Working for Women: A Strategy for Gender Equality
The Office for Women works in partnership with the Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA) to further drive workplace gender equality. WGEA is a statutory government agency responsible for promoting and improving gender equality in Australian workplaces.
Review of the Workplace Gender Equality Act 2012 (WGE Act)
Following a targeted review of the WGE Act, released in March 2022, the Australian Government committed to implementing all 10 of the review’s recommendations aimed at accelerating workplace gender equality and streamlining employer reporting requirements. The final report is available at WGEA Review Report.
Implementation of Review recommendations
Significant progress has been made through comprehensive legislative and non-legislative reforms including:
- Commonwealth public sector reporting – The Anti-Discrimination and Human Rights Legislation Amendment (Respect at Work) Act 2022 introduced a requirement for Commonwealth public sector employers with 100 or more employees to annually report to WGEA against the Gender Equality Indicators.
- Gender pay gap transparency – The Workplace Gender Equality Amendment (Closing the Gender Pay Gap) Act 2023 and associated instruments now require private sector employers with 100 or more employees to report their gender pay gaps to WGEA to accelerate employer action to close the gender pay gap.
- Sexual harassment and discrimination – The Workplace Gender Equality Amendment (Closing the Gender Pay Gap) Act 2023 and associated instruments now require private sector and Commonwealth public sector employers with 100 or more employees to report on policies, strategies and actions to prevent and respond to sexual harassment and harassment on the ground of sex or discrimination. This supports the implementation of related recommendations from the 2020 Respect@Work: Sexual Harassment National Inquiry.
- Gender Equality Targets Scheme – The Workplace Gender Equality Amendment (Setting Gender Equality Targets) Act 2025 requires large employers with 500 or more employees to select, commit to achieve and report on gender equality targets in a 3-year cycle. More information on the target scheme can be found on the WGEA website.
- Enhanced data sharing – The Gender Data Steering Group (the Group) was established in October 2022 to maximise the impact of the Australian Government’s major data holdings as an evidence-base for gender equality policy. The Group works to improve the collection, management, access, sharing and use of gender disaggregated and intersectional data across government.