[Music] Welcome my name's Bryony.
Whether you're starting out with Victoria's Gender Equality Act or looking for a quick refresher, this session will show you why the work matters and exactly what's expected of you so you can drive real and lasting change. This webinar is being held on the lands of the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin Nation and I wish to acknowledge them as the Traditional Owners. I would also like to pay respects to Elders, past and present and emerging, and any other communities who may be watching today.
Today's session has four parts. First we'll look at why gender equality matters for staff, organizations, and for the communities we serve. Second, we'll run through what the Gender Equality Act actually requires. Third, we'll unpack the reporting obligations you need to meet over the next cycle. Finally we'll clarify the roles that keep everything moving. From the head of your organization right down to the team members who upload the data. By the end you'll know the deadlines, the tools, and most importantly the impact you can make. So let's get started. I would like to first pass over to our commissioner Dr. Niki Vincent.
Thank you Bryony and hello and welcome. Today's session is about your responsibilities under the Gender Equality Act. Gender equality isn't a nice to have, it's a fundamental human right and a legal obligation. The Act is a powerful tool that drives real accountability it requires every duty holder to take action that is deliberate, measurable, and effective. This is more than compliance, it's about creating fair inclusive and safe workplaces where everyone can thrive. The work can be challenging especially for under resourced teams, but it matters and it makes a difference.
Thank you Niki. Before we dive into the gender equality act it's important to understand the current reality.
Worldwide, women often outperform men in education yet men still take home 39% more pay. In Victoria, frontline roles are well balanced, but decision and pay lag behind. In public health for instance 78% of the workforce are women, yet under just half are CEOs. In local government women are two-thirds of staff, but fewer than half of the senior leaders, and the gender pay gap in the health sector is at 33%. Overall the experience of sexual harassment has increased by 1% for women in 2023 compared to 2021, so that's 6% to 7% with 15% of young women experiencing sexual harassment in the workplace. For flexibility, our data shows that women are almost twice as likely as men to access flexible or part-time work arrangements.
So why does gender equality matter, and in this instance in the workplace. When pay, promotion, and culture are fair, staff engagement rises, absenteeism falls, and sexual harassment rates drop. Respectful teams collaborate better and innovate faster. Everyone feels safe to contribute. Pay equity and shared caring mean more stable household incomes, and stronger retirement savings, and less stress at home. Flexible policies for all let men and women balance work and family without career penalties, and a workforce that reflects Victoria's diversity, designs services that work for everyone. Diverse leadership improves policy insight, boosts public trust, and delivers better outcomes for the communities we serve. These benefits are exactly why Victoria legislated the Gender Equality Act, to turn fairness into standard practice and unlock healthier workplaces, fairer conditions, and public services for all.
About the Gender Equality Act.
Enacted in 2021 the Gender Equality Act is the first of its kind in Australia. The Commissioner and the staff in her office make up the Commission for Gender Equality in the Public Sector. Commission staff support the commissioner to oversee the act and to promote gender equality in the public sector workforce, and in the wider Victorian community. And it focuses on three key pillars intersectionality, recognizing that gender equality often intersects with other forms of disadvantage or discrimination like ageism, or ableism, or racism. Which can amplify a person's experience of gender inequality. Transparency, duty holders must publish data like pay gaps which fosters accountability. And lastly systemic change, this work is not a quick fix nor is this law it drives ongoing reforms in policies workplace culture and service delivery
Now let's watch this short video that really unpacks intersectionality as it can be a new concept for many.
[Music] The Commission for Gender Equality in the public sector presents what is intersectionality? Intersectionality helps us understand how different forms of discrimination, like sexism, ableism, racism, ageism, and queerphobia, can overlap and interact. Creating unique forms of inequality that shape people's everyday experiences. Intersecting forms of discrimination arise when systems treat people unfairly based on factors like age, ethnicity, gender, disability, or sexual orientation. When forms of discrimination intersect, they can intensify. This can lead to social isolation and exclusion, blockers to career progression, and barriers to accessing essential health care and support. Intersectionality shifts the focus away from individuals, and instead points to the systems and structures that create and sustain inequality. By recognizing and responding to the complexity of people's lived experiences, we can move beyond one-size fits-all approaches. And in doing so, we help build fairer more inclusive workplaces for all, where everyone is safe, respected and can participate equally.
Our job as a gender equality regulator is to ensure organisations meet their obligations under The Act. So what do we do?
We educate and guide, we publish guidance and templates, and provide education and training so every duty holder knows exactly what to do and why it matters. We also promote best practice. We conduct compliance checks, and remedy. We compliance check every gender equality action plan, workplace audit, and progress report. We use informal methods to remedy non-compliance by working with duty holders. Using a risk lens we focus extra attention on organizations or sectors where the risk of gender-based harms is highest. Results are summarized publicly so leaders stay accountable, and we enforce if required. When duty holders ignore non-compliance warnings, we escalate compliance notices, public naming, and even referring to VCAT. Enforcement is always proportionate, but the tools are there to keep everyone honest. So in short we guide first, we check a lot, we enforce when needed so gender equality keeps moving from paperwork to real world action. So, our commissioner Dr. Niki Vincent is the first public sector gender equality commissioner. Her role is to promote gender equality, and uphold the objectives of the Gender Equality Act. She provides guidance to all duty holders driving compliance, and helping them meet their legal duties and make real progress on gender equality. When a systemic workplace dispute arises, The Commissioner can intervene and help resolve them to ensure transparency. Her office publishes every organization's gender equality action plan and progress report, allowing staff and the public to see both improvements and areas that still need attention.
Reporting obligations.
The legislation requires over 300 duty holders, including government departments, local councils, and universities, to lead by example for a more equal Victoria. So we have four core obligations that form a continuous cycle. So the workplace gender audit, so this you capture data on the seven gender equality indicators. We've got the gender equality action plans to set measurable goals, the gender impact assessment to assess programs, policies or services, that have a direct and significant impact on the community. And public progress reports so which are required to be published every two years. Duty holders are also required as an obligation to promote gender equality. Reporting timelines. You're required to submit an audit every two years with the upcoming deadline set for the 1st of December 2025. For most duty holders your audit will cover data from the previous financial year. The audit data shows where inequality exists in your organization. This then informs your gender equality action plan and progress report. Your next gender equality action plan is due on the 1st of May, and your progress report is also due then.
Let's talk about the seven gender equality indicators. These indicators are at the heart of the Gender Equality Act. They provide a well-rounded view of whether women, men, and people of self-described gender, feel equally valued, respected, and supported. They represent the key areas where workplace gender inequality persists, and where progress towards gender equality must be demonstrated. Through the audits we gather data on these indicators. Through gender equality action plans we develop strategies to address these, and through progress reports we report on how we are tracking with them. These really keep the work accountable and focused. Audits. The audit is our evidence base. It's a structured review of workforce data and employee experience feedback, measured against the seven gender equality indicators. There are two types of data you need for your audit. Workforce data, this is gathered from internal data collection systems. for example human resources or payroll data. Then there's also employee experience data. This is based on the employee experience survey, such as the people matters survey. This data helps you better understand gender inequality in your organization. Think of the audit as a health check for gender equality. It tells us where the gaps are, how big they are, and who they effect. Because if we don't measure, we guess, and the audit turns opinion into facts so that our gender equality action plan targets the right issues. Whether it's a pay gap in allied health, or a promotion bottleneck in IT, your organization can then make informed decisions about what actions to take to reduce gender inequality. And this informs your gender equality action plan and how you measure progress.
Your gender equality action plan.
After you have audited your workforce, the next step is creating a gender equality action plan. Gender equality action plans are 4-year road maps. It's a plan to make meaningful changes to improve gender equality in your workplace. They translate findings of each organisation's audit into clear strategies and measures for closing gender pay gaps, improving leadership, balance boosting flexibility, or preventing discrimination. Your gender equality action plan spells out timelines, accountability measures, resourcing, so that progress can be tracked and publicly reported on. Together they turn data into practical steps that embed gender equality into everyday policies, and the culture in your organisation and decision making across the public sector.
Gender impact assessments.
These help your organization see how its policies, programs, or services might impact different people in different ways. If an organization doesn't think about how its work affects different people it actually might unintentionally create, or reinforce inequalities. With gender impact assessments, you proactively ensure that policies, programs, or services with a direct or significant impact on the public don't disadvantage people based on their gender. For determining what direct is, if the public is the primary focus or target of a policy, program, or service then it's direct. If it's an internal policy then it's indirect and actually won't need a GIA. For knowing what is significant, funding alone won't determine this. You also need to consider the reach and depths of impact. So the key steps in a gender impact assessment are: to identify any policies, programs, or services that are up for review. Or that are new. To then assess the potential impacts so does your new service consider the needs of people of all genders including intersectional factors like disability or cultural background. You then consult if needed. So talk to staff or stakeholders. You then refine the policy, or service to ensure it's inclusive.
Let's just watch a short video on Corangamite Shire Council.
We did a gender impact assessment on our infringements policy, because we had a feeling there was a gender bias there or gender impact in that policy. But we didn't really know what it was or what it could be. What was surprising was that women were primarily animal owners, and we were more likely to issue infringements for animal offenses, rather than other local laws offenses. And that's mainly because women were undertaking the administrative tasks, or it fell to women to undertake the administrative tasks for families. And it wasn't necessarily their responsibility, but they ended up bearing the financial burden and the financial cost, The gender impact assessment for us really looked like talking to different members of our office staff but also people out in the ground. We have a diverse workforce at Corangamite, and it really assisted us in the process because we got people engaged. We asked them what it was that that they knew about our infringement policy, and animal registrations and everyone loves their animals, but the diversity of opinion was really important. Our biggest advice would be, you'd be surprised by what you actually find out. Don't make assumptions that this particular policy isn't appropriate, we would have initially thought that infringement policies is a very statutory regulatory approach, but what we've uncovered is the ability to really find that there is an impact, and there is a difference and there is a gender bias out there for a range of different things. So we really encourage you to just get in there and have a go. Progress reports. Duty holders must show reasonable and material progress against the workplace gender equality indicators every two years, Your progress report is your organization's public update on how well you're meeting your goals set out in your gender equality action plan, and your opportunity to report on the gender impact assessments that you have conducted. It's compliance checked by The Commissioner to ensure that progress has been made. It shows where you've improved, which targets still need work, and any new challenges you may discover. The report also demonstrates to staff and the wider community how you're using data to address issues such as pay gap, or under representation in leadership. Publishing progress helps build trust and drives steady improvement. Leadership also stays focused on results, staff see evidence of change, and the broader public gain confidence that these efforts are real and measurable. Your report must include data from your audit to report on the gender equality indicators. As well as a clear narrative on what work you've done, what's working, and what needs more time.
Roles.
Before we wrap up, remember that meeting the Act's deadlines is a team effort, and we have designated roles. First stop at the top of the tree, your CEO or whoever holds the highest office is the head of organization. Under the Gender Equality Act, this person is ultimately responsible for meeting every obligation. They must sign off on the workplace gender audit, the GEAP, and the progress report before anything is lodged. They also handpick one or more staff members to drive this work. Enter the reporting process owner. This staff member the head of the organization delegates as the single point of contact for the commission. The reporting process owner decides who in your organisation can log in to the reporting platform, and what each person can do once they're there. The reporting process owner can log themselves in, upload data, and make updates. So think of them as the air traffic controller for all reporting activity. Finally we have standard users. These are team members that the reporting process owner authorizes. Standard users can submit the audit data, GEAP, and progress report, replace any submissions if something needs correcting, view all obligations, and the interactive ready to read reports on the platform. In short the head of the organization owns the outcomes, the reporting process owner manages the process, and the standard user handles uploads and updates.
Thank you for taking the time to work through this induction. This really brings us to the end of our session.
I hope now you have an overview of why this work is important, what the Gender Equality Act requires, and who is responsible for each step. If you would like to dive deeper into any parts of the process, the audit, the gender equality action plan, or the progress report, we have short obligation specific videos on our website along with full written guidance and templates. So go and check them out. And please contact us at the commission if you need any further support. Also please keep in touch, we will be releasing more support. So visit our website, follow us on LinkedIn, and subscribe to our newsletter. Thank you and have a fantastic day. [Music]
Updated