The Gender Balance on Australian Government Boards Annual Report has been prepared since 2008-09 to outline performance against the Government’s targets for gender balance on Australian Government boards.

The Australian Government has continued to meet the target for women to hold 50% of overall reportable positions on government boards in 2023-24. As at 30 June 2024, women held 54.4% of Australian Government board positions, the highest rate of representation on record.

Record high representation was also seen in Chair and Deputy Chair positions, where women held 45.3% of positions as at 30 June 2024 - an increase of 3.0 percentage points since 30 June 2023.

This is the second year of reporting on the representation of women at the individual board level. There is still more progress to be made against the target for women to hold at least 40% of Australian Government board positions at the individual board level. There has been a slight decrease in representation on individual boards with 21.6% of boards having less than 40% representation of women compared with 21.3% in 2022-23.

Women’s representation in new appointments and external nominations has improved with new appointments increasing by 4 percentage points to 56.9% in 2023-24 and external nominations increasing by 9.3 percentage points to 54.5% in 2023-24.

Changes to targets and scope for the next reporting period

With the release of Working for Women: A Strategy for Gender Equality (Working for Women) in March 2024, the Government has renewed and expanded its targets.

The new expanded targets require women to hold 50% of Chair and Deputy Chair positions and 50% of board positions at the portfolio level.

The scope of board positions will also be expanded to 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. The 2024-25 annual report for will reflect this expanded scope.