The Office for Women is the central gender equality institution within the APS, with all Australian Government portfolios responsible for developing high‑quality gender analysis and achieving gender equality outcomes.

The release of Working for Women: A Strategy for Gender Equality provides a focus for the Australian Government’s work on gender equality over the next 10 years. It outlines the government’s vision for an Australia where people are safe, treated with respect, have choices, and have access to resources and equal outcomes, no matter their gender. The strategy sets out a path towards this vision for gender equality, with a focus on gender-based violence; unpaid and paid care; economic equality and security; health; and leadership, representation and decision-making.

Working for Women is a whole‑of‑government strategy that supports consideration of gender impact across government’s policy priorities. Gender‑responsive budgeting is a key tool for implementing the strategy, ensuring that gender analysis is at the centre of government decision-making and investment.

Parliamentary workplace reforms

PM&C, through the Jenkins Report Implementation Team, is supporting the government’s commitment to work across the parliament to implement the Australian Human Rights Commission’s Set the Standard: Report on the Independent Review into Commonwealth Parliamentary Workplaces. Following commencement of the statutory Parliamentary Workplace Support Service on 1 October 2023, we are supporting the government to establish the Independent Parliamentary Standards Commission (the IPSC). This includes supporting the Minister for Finance, Senator the Hon Katy Gallagher, to engage with the Parliamentary Leadership Taskforce (which has cross-party parliamentarian membership to oversee implementation of the report) and a parliamentary staff consultation group on draft legislation to establish the IPSC.