Gender balance on Australia Government boards reporting guidelines
The Australian Government remains committed to gender targets for Australian Government boards, which have been in effect since 1 July 2016. The targets call for women to hold at least 50 per cent of Australian Government board positions overall, and that women and men should both hold at least 40 per cent of positions at the individual board level.
To measure the Government’s progress against these targets, the Office for Women publishes this Gender Balance on Australian Government Boards Annual Report on the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet website.
This reporting measures the representation of women on Australian Government boards across four metrics:
- Overall positions on Australian Government boards – reported at the whole-of-government and portfolio level.
- New appointments to Australian Government boards – reported at whole-of-government and portfolio level.
- Chair and Deputy Chair positions on Australian Government boards – reported at the whole-of-government and portfolio level.
- External nominations to Australian Government boards.
Chair and Deputy Chair positions
Board members holding Chair or Deputy Chair positions, or functional equivalents, contribute towards this metric. Equivalent roles can include, for example, Chief or Deputy Chief Convenors and Commissioners.
New appointments
New appointments are those made over the 2022-2023 financial year, which fulfil all of the criteria above, but do not require the successful candidate to have been formally working in the role as at 30 June 2023. Reappointments of the same candidate to the same position do not contribute towards the new appointment metric, only to the overall gender balance metric and the Chair and Deputy Chair gender balance metric (if applicable).
External nominations
External nominations refer to nominations made in the 2022-2023 Financial Year, by either an individual, an organisation or a number of organisations who are not the Government Minister responsible for approving the appointment, or a member of their department.
External nominations can include, but are not limited to, nominations made by a state or territory government, an overseas government, the Australian Senate or House of Representatives, non-government bodies, departments and agencies that are not the relevant portfolio agency and Ministers that are not the relevant portfolio 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 Annual Report and contribute to the external nominations gender balance metric.
Scope of the reporting
Boards
Some Australian Government Boards do not fall within the scope of the Gender Balance report. To be in 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) (further information can be found at PGPA Act Flipchart and List
- A ministerial advisory committee
- A review committee, whose members are appointed by a Minister or the Cabinet
- A Commonwealth statutory authority.
Condition Two
At least one appointment to the board must be approved by any of the following representatives of the Australian Government:
- The Prime Minister
- One or more Commonwealth Ministers
- The Governor-General in Council
- The Cabinet.
Australian Government boards that 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 on Australian Government boards are within the scope of the Gender Balance report, including 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 Annual Report. Out-of-scope positions do not contribute to the number of filled positions or to the Report and are not analysed.