Gender Balance on Australian Government Boards Report 2020-21

The Gender Balance on Australian Government Boards Report is prepared annually by the Office for Women, and reports on the Government’s performance against its gender diversity target.

Appendix A

Gender Balance on Australian Government Boards Report — Guidelines

The Australian Government is working towards 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 result, the report includes 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 PGPA Act Flipchart and List (Department of Finance)).
  • A ministerial advisory committee
  • A review committee, whose appointments are made by a Minister or the Cabinet, or
  • A Commonwealth statutory authority.

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

Condition Two: At least one appointment to the board must be a reportable position as described below, approved by a particular representative of the Australian Government. These are limited to:

  • The Prime Minister
  • One or more Commonwealth Ministers
  • The Governor-General in Council, or
  • The Cabinet.

An appointment is considered approved by a representative of the Australian Government where the representative signs off on an appointment or has the ability to veto or request changes to the proposed appointment (even if the representative chooses not to exercise this ability).

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 and appointed 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 positions do not contribute to the Gender Balance report.

As data is reported on a positions basis, individuals holding two or more in-scope positions may appear more than once in the overall figures.

Chair and Deputy Chair gender balance

In-scope Chair or Deputy Chair positions, or their functional equivalents, contribute towards
this metric. Equivalent positions can include, for example, Chief Commissioners and Chief or Deputy Chief Convenors.

New appointments

New appointments are appointments made within the reporting period. Re-appointments do not contribute towards the new appointments metric, but can – if applicable – contribute to the overall gender balance metric, the Chair and Deputy Chair metric and/or the external nominations metric.

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.