Purpose 3: Supporting individuals, families and communities to thrive

Cross-government collaboration on the Disability and Aged Care Royal Commissions

In 2019–20, PM&C supported the activities of three royal commissions. Two of them were the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety (Aged Care Royal Commission) and the Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability (Disability Royal Commission).

Royal commissions are established to inquire into systems and identify issues requiring action. They are independent from government.

The royal commissions gave many Australians the opportunity to share their experiences and have their stories heard. PM&C played a key role in the establishment of both royal commissions. We advised the Prime Minister on major royal commission related matters as required, and we have an ongoing role working with partners and policy leads across government to support coordination of Commonwealth engagement with the royal commissions.

PM&C supported the Attorney-General’s Department in its leadership of the Commonwealth’s engagement with royal commissions. PM&C worked with other relevant policy agencies, including the Department of Social Services and the Department of Health. By supporting agencies to engage effectively with the royal commissions, PM&C assisted the royal commissions to operate effectively and make recommendations to shape Government priorities and policy. In our coordination role we also helped to ensure the commissioners have access to high-quality information on government policy and services.

When the Aged Care Royal Commission’s interim report was released in October 2019, PM&C worked with the Department of Health to develop a $537 million funding package to respond to priority areas identified in the report. The rapid response to the priority areas benefited older Australians by translating the experiences shared through the Royal Commission into policy action.

PM&C worked with agencies and governments to establish interdepartmental and inter-jurisdictional committees. This led to discussion and sharing of information on royal commission engagements and helped agencies in understanding how they should engage with commissions.

PM&C’s support ensured all relevant government areas collaborated effectively to support the royal commissions’ critical work inquiring into how vulnerable Australians can be better supported and protected.

Royal Commission into National Natural Disaster Arrangements

The bushfire season of 2019–2020 was unparalleled in its scale and resulted in loss of life and property and destruction of wildlife and the environment. The conditions experienced during the bushfires presented new challenges for all levels of government.

On 20 February 2020, the Government established the Royal Commission into National Natural Disaster Arrangements. The Royal Commission is inquiring into:

• natural disaster management coordination across all levels of government
• Australia’s resilience and adaptation to changing climatic conditions
• the legal framework for the Commonwealth’s involvement in responding to national emergencies.

The Royal Commission will make recommendations to give Australians confidence that natural disaster coordination arrangements are the best they can be. It is also examining whether there should be a Commonwealth power to declare national emergencies and shine a light on what needs to be done to improve resilience to the changing climate and to make our community safer.

Air Chief Marshal Mark Binskin AC (Retd), the Hon Dr Annabelle Bennett AC SC and Professor Andrew Macintosh were appointed as Royal Commissioners.
PM&C led work to establish the Royal Commission, supporting the Prime Minister with advice on the design and scope of the inquiry and working with the Office of Parliamentary Counsel to prepare the draft Letters Patent for consideration by the Governor-General. PM&C also consulted with state and territory First Ministers’ departments on the proposed terms of reference for the inquiry.

The Royal Commission continued its important work despite the disruption of the COVID-19 pandemic by holding community forums, other public consultation processes and public hearings using online technology.

The establishment of the Royal Commission, jointly with the states, reflected the level of public interest in ensuring effective governance arrangements for areas under inquiry and recognises shared responsibilities between all levels of governments. The Royal Commission will deliver its final report by 28 October 2020.

Keeping Australians safe online

On 15 March 2019, a single gunman carried out mass shootings at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand. The terrorist attacks were uploaded and live-streamed on the internet. The attack was the catalyst for the Government to increase its international efforts to prevent terrorist and violent extremist exploitation of the internet and speed up its domestic online safety reform efforts.

Following the Christchurch attack, the Prime Minister was successful in securing G20 leaders’ agreement to the Osaka G20 Leaders’ Statement on Preventing the Exploitation of the Internet for Terrorism and Violent Extremism.

In April 2019, the Prime Minister established the Taskforce to Combat Terrorist and Extreme Violent Material Online, jointly led by PM&C and the then Department of Communications and the Arts. Through the Taskforce’s report, released on 30 June 2019, Government and industry representatives agreed to measures and commitments to prevent similar online content disseminating.

The Government is also developing a new Online Safety Act to modernise and clarify current regulatory arrangements to ensure all Australians have appropriate safeguards in place to protect them from harmful content.

PM&C is working with the Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Communications, which leads on the development of the Act. PM&C provided briefing to the Prime Minister and the Cabinet with advice to support Cabinet’s agreement to the Act’s framework and to release a discussion paper for consultation.

Since the Prime Minister’s success at G20, the Department is working with New Zealand and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) on a project to develop a Voluntary Transparency Reporting Protocol (VTRP). This project brought together industry, governments, academia and civil society to establish a protocol for platforms to publicly report steps they are taking to prevent, detect and remove terrorist and violent extremist content.

The first version of the OECD VTRP is expected by the end of 2020. It is currently under development and is on track.

PM&C supported the Prime Minister by providing high-quality briefing, working across government and meeting with digital platforms such as Facebook and Google, to help deliver both international and domestic actions to keep Australians safe online. Actions to improve online safety will benefit Australians of all ages who interact online.

Beijing+25 Review—supporting gender equality on the global stage

The Asia-Pacific Ministerial Conference on the Beijing+25 Review (Beijing+25) was held in Bangkok, Thailand, from 26 to 29 November 2019. Beijing+25 marked 25 years since the adoption of a blueprint for achieving gender equality: the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, by the Fourth World Conference on Women.

Beijing+25, convened by the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, brought together ministers and senior officials to review progress made since the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action was adopted. The Australian delegation was led by the Office for Women and was complemented by the Australian Sex Discrimination Commissioner, Kate Jenkins, and three civil society representatives.

The Australian delegation sought to advance Australia’s position on gender equality and participate in the negotiations of the conference’s outcome document. It was instrumental in successfully retaining important gender equality language in the Beijing Declaration—for example, language on the women, peace and security agenda, Indigenous women, and workplace discrimination. The Office for Women worked closely with like-minded countries, including our Pacific partners, to negotiate agreement. In the current global political climate, the adoption of the outcome document by an overwhelming majority of the Asia-Pacific region was a welcome result.

The resolution document recommitted the Asia-Pacific regional community to uphold the rights of women and girls. The resolution included important regional commitments for the rights of women and girls, such as reaffirming all efforts to eliminate violence against women, and overcoming barriers facing diverse groups of women.

The Asia-Pacific Declaration on Advancing Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment: Beijing+25 Review contained firm language on gender equality and reflected the achievements and challenges faced by the region. The outcome document served as a blueprint for advancing gender equality in the Asia-Pacific and reaffirmed key international norms on gender equality for implementation in the region.

The Asia-Pacific Ministerial Conference on the Beijing+25 Review put Australia and the Asia-Pacific in a strong position to advocate during negotiation of the Political Declaration for the 64th Session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW64) in March 2020. The Australian Government played an important role in negotiating a strong political statement before CSW64 was truncated due to the COVID-19 lockdowns.

Record result for gender balance on Australian Government boards

The Australian Government is supporting women into leadership positions through its target for women to hold 50 per cent of Australian Government board positions.
Gender balance supports more effective and innovative decision making, stronger stakeholder relationships and increased organisational performance. The Government and the community benefit from more diverse voices on Australian Government boards.

This year the Government reported the highest representation of women on Australian Government boards since reporting began in 2009 (33.4 per cent). At 31 December 2019, women held 48.4 per cent of available positions—an increase of 0.5 percentage points from 30 June 2019.

The Office for Women collaborated with agencies to deliver an annual gender balance report measuring progress against the Government’s target. This drove increased numbers of women in Government leadership positions.

Setting goals and publicly reporting on progress were important enablers for change. The Government set the 50 per cent target on 1 July 2016, when women filled 40.5 per cent of Australian Government board positions. The Office for Women works collaboratively with Commonwealth agencies on an ongoing basis to meet this target by collecting and reporting data on the gender balance of overall board positions.

Consistent, timely and accurate reporting through the annual gender balance report assisted Portfolio Ministers and the Government to meet the target of increasing women’s representation on Government boards. The Government’s approach also provided a model for other sectors to follow.

By continuing to provide high-quality reporting, the Government leads by example and communicates its commitment to support women into positions of leadership.

Co-designing a National Strategy to Prevent Child Sexual Abuse

The National Office for Child Safety (National Office) within PM&C provides national leadership on policies and strategies to enhance children’s safety and reduce future harm to children.

In 2019–20, the National Office led the development of a National Strategy to Prevent Child Sexual Abuse (National Strategy)—a key intergovernmental, cross-portfolio recommendation from the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. The National Strategy will drive a long-term, nationally consistent and coordinated approach to preventing child sexual abuse in familial, online and institutional settings. Once implemented, it will encompass Government and non-government sector efforts to drive positive cultural change, support victims and survivors of child sexual abuse and prevent abuse from occurring.

During 2019–20, the National Office conducted a collaborative consultation process to refine the parameters of the National Strategy. The National Office delivered two successful co-design workshops with government stakeholders; regularly consulted with a number of intergovernmental and cross-portfolio child safety working groups; and facilitated a co-design workshop with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander organisations, policy makers, frontline workers and researchers. The office also partnered with the lead researchers of the Australian Child Maltreatment Study to ensure new baseline evidence is available for the National Strategy.

The National Office’s collaborative design process ensured the scope and approach for the National Strategy reflects the diverse needs and expectations of key stakeholders (including governments, the Royal Commission, people with lived experience of child sexual abuse, clinical practitioners and key population cohorts) and promotes evidence-based, best-practice approaches to keeping children safe.

In March 2020, Commonwealth, state and territory Community Service Ministers provided support for the scope and approach for the National Strategy and acknowledged the National Office for leading a collaborative consultation design process.

The National Office also partnered with key stakeholders to raise awareness of child safety risks during the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly in online environments. It released an open letter to the public and shared informative resources across our networks to support parents and carers, teachers and people working with children to identify, mitigate and respond to child safety concerns. This work closely aligned with the National Strategy’s priority focus on education and awareness-raising initiatives.

Building upon the successful collaborative design process, the National Office will continue to work with key stakeholders to refine and finalise the National Strategy ahead of its anticipated endorsement by Australian governments in 2021.

Indigenous Australians—working in partnership on Closing the Gap

The first National Agreement on Closing the Gap commenced in 2008. Since then, all Australian governments worked together to deliver better health, education and employment outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and to eliminate the gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. Closing the gap in life outcomes between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians is a national priority and requires a coordinated whole-of-government approach.

In 2018, the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) committed to refresh Closing the Gap in formal partnership with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, represented by the Coalition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peak Organisations (Coalition of Peaks).

In 2019–20, PM&C supported the National Indigenous Australians Agency to negotiate and draft a new National Agreement on Closing the Gap with the Coalition of Peaks, and states and territories. The new agreement had a clear focus on improving how governments work with Indigenous Australians to design and deliver services that affect them.

PM&C generated awareness and buy-in across governments by co-chairing the Indigenous Australians Inter-Departmental Committee, sharing regular updates with COAG and state counterparts, and providing high-quality advice to the Prime Minister and the Cabinet. We organised a landmark roundtable with the Prime Minister, Cabinet ministers and members of the Coalition of Peaks in the Cabinet room in January 2020.

Efforts to raise awareness and coordinate across governments resulted in successful negotiations, culminating in the agreement being signed by the Prime Minister, Premiers and Chief Ministers, Coalition of Peaks, and the Australian Local Government Association.

The new agreement provided a clear framework for governments, outlining refreshed national targets and four priority areas of reform needed to achieve them (for example, through shared decision making). The new reporting arrangements also ensured greater transparency and shared accountability across all levels of government and the Coalition of Peaks.

The new agreement will be crucial for all agencies as they develop and implement policies and programs with Indigenous Australians to improve their wellbeing and welfare. PM&C will continue to support a whole-of-government effort as the agreement is implemented.