Boards, Chair and Deputy Chair positions and candidates nominated for Australian Government board positions by external organisations.

Scope of the reporting

Boards

Some Australian Government Boards are not within the scope of the Gender Balance report. To fall within scope, a board must meet two conditions.

Condition one: The board must be either:

• a body covered by the Public Governance, Performance and Accountability Act 2013 (PGPA Act) (a Flipchart and further information can be found at https://www.finance.gov.au/government/managing-commonwealth-resources/structure-australian-government-public-sector/pgpa-act-flipchart-and-list)
• a ministerial advisory committee
• a review committee, whose appointments are made by a Minister or the Cabinet
• a Commonwealth statutory authority.

Condition Two: At least one appointment to the board must be approved by particular representatives of the Australian Government. These are limited to:

• the Prime Minister
• one or more Commonwealth Ministers
• the Governor-General in Council
• the Cabinet.

Boards which fall outside the scope of gender balance reporting include Royal Commissions, Commonwealth Courts and tribunals.

Positions

Gender balance data is reported on a positions basis. Not all positions are within the scope of the Gender Balance report. Reporting does not include positions which are:

• elected with no formal Government approval
• nominated by a third party with no formal Government approval (these positions are captured in external nominations data only, see below)
• of a particular office-holder to a particular board or committee, as required by legislation
• (e.g. a Minister serving as the Chair of a board)
• for employees engaged under the Public Service Act 1999 or other enabling legislation for purposes beyond serving on a Commonwealth decision-making or advisory board, committee, council or similar (e.g. ex officio appointments of senior public servants), or acting appointments of six months or less.

Where a board has a mixture of in-scope and out-of-scope positions, the board and its in-scope positions are included in the Gender Balance report. Out-of-scope are do not contribute to the number of filled positions or to the gender balance report.

Chair and Deputy Chair positions

Board members with Chair or Deputy Chair positions, or their functional equivalents, contribute towards this metric. Equivalent roles can include, for example, Chief or Deputy Chief Convenors and Commissioners.

New appointments

New appointments are appointments made over the 2019-20 financial year, which fulfil all of the criteria above but do not require the successful candidate to have been formally working in the role at 30 June 2020. Reappointments do not contribute towards the new appointments metric, only to the overall gender balance metric and Chair and Deputy Chair gender balance metrics.

External nominations

External nominations include, but are not limited to, nominations made by a state or territory government, the Senate or House of Representatives, an overseas Government, or a non-Government body. This includes appointment processes where it is either legislated or accepted practice for nominations to be provided to a Minister.

External nominations do not include nominations made by a Minister’s department, the relevant board or its Chair, or by two or more Ministers where one is the relevant portfolio Minister.

Both successful and unsuccessful nominations are within the scope of the Gender Balance report.