Gender Balance on Australian Government Boards reporting guidelines
The Australian Government remains committed to gender targets for Australian Government boards. Targets have been in effect since 1 July 2016 and call for:
Target 1: Women to hold 50% of Australian Government board positions.
Target 2: Women to hold at least 40% of positions at the individual board level.
The targets were revised in 2024 to also include:
Target 3: Women to hold 50% of Australian board positions at the portfolio level.
Target 4: Women to hold 50% of Chair and Deputy Chair positions on Australian Government board positions at the portfolio level.
To measure the government’s progress against these targets, the Office for Women publishes this Gender Balance on Australian Government Boards 2023-24 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
- Chair and Deputy Chair 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
- external nominations to Australian Government boards – reported at the whole-of-government level.
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 2023-2024 financial year, which fulfill all of the criteria outlined below in scope of reporting, but do not require the successful candidate to have been formally working in the role as at 30 June 2024. 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 2023-2024 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 on Australian Government Boards 2023-24 Annual Report and contribute to the external nominations gender balance metric.
Scope of 2023-24 reporting
Boards
Some Australian Government Boards do not fall within the scope of the Gender Balance on Australian Government Boards 2023-24 Annual 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 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 on Australian Government Boards 2023-24 Annual 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 above)
- 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 on Australian Government Boards 2023-24 Annual Report. Out-of-scope positions do not contribute to the number of filled positions or to the report.
Expanded scope 2024-25
The expanded scope will be presented in the 2024-25 annual report. It will capture all positions on relevant boards and bodies (this includes ex-officio and external appointments), as opposed to only government appointed positions as is currently reported. This is to provide greater visibility of the gender composition of Australian Government. The gender balance targets will also apply to all positions on relevant boards and advisory bodies.