Overview
Who is this page for?
This page is for organisations with 2023 progress reports that have areas marked as “did not demonstrate compliance”. It will help you understand what is required to demonstrate compliance in future cycles.
What does this page contain?
This page lists the criteria that we used to assess your progress report. We explain why your progress report may not have demonstrated compliance, with reference to the Gender Equality Act and Regulations.
Not all criteria on this page will be relevant to you. To find which criteria are relevant, check your progress report compliance outcome report on the Reporting platform.
Gender Impact Assessments
M1.1: GIA - identifies policy program or service
The progress report identifies each policy, program or service subject to the gender impact assessment (sheet 1, columns B-E).
Requirement
Your progress report must list all policies, programs or services where you did a gender impact assessment (GIA). You only need to report on a GIA when the policy, program or service has a direct and significant impact on the public. This is required under s19 (3)(a)(i) of the Gender Equality Act 2020. By providing information about the policy, program or service, you can explain the context of the GIA. Without this information, it can be unclear why certain actions were chosen and how they will improve outcomes for people of different genders.
What you needed to do to demonstrate compliance in 2023
For every policy, program or service reported in the ‘GIA’ tab, you needed to fill in the template with:
- Title (column B): include the name of the policy, program or service.
- Subject (column C): select ‘policy’, ‘program’ or ‘service’ from the dropdown option.
- Description (column D): provide a clear description that explains what the policy, program or service is.
- Status (column E): select either ‘new’ or ‘for review’ from the dropdown option.
If you did not have any GIAs to include in your progress report, you needed to explain this with a permitted reason. This could be explained in the template or in another document for publication. If you did not do this, your progress report would have received an outcome of ‘compliance not demonstrated’.
Permitted reasons include at least one of the following:
- doing so would make the progress report an exempt document within the meaning of the Freedom of Information Act 1982.
- doing so would result in a disclosure prohibited by a different Act.
- doing so would reveal confidential information.
- the entity had no policies, programs or services that met the threshold for a GIA.
Please see section M4 for more information.
Common issues in 2023
- The listed policy, program or service was internal-facing, instead of one that had a direct and significant impact on the public. An example of an internal policy, program or service is a flexible working policy for your employees.
- The description of the policy, program or service did not provide enough context for the Commission to understand the initiative.
- The title was not filled in correctly. For example, GEAP strategies were listed rather than the title of a policy, program or service that required a GIA.
- No policies, programs or services were listed, and no permitted reason was given. Therefore, this would be marked as ‘compliance not demonstrated’. See M1.4 for detail.
- The ‘subject’ and/or ‘status’ dropdowns were not chosen.
Advice for future progress reports
- Keep records throughout the reporting period of the GIAs you do on policies, programs and services that have a direct and significant impact on the public.
- Don’t include GIAs on your internal policies, programs and services (i.e. that don’t have both a direct and significant impact on the public) in the GIA section of the progress report template.
- Provide a permitted reason if you can’t report on any GIAs.
- Include all the relevant information in the template as per the guidance.
- Review our GIA guidance, including our advice on embedding GIA in your organisation.
M1.2: GIA - confirms if actions were taken
For each GIA reported, the progress report confirms if actions were taken in response to section 9(2)(b) (sheet 1, column F).
Requirement
For every policy, program or service listed in your progress report that you did a GIA on, you must tell us whether you took action as a result of the GIA. Section 9(2)(b) of the Gender Equality Act 2020 requires says that a GIA must state how the policy, program or service will be developed or varied to:
- meet the needs of people of different genders
- address gender inequality and
- promote gender equality.
You have to report on your actions taken as a result of doing a GIA in your progress report. By telling us if you have taken actions as a result of a GIA, you can make it clear whether each policy, program or service listed was developed or changed to ensure better outcomes for people of different genders.
What you needed to do to demonstrate compliance in 2023
For every policy, program or service reported, you needed to confirm whether actions were taken. This required selecting ‘yes’ or ‘no actions taken’ from the drop-down options in column F of the ‘GIA’ tab. If you did not have any GIAs to report, you must have given a permitted reason in the template or another for-publication document. If you didn’t do this, your progress report would have received an outcome of ‘compliance not demonstrated’.
Permitted reasons include at least one of the following:
- doing so would make the progress report an exempt document within the meaning of the Freedom of Information Act 1982
- doing so would result in a disclosure prohibited by a different Act
- doing so would reveal confidential information
- the entity had no policies, programs or services that met the threshold for a GIA.
Please see section M4 <insert hyperlink to heading> for more information.
Common issues in 2023
- No GIAs were listed and no permitted reason was given. As a result, criterion M1.2 would be marked as ‘compliance not demonstrated’. See M1.4 for detail.
- Column F was left blank for one or more GIA reported.
Advice for future progress reports
- Ensure you provide a permitted reason if you have not reported on any GIAs.
- Include all the relevant information in the template as per the guidance.
M1.3: GIA - describes the actions taken
For each GIA reported, the progress report describes the actions taken in response to section 9(2)(b) (sheet 1, column G).
Requirement
Section 19(3)(a)(ii) of the Gender Equality Act 2020 says that you must describe the actions you took as a result of doing the GIA. You must show how you changed the policy, program or service to:
- meet the needs of people of different genders
- address gender inequality
- promote gender equality.
By providing this information you can show whether you took actions to develop or change your policies, programs, or services to achieve better outcomes for people of different genders.
You should only report on completed GIAs. This means that if no final decision has been made about whether to change the policy, program or service, the GIA should be included in the next progress report.
What you needed to do to demonstrate compliance in 2023
You needed to explain how you developed or changed the policy, program or service based on your GIA findings in column G of the ‘GIA’ tab. You should have included reasonable details of the planned changes to the policy, program or service to:
- meet the needs of people of different genders
- address gender inequality
- promote gender equality.
If you did not explain your actions taken for each policy, program or service that a GIA was conducted on, your progress report would have received an outcome of ‘compliance not demonstrated’.
Any unfinished GIAs on policies, programs or services should not have been included in your progress report. You should include them in your next progress report instead.
Refer to the 2023 progress reporting guidance and the examples used in the template for further guidance.
Common issues in 2023
- It wasn't clear how the actions taken met the needs of people of different genders, addressed gender inequality or promoted gender equality.
- It wasn't clear if the actions had already been taken or planned, or if they were only suggestions. If no final decision has been made about whether to change the policy, program or service, the GIA should be included in the next progress report.
- No policies, programs or services were listed, and no reason was given. As a result, criterion M1.3 would be marked as ‘compliance not demonstrated’. See M1.4 for detail.
- The listed policy, program or service was internal-facing, instead of one that had a direct and significant impact on the public. An example of an internal policy, program or service is a flexible working policy for your employees. For further guidance, see Is a gender impact assessment required.
Advice for future progress reports
- Undertake and report on GIAs for all policies, programs and services that are new or up for review, and that have a direct and significant impact on the public.
- Clearly describe how your actions met the needs of people of different genders, addressed gender inequality or promoted gender equality. If you are not sure, refer to the gender equality principles, research or evidence to better understand how your actions drive progress towards gender equality.
- You could include a summary of the findings from your GIAs (in the template or in a supplementary document). This will help us to better understand why you took your actions.
- Where possible, consider doing GIAs that look beyond cis-gendered women and men. You should consider the impact of your policies, programs or services on people:
- who identify as non-binary, gender-diverse or transgender
- who experience compounding forms of discrimination on the basis of gender and other factors.
- For example, these factors might include:
- race,
- being a First Nations person,
- being part of the LGBTIQA+ community, and/or
- being a person with disability.
- Ensure you provide a permitted reason if you have not reported on any GIAs.
M1.4: GIA - none identified but with permitted reasons
The progress report does not identify any GIAs and provides permitted reason for doing so
Requirement
Your progress report must include every GIA undertaken by your organisation on policies, programs and services that have a direct and significant impact on the public. However, the Act (s(19)(4)) gives permitted reasons why you might not be able to identify or report on policies, programs or services subjected to a GIA. In some cases, you may not have been required to undertake any GIAs in the reporting period.
If you have a permitted reason for not reporting on any GIAs in your progress report, it is important to identify the permitted reason. Without stating the reason, it is hard for us to know if you have complied with the Act.
What you needed to do to demonstrate compliance in 2023
If your GIAs on policies, programs or services could not be reported because of a permitted reason, you needed to explain this. Your explanation could have been included in the ‘GIA’ tab of the template or another for-publication document.
Permitted reasons include:
- doing so would make the progress report an exempt document within the meaning of the Freedom of Information Act 1982
- doing so would result in a disclosure prohibited by a different Act
- doing so would reveal confidential information
- the entity had no policies, programs or services requiring a GIA under the Gender Equality Act 2020.
An example of how you could have explained this is:
Permitted reason sample text
[Organisation name] completed [insert number] GIAs as part of the 2021-2023 reporting cycle that are unable to be reported as the details of the GIA would [insert permitted reason].
Please see M4 for more information on how you could have included information in for-publication documents.
Common issues
- No policies, programs or services subjected to a GIA were listed and no permitted reason was supplied.
- A permitted reason may have been provided in a supporting document, but the document was uploaded under 'not to be published'. You must provide a permitted reason in a for-publication document.
Advice for future progress reports
- Clearly explain why you can’t list your policies, programs or services for which a GIA was conducted, based on any of the four permitted reasons.
- Provide your explanation in the reporting template or in a for-publication document.
Gender Equality Action Plan
M2.1: Strategies and measures - identified
The progress report lists the strategies and measures (sheet 2.1, column B).
Requirement
Section 19(3)(b) of the Gender Equality Act says you have to report on your progress in implementing the strategies and measures set out in your Gender Equality Action Plan (GEAP). You need to list each strategy and measure from your GEAP, and describe your progress on each one (see M2.3).
What you needed to do to demonstrate compliance in 2023
You needed to list all strategies and measures from your organisation’s current GEAP in column B of the ‘strategies and measures’ tab. Each strategy and measure should have used one row in the template.
Common issues in 2023
- Items listed were not strategies and measures from the organisation’s GEAP.
- Not all strategies and measures from the GEAP were listed in the template.
Advice for future progress reports
- Include all the relevant information in the template as per the guidance.
- Report on all relevant strategies and measures from your GEAP.
M2.2: Strategies and measures - each assigned a status
The progress report assigns a status (complete, in progress, ongoing, not started, or void) for each listed strategy or measure (sheet 2.1, column C).
Requirement
For your progress report to be compliant, you must select a status for every strategy and measure listed. This criterion closely aligns with M2.1, meaning it depends on M2.1 having accurate information.
Section 19(3)(b) of the Gender Equality Act says that you have to report on your organisation’s progress against the strategies and measures outlined in your GEAP.
What you needed to do to demonstrate compliance in 2023
Select a status from the dropdown option in column C for every strategy and measure listed in the 'strategies and measures' tab. The status options were:
- complete
- in progress
- ongoing
- not started
- void.
Common issues in 2023
- GEAP strategies and measures were not listed accurately or completely in M2.1, meaning this criterion was also marked as ‘compliance not demonstrated’.
- No status was selected for one or more strategies and measures.
Advice for future progress reports
- Include all the relevant information in the template as per the guidance.
M2.3: Strategies and measures - implementation progress described
The progress report describes the defined entity’s progress in implementing each strategy and measure (sheet 2.1, column D).
Requirement
Section 19(3)(b) of the Gender Equality Act says that you have to report on your organisation’s progress against the strategies and measures outlined in your GEAP. You must include accurate information to show your organisation’s progress.
What you needed to do to demonstrate compliance in 2023
For every strategy and measure listed, you needed to describe in column D of the ‘strategies and measures’ tab:
- why you selected the status (see M2.2), and
- whether the status indicated any delay or change from what was planned in your GEAP, and if so, the reason for this change.
As part of this, you needed to have also demonstrated why you had selected each status. To do so, you should have included information on work against each strategy and measure that is:
- completed, and/or
- underway, and/or
- planned.
Refer to the 2023 progress reporting guidance and the examples used in the template for further guidance.
Common issues in 2023
- The progress made on each strategy and measure was not clearly described.
- Not enough information was provided to understand the organisation’s progress.
- A description wasn’t provided for every strategy and measure.
- Some descriptions may have been adequate, while others lacked enough detail.
- GEAP strategies and measures were not listed accurately or completely in M2.1, meaning this criterion was also marked as ‘compliance not demonstrated’.
Advice for future progress reports
- Provide enough information to help us understand what progress you made.
- Include all the relevant information in the template as per the guidance.
Workplace Gender Equality Indicators
M3.1: A progress audit was submitted and deemed compliant
A compliant progress audit has been submitted.
Requirement
The Gender Equality Amendment Regulations 2023 require you to complete a progress audit. This helps you to assess and demonstrate your progress, as required under section 19(3)(c)(i) of the Gender Equality Act.
You must submit a compliant progress audit with your progress report. If your progress audit did not meet compliance, you will need to resubmit.
How to meet compliance for the 2023 progress report
Submit a progress audit:
- in the correct format, as required by the Gender Equality Amendment Regulations 2023 and outlined in the progress audit guidance 2023, and
- with no critical data quality issues identified during assessment.
For more information, see our feedback guidance for compliant audits.
Common issues in 2023
- See your progress audit feedback for further information on your organisation’s specific issues.
Advice for future progress reports
Your organisation has received a separate feedback report for your progress audit. You can access it on the gender equality reporting platform. Instructions on how to resubmit your progress audit are also found in your progress audit feedback report.
M3.2: WGEI - each assigned a status
The progress report indicates whether progress has been made in relation to all the workplace gender equality indicators (sheet 3, column C).
Requirement
Section 19(3)(c)(i) of the Gender Equality Act 2020 says that your progress report has to demonstrate your organisation’s progress against the workplace gender equality indicators. Confirming whether progress has been made for each indicator is the first step to show this. If you have not made progress, it will help you to understand where you need to focus in order to make progress in the future.
What you needed to do to demonstrate compliance in 2023
For every workplace gender equality indicator, you needed to select ‘yes’ or ‘no’ from the dropdown option in column C of the ‘indicators’ tab.
Common issues in 2023
- ‘Yes' or 'no' options were not selected for every indicator.
- The reason for not selecting options was not explained in the description (see M3.3).
Advice for future progress reports
- Include all the relevant information in the template as per the guidance.
M3.3: WGEI - quantitative progress with adequate explanation
The progress report demonstrates quantitative progress in relation to each workplace gender equality indicator and has adequately explained why changes in the data represent progress against each indicator (sheet 3, column D).
Requirement
If you selected ‘yes’ to making progress against all 7 of the workplace gender equality indicators, then your progress report must explain why.
Under section 19(3)(c)(i) of the Gender Equality Act, your progress report must show your progress. As outlined in the Regulations, you must use your progress audit data as evidence to show progress. Without this, it is hard to determine whether you have made progress.
What you needed to do to demonstrate compliance in 2023
For every indicator, you needed to explain how you made progress. You should have done this by analysing data changes between your 2021 workplace gender audit and your 2023 progress audit. You needed to explain this in column D of the ‘indicators’ tab.
Once you identified enough data to show progress, you needed to describe why the data represents progress. Your description needed to match the data you provided. For instance, you could have shown that compared to your 2021 data, your 2023 data showed you had:
- more people from underrepresented genders represented for the indicator
- better outcomes in your employee experience data related to the indicator
- improved gender balance:
- across different occupations
- in recruitment and/or promotions
- in leave and/or flexibility
- in other aspects related to an indicator
- reduced gender pay gaps across levels of the workforce, using a combination of measures to calculate your pay gap. These might include:
- mean pay gap
- median pay gap
- base remuneration
- total remuneration
- decreased anonymous reporting of experiences of sexual harassment because of your organisation’s strategies
- increased formal sexual harassment complaints due to improved systems or increased trust (at the same time, anonymous reporting of sexual harassment should have stayed the same or fallen). Anonymous reporting data is available through your employee experience survey.
If possible, you should consider other forms of inequality in addition to gender.
Refer to the 2023 progress reporting guidance and the examples used in the template for further guidance.
Common issues in 2023
- 2023 audit data points were not compared with 2021 audit data points to show progress.
- A description of your progress was not provided for every workplace gender equality indicator.
- The description was not detailed enough. It did not clearly explain why changes between your 2021 data and your 2023 data showed progress towards gender equality.
- No data, or not enough data, was used to support the claim of making progress. Data from the 2021 and 2023 workplace gender audits must be compared. This shows whether progress has been made. Using more than one data point increases accuracy and trust in progress. When not enough data is used, it can be difficult to understand whether progress had been made.
- The data and/or description did not demonstrate progress on the indicator(s). An example of this is if the gender pay gaps from both the 2021 and 2023 audits favoured women. If the gap in favour of women was larger in 2023, this is not progress.
- An indicator may have been misinterpreted. This could lead to progress not being clearly demonstrated. An example of this is gendered segregation (indicator 7). This indicator is about the gender composition of occupations in an organisation. Occupations are groups like:
- labourers and technicians, or
- community and personal service workers.
- Some defined entities included different information for this indicator. For example, information about access to facilities. These do not show progress on this indicator.
- Refer to the workplace gender equality indicators page for further information on the indicators.
- Some descriptions were left blank.
Advice for future progress reports
- Compare your current audit data with audit data from the previous reporting year. You can see your previous audit data on the reporting platform and on the Insights Portal.
- Make sure your description of progress is clear.
- Where possible, consider analysing your data beyond women and men. If you have enough data, you should consider analysing the outcomes of people:
- who identify as non-binary or gender-diverse
- who may experience compounding forms of discrimination on the basis of gender and other factors.
- For example, these factors might include:
- Race,
- being a First Nations person
- being part of the LGBTIQA+ community, and/or
- being a person with disability.
M3.4: WGEI - no quantitative progress with adequate explanation
The progress report does not demonstrate quantitative progress in relation to every workplace gender equality indicator. However, it adequately explains for each indicator why changes in the data do or do not represent progress.
Requirement
Your progress report must show if you have or have not made progress on each of the workplace gender equality indicators. If you selected ‘yes’ for an indicator, then you must explain how you have made progress. If you selected ‘no’ for an indicator, then you must explain how you have not made progress. You must also explain why you have not made progress and if you have strategies in place to create change.
Under section 19(3)(c)(i) of the Gender Equality Act, your progress report must show your progress. As outlined in the Regulations, you must use your progress audit data as evidence to show progress or no progress. Without the evidence and description, it is hard to determine whether you have made progress or not, and if not, why not.
Describing your progress helps show where you are doing well and where you need to improve. This is especially important for indicators where progress has slowed or gone back.
What you needed to do to demonstrate compliance in 2023
For indicators where you selected ‘yes’ to making progress (in column C), you needed to explain your progress. You explain your progress in column D of the ‘indicators’ tab. You should have done this by analysing data changes between your 2021 audit and 2023 audit. Doing this would have shown how and where progress was made.
For indicators where you selected ‘no’ to making progress, you still needed to explain why. You explain your lack of progress in column D of the ‘indicators’ tab. You should have done this by analysing data changes between your 2021 audit and 2023 audit. Doing this would have shown how and where progress was not made. In your description, you needed to:
- explain the reasons why progress was not made, and/or
- describe what your organisation is doing to set itself up for future success in driving change against the indicator.
There are a few factors which could have contributed to why progress was not made. They are important to mention when explaining why. Reasons include:
- the size of the organisation
- the nature and circumstances of the organisation
- other legislated obligations
- operational priorities and competing obligations
- practicability and cost to the organisation, and
- genuine attempts to make progress.
Refer to the 2023 progress reporting guidance and the examples used in the template for further guidance.
Common issues in 2023
- The same principles outlined under M3.4 must be followed to explain whether progress has been made or not. See ‘common issues 2023’ under M3.4 for further detail.
- The progress report:
- did not clearly explain why progress was not possible in the reporting period, AND
- it did not describe adequate efforts taken by the organisation to make progress.
Advice for future progress reports
- Compare and include your data from the current reporting year with data from the previous reporting year. You can access your previous audit data on the reporting platform and on the Insights Portal.
- Make sure your description of progress, or no progress, is clear and adequate.
- If you have not made progress against an indicator, clearly explain:
- why progress was not possible in the reporting period, and/or
- what you are doing to drive progress against the indicator in the future.
- Where possible, consider analysing your data beyond cis-gendered women and men. You should consider analysing the outcomes of people:
- who identify as non-binary, gender-diverse or transgender, and
- who may experience compounding forms of discrimination on the basis of gender and other factors.
- For example, these factors might include:
- race,
- being a First Nations person,
- being part of the LGBTIQA+ community, and/or
- being a person with disability.
Document format
M4: Format - submitted in the correct format
The progress report is submitted in the correct format, as required by the Gender Equality Amendment Regulations 2023(opens in a new window) and outlined in the progress reporting guidance 2023.(opens in a new window)
Requirement
Progress reports must use the format set out in the Regulations. This helps you provide the information needed for us to assess your organisation for compliance.
What you needed to do to demonstrate compliance in 2023
You needed to submit your progress report in the Progress reporting template 2023. The template must be submitted in Excel. Supporting documents can use other formats.
Common issues in 2023
- The progress report was not submitted using the template.
- The format of the template was changed to PDF or another format, instead of Excel format.
- Evidence of compliance was not submitted in the template or another for-publication document.
- Information required to show compliance was in a document marked as ‘not to be published’.
Advice for future progress reports
- Follow the relevant requirements related to preparing and submitting your progress report. The requirements may be different in the future.
- Make sure you read the current progress reporting guidance available on the Commission’s website so that you know what to do.
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