The Commissioner plays a key role in raising awareness of gender inequality and engaging with duty holders to drive change. She works with stakeholders to advance shared goals and advocate for system-level change. Leveraging her unique position as Commissioner, she contributes to public conversations on gender equality through high-profile events, media and social media.
Providing expert advice on intersectional gender equality
The Commissioner’s role involves raising awareness about intersectional gender inequality in workplaces and the community. She engaged with a range of policy and legislative processes this year to advocate for fairer outcomes for everyone, regardless of gender.
Throughout the year, Dr Vincent provided strategic advice on gender equality and the Act to the Minister for Women. This portfolio was held by Minister Natalie Hutchins, Minister Mary-Anne Thomas and Minister Gabrielle Williams (from April 2026).
Independent review of the Gender Equality Act
Under the Gender Equality Act, a review of the Act’s first 4 years of operation must be conducted. In 2025, the Minister for Women initiated the review. Independent agency, Cube Group, was appointed to conduct the review. It aimed to assess how well the law has been put into action, how effective it has been, and what could make it stronger.
The Commission participated in consultation workshops with Cube Group. The Commissioner made a formal submission(opens in a new window) to the review. This submission highlighted the Act’s potential to drive lasting change. It showed how the Act has been rolled out and how organisations have worked to meet their obligations.
Commissioner submissions and advice
This year, the Commissioner also made submissions to provide independent, expert advice on a range of policy and legislative reviews. This included:
- Inquiry into the Adequacy of the Legislative Framework for the Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission(opens in a new window). The submission noted that if the legislative framework did not consider gender, then IBAC cannot properly identify or address corrupt conduct – nor can it ensure its reporting and investigating processes are safe and accessible to all Victorians.
- 2025 Determination adjusting VPS executive remuneration bands(opens in a new window). The submission made recommendations to bring a gender lens in the Tribunal’s determinations. This can help close the gender pay gap in the Victorian Public Service.
- Proposed working from home legislation(opens in a new window). The submission supported the protection of working from home entitlements through legislation. It called for a gender impact assessment (GIA) on the proposed legislation.
- Review of the Jobs and Skills Australia Act 2022(opens in a new window). The submission made recommendations around embedding an intersectional gender lens in Jobs and Skills Australia’s work.
In December 2025, the Victorian Government published its response to the Independent Review of the Victorian Public Service (the Silver Review). The Government confirmed it would implement most of the Silver Review’s recommendations, including rebalancing Victorian Public Service roles. To ensure gendered impacts were considered in this process, the Commissioner wrote to department Secretaries and issued a statement (opens in a new window)outlining how a gendered lens should be applied to major organisational changes.
Dr Vincent also provided expert advice as a member on a number of committees. This includes:
- Steering Committee membership for Jobs and Skills Australia’s Gender Economic Equality Study
- Advisory Board Membership of the Centre for Workplace Excellence, University of South Australia
- membership of the Equal Workplaces Advisory Council
- ex-officio membership of the Our Equal State Reference Group.
Dr Vincent participated in judging panels for a number of awards, including:
- The Public Service Medal
- Emergency Services Foundation’s Diversity and Inclusion Awards
- The Mary Rogers Awards for women in local government
Providing thought leadership
International Women’s Day 2026
Each year, International Women’s Day draws attention to gender inequality. The 2026 theme, Balance the Scales, was a reminder that fairness does not happen by accident. Participation in society, in democracy, and in the economy depends on systems being designed to be fair. Scales reveal imbalance: they make the invisible visible.
Dr Vincent participated in 11 events for International Women’s Day 2026. These included keynote speeches and panels run by a range of duty holders and peak bodies. Through these events, Dr Vincent contributed to wide-reaching conversations about intersectional gender inequality – and what needs to be done to address it.
Women Deliver 2026
In April 2026, Dr Vincent, Commission Director Alice Dunt, and Manager Policy Evidence and Regulation, Dr Kate Farhall, attended Women Deliver 2026. This international conference brought together around 6,000 delegates to advance gender equality.
Gender Equity Victoria hosted a shared exhibition space that included information about the Commission’s unique regulatory role.
Ahead of the event, Dr Vincent joined a roundtable with Her Excellency Amina J. Mohammed, Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations and Chair of the United Nations Sustainable Development Group. This meeting, hosted by UN Global Compact Network Australia, explored leadership, power and collective courage.
Media commentary
Drawing on her expertise and lived experience, Dr Vincent engaged with a range of media outlets to contribute to public conversations around gender equality.
Reflecting our focus on compliance assessment and reporting this year, media activity was lower than in previous years.
Some media coverage was secured this year, including:
- 3 op-eds in Women’s Agenda and one in The Mandarin, addressing a range of topics such as backlash, women’s health, and gender quotas
- an interview in Geelong Advertiser about the barriers for women standing for local council
- a quote in a News.com article about double standards imposed on women in politics
- photos and media mentions in regional media outlets relating to duty holder visits.
Reaching more people online
We share information with a broad audience through our digital channels to promote gender equality and raise awareness of the Gender Equality Act.
Our website is a key platform for sharing guidance, insights, news and real-life examples of gender equality in practice. This year, around 53,000 people visited our website. The website received more than 116,000 total sessions – an average of 316 per day – which is up 8.3% from the previous year. The most visited web pages related to our guidance and obligation submissions.
We use LinkedIn to raise awareness of gender equality issues and share useful, engaging content with gender equality professionals and the wider Victorian community. This year our followers increased by more than 2,000 to over 11,000, and our posts were seen more than 422,000 times. With more than 7,000 likes, shares and comments, we’re continuing to drive conversations on gender equality in Victoria and beyond.
We share regular updates with around 2,600 subscribers through our monthly newsletter. It brings together the most important gender equality news and resources in one place. Due to reduced resources in 2026, we reduced the frequency of our newsletter, publishing one edition every 2 months.
Updated