Introduction

Monitoring, measuring, and reporting on progress is important to evaluate the success of your Gender Equality Action Plan (GEAP) and gender impact assessments (GIA). This will help you understand whether your actions are achieving positive change towards workplace gender equality, and in promoting gender equality in your policies, programs, and services.

The Gender Equality Act 2020 (the Act) requires defined entities to submit a progress report to the Public Sector Gender Equality Commissioner (the Commissioner) in every second year after submitting a GEAP. The first progress report is due on 20 February 2024.

Progress reports must address the following four elements outlined in section 19 of the Act:

1. Gender impact assessments (GIA): report on the policies, programs and services that were subject to a GIA and the outcomes of those GIAs.
2. Gender Equality Action Plan (GEAP): report your organisation’s progress in relation to the strategies and measures listed in their GEAP.
3. Workplace gender equality indicators: demonstrate your organisation’s progress in relation to the workplace gender equality indicators; and
4. Gender equality targets and quotas: demonstrate your organisation’s progress towards meeting any prescribed gender equality targets or quotas. Please note there are currently no prescribed gender equality targets or quotas in place, so you are not required to report on this in the current round of progress reporting. Guidelines to report on progress against targets and quotas will be published if they are prescribed by regulation.

The relevant period for reporting

The relevant period for this progress report is 1 July 2021 to 30 June 2023 (or 1 April 2021 to 31 March 2023 for universities).

Different components of a progress report may have different reporting periods that fall within the relevant period. Reporting periods for each component will be explicit throughout this guidance.

The Commissioner acknowledges that entities received an extension on the submission of their first GEAP, which has shortened the period for implementing GEAP strategies and measures ahead of reporting on progress. As such, the change your organisation has been able to achieve in the relevant period may be impacted.

About these guidelines

These guidelines were developed to help your organisation meet its obligation to complete and submit a progress report as required under the Act.

There are required and recommended items to include within each section of your organisation’s progress report. Required items must be included in your progress report.

Recommended items are optional, however the Commissioner strongly recommends these items are included where possible. Information included in recommended sections in your progress report will assist the Commissioner in assessing your organisation’s compliance with the Act.

This information will also help identify whole-of-sector, industry, and other trends across organisations regarding the barriers to progressing workplace gender equality. This, in turn, may help the Commissioner provide better-tailored support to defined entities to address systemic barriers to gender equality.

These guidelines have an accompanying template you are required to use to ensure you are meeting all criteria. You can download this template from the right hand side of this guidance.

Please refer to the guidance section on the Gender Equality Amendment Regulations 2023 for more information about the requirement to use the template.

A checklist is also provided in this guidance to assist you in ensuring your progress report is compliant with the requirements under the Gender Equality Act.

The appendices include a glossary of terms, advice for changed or new entities, and a summary of each relevant section of the Act that outlines your obligations.

About progress

The Commissioner acknowledges that in some cases progress may not necessarily be evident in numbers alone and may be seen in other forms. For example, an organisation may have made genuine progress through implementing the strategies and measures within their GEAP, while the numbers against the workplace gender equality indicators may suggest their organisation is going backwards.

The Commissioner also recognises that organisations may have experienced severe workforce impacts due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and that compressed timelines due to extensions may impact progress for some organisations.

Further, the Commissioner acknowledges that progress is not always linear and immediate. GEAPs are 4-year action plans, and strategies and measures may have short, medium, and long-term implementation plans. This means that organisations may not necessarily have seen big shifts in progress yet.

These factors will be taken into account by the Commissioner when reviewing progress reports. You may also wish to submit a supporting document that provides further background, context, reflections or key learnings related to the data provided in your progress report. You can find more information about supporting documents in Recommendation 1 of the Submission and Publication chapter.

Privacy and confidentiality

It is important to ensure the privacy and confidentiality of your workforce is maintained throughout the progress reporting process. Information provided to the Public Sector Gender Equality Commissioner will be managed in line with relevant privacy laws. Defined entities are responsible for their own compliance with relevant privacy laws, including the Privacy and Data Protection Act 2014 (Vic) (PDP Act). The Information Privacy Principles (IPPs) that are contained in Schedule 1 of the PDP Act set out the minimum standards for how Victorian public sector bodies should manage personal information.

Other Victorian and Commonwealth laws

When developing your progress report, defined entities must have regard to legal obligations they may have under Commonwealth and State legislation and industrial instruments, including but not limited to:

• The Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) and other Commonwealth workplace relations legislation
• The Equal Opportunity Act 2010 (Vic) and the Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities Act 2006 (Vic)
• The Sex Discrimination Act 1984 (Cth) and the Workplace Gender Equality Act 2012 (Cth)
• Enterprise agreements, workplace determinations and modern awards.

Requirements under the regulations

• Require your progress report to be submitted in the format approved by the Commissioner. The approved format has been published on the Commissioner’s website. This means that you will be required to use the progress reporting templates published alongside these guidelines.
• Require you to demonstrate your progress in relation to the workplace gender equality indicators by completing a progress audit. A progress audit requires you to collect, compare, and submit workplace gender equality information to the Commissioner.

You can refer directly to the specific wording of the Gender Equality Amendment Regulations 2023 via the Victorian legislation website.

Before you submit your progress report, make sure it is compliant with the Gender Equality Act.

This checklist provides detail on the required and recommended information for defined entities to include in their progress reports. Click on the button links to navigate to the corresponding section in the guidance document.

You can also find some helpful resources below the checklist.

1. Gender Impact Assessments

Recommended

1. Explain how an intersectional lens was applied while completing the assessment.

GIA progress reporting guidance

Find more information about GIAs.

2. Gender Equality Action Plan strategies and measures

Recommended

1. Evaluate the success that each strategy or measure has achieved during the relevant period.
2. Provide a timeline against each strategy.
3. Indicate who within your defined entity is responsible for implementing each strategy or measure.
4. Select the relevant workplace gender equality indicators in the Act that the strategy or measure was designed to address.
5. Outline the resourcing allocated to implement the strategies and measures in your GEAP.

Strategies and measures progress reporting guidance

Find more information about GEAPs.

3. Workplace gender equality indicators

Recommended

1. Refer to and draw on the Commissioner’s recommendations to guide the analysis of your progress audit data.
2. Identify and discuss any of the factors that have affected your organisation's progress in relation to the workplace gender equality indicators.

Indicators progress reporting guidance

Find more information about the workplace gender equality indicators.

4. Submission and Publication

Recommended

1. Submit a supporting document providing reflections and key learnings during this relevant period.

Submission and publication guidance

Progress reporting assessment rubric

The Commission has published a progress report assessment rubric. This guidance outlines how the Commission will assess progress reports.

The rubric outlines the criteria that progress reports must meet to be compliant with the Gender Equality Act. It also provides detailed explanations for each criterion.

The assessment rubric has 5 key measures:

1. Timely submission
2. Gender Impact Assessments (GIA)
3. Gender Equality Action Plans (GEAP)
4. Workplace gender equality indicators
5. Document format

You can download the full assessment rubric below.

Helpful Resources

• Learn more about maintaining your employees privacy.
• Access answers to a list of frequently asked questions about progress reporting and the Act.
• Access leading practice resources including, research, tools and guidelines across a range of areas.

To meet the GIA progress reporting obligations, please use the progress report template and refer to worksheet 1 GIA.

What you need to do

In this video, Senior Policy Advisor George (they/them) shows you how to fill in your GIA progress report.

Requirements

The Act requires organisations to conduct a GIA when developing or reviewing any policy, program, or service that has a direct and significant impact on the public. As part of your progress report, you must identify each policy, program or service that was subject to a GIA during the relevant period.

You will need to include the following information in your progress report:

• Title (column B): The name of the policy, program, or service that was the subject of the GIA.
• Subject (column C): Whether the subject of the assessment was a policy, program, or service.
• Description (Column D): A brief description of the policy, program, or service.
• Status (Column E): Whether it was a new policy, program or service, or one up for review.

You can find definitions of policies, programs and services in our glossary of terms.

Step 1

You must confirm in column F if actions were taken as a result of your GIA to develop or vary each policy, program or service.

If actions have been taken, select ‘yes’ from the drop-down menu. There may be cases where several recommendations were made but not all actions were implemented. In this case you should still mark ‘yes’ if some actions have been taken.

If no actions were taken, select ‘no action taken’ from the drop-down menu. This may include cases where recommendations were made and were not implemented, and therefore no action was taken.

Step 2

Describe in column G the actions taken to develop or vary the particular policy, program or service as a result of the GIA in order to:

• Meet the needs of people of different genders; and
• Promote gender equality; and
• Address gender inequality.

You will need to describe what actions have been taken after the GIA was completed to achieve the above goals. These actions may vary in scale, but even minor changes should be reported to demonstrate your work.

If you used the templates from the GIA Toolkit when conducting your GIA, it may be helpful to refer to information you captured in Template 4 – ‘Making recommendations’, where these recommendations were implemented.

If you have reported ‘no action taken’, in column F, you should describe in column G why no action was taken to develop or vary the policy, program or service that was the subject of the GIA.

Explainer: 'Actions taken'

When reporting on GIAs, it is important to focus on the real change GIAs are making to promote gender equality. This is why you are required to report on the ‘actions taken’ to develop or vary policies, programs and services, or the reason that actions were not taken.

We recognise this may not always be straightforward. In some cases, the GIA process may occur in stages and over an extended period, and actions may take time to be decided.

You should only report on GIAs in this progress report where it is clear how the policy, program or service will be, or has been, changed as a result of the GIA process, or if it is clear that no change will be made. This could be due to GIA recommendations being approved, partially approved, or rejected by the person responsible for making these decisions.

If these decisions have not been made yet, then you should not report on the GIA in this reporting period. Instead, hold off on reporting on the GIA until the reporting period in which they are made.

Please see the below table for example scenarios:

Organisations have existing obligations under relevant privacy legislation that you must meet when conducting work under the Act. Further, you must not report on a policy, program or service if it would disclose confidential or prohibited information.

When identifying a policy, program or service that was subject to GIA or reporting on actions taken, you should determine if this would disclose any information that is confidential. This may include the following:

• Information that would cause the policy, program, or service to be considered exempt within the meaning of the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (Cth).
• Information of which disclosure is prohibited or restricted by another Act or enactment; or
• Information about any other confidential matter; or
• Information that is considered Cabinet in Confidence (for Victorian Public Service departments) such as a business case that was not funded.

For further advice, organisations should seek legal advice, or contact the Office of the Victorian Information Commissioner (OVIC) which also has further information about exemptions under the Freedom of Information Act.

Recommendations

When undertaking GIAs, the Act asks defined entities to take into account, where practicable, how gender inequality can be compounded by disadvantage or discrimination that people may experience based on other personal attributes. This is sometimes calledintersectional gender equality.

For many organisations this is a new practice. Documenting and reporting on any approach taken will support capability-building across all defined entities.

We recommend you use column H of the template to confirm whether intersectional gender inequality was considered in your GIA, and explain in column I how you did this.

To meet the strategies and measures progress reporting obligations, please use the progress report template and refer to worksheet 2.1 Strategies and Measures and the optional worksheet 2.2 Resourcing your GEAP.

What you need to do

Requirements

Strategies and measures are the planned actions designed to promote gender equality in your workplace.

As part of your progress report, you need to copy the strategies and measures from your GEAP into column B of the template provided. List one strategy or measure per row in the template.

In the template, assign each strategy or measure a status from the drop-down list provided in column C. This will indicate your progress in implementing each strategy or measure at the end of the relevant period.

In column D of the template, describe your progress in implementing each strategy or measure in your GEAP. In particular, you will need to explain:

• why you have selected that status; and
• whether the status indicates any delay or change from what was planned in your GEAP and if so, the reason for this change.

Recommendations

We encourage you to evaluate the success of each of your strategies and measures, using column E. This will assist you in understanding which strategies and measures are having an impact and which may require more attention or focus.

Relevant information may include indicators of success that were specified in your GEAP, and other evaluation measures such as participation levels, outcomes, or changes resulting from the strategy or measure.

The Commissioner acknowledges that progress is not always linear and immediate. Your strategies and measures may have short, medium and long-term implementation plans. This means that you may not necessarily have seen big shifts in progress yet and this can be noted in column E.

If you included a timeline against each strategy or measure in your GEAP, you can provide this information in column F of the template. If you did not include a timeline against each strategy or measure in your GEAP, we recommend that you do so as part of progress reporting.

Name the role or team responsible for implementation of each strategy or measure in your organisation, in column G. If you did not allocate responsibility for each strategy or measure in your GEAP, we recommend that you do so as part of progress reporting.

Leading practice GEAPs linked each strategy or measure to one or more indicators under the Act.

As part of your progress report, use columns H-N to indicate whether your GEAP’s strategies and measures are intended to address one or more of the seven workplace gender equality indicators set out in the Act, including:

1. gender composition at all levels of the workforce
2. gender composition of governing bodies
3. gender pay equity
4. workplace sexual harassment
5. recruitment and promotion
6. leave and flexibility
7. gendered work segregation.

Refer to template worksheet 2.2 Resourcing your GEAP for this recommendation.

Taking stock of the resources required and allocated to effectively progress your GEAP may provide a valuable insight for your organisation, the Commission, and other organisations that want to improve gender equality within their workplaces.

We encourage you to reflect on the resourcing required and allocated to implementing your GEAP in your progress report. This is a free-text section of the template.

In reflecting on your resourcing, you might consider some or all of the following, in addition to any other aspects you consider relevant:

• Who implements the strategies and measures in your GEAP? What role do they perform at what level in your defined entity?
• How many staff members/FTE are allocated to implementing the strategies and measures?
• Was enough resourcing allocated to successfully implement your strategies and measures? If not, how will this be addressed?

Reporting on progress in relation to the workplace gender equality indicators will:

• Help the Commissioner to assess your organisation's compliance with the requirement to make 'reasonable and material progress' on the gender equality indicators; and
• Help you determine if the strategies and measures in your GEAP have translated into measurable change. This information will assist you to further develop and tailor your GEAP strategies and measures.

To meet workplace gender equality indicator progress reporting obligations, please use the progress report template and refer to worksheet 3 Indicators.

What you need to do

Requirements

Before completing worksheet 3 Indicators in the progress report template, you need to first undertake a progress audit. A 'progress audit' requires you to demonstrate your progress in relation to the workplace gender equality indicators by collecting, comparing and submitting updated information to the Commissioner.

Progress audit 2023 guidance can be found on the Commissioner’s website. It will assist you to collect the recommended information and submit your progress audit data and compare it with your 2021 workplace gender audit results.

Following your progress audit, you will need to indicate if your organisation has made progress against each indicator. You will then need to explain why changes (or lack of changes) in your data either do or do not represent progress. You must complete the following sections of the template against each of the indicators listed in column B:

• In column C, select ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to indicate whether your organisation has made progress against a workplace gender equality indicator.
• In column D, explain why you believe changes in your data do or do not represent progress against each indicator.

In your explanation, you should refer to any quantitative changes in the data between your previous workplace gender audit and your progress audit. You may also wish to refer to qualitative changes you have observed.

Recommendations

Your progress audit includes a range of data that you will need to analyse and discuss in your progress report. You may wish to refer to the Commissioner’s recommendations about what data to consider analysing under each of the indicators. You can find these recommendations in the accordion at the bottom of this page.

These recommendations will help you understand if you have made progress against the indicators. They may also assist the Commissioner in their assessment of your progress. Please note, the below approaches are suggestions only and are not intended to be prescriptive.

For each indicator, you are encouraged to:

• compare the data collected in your previous workplace gender audit and your progress audit. Then, consider whether your results show progress against each indicator;
• comment on any notable changes;
• discuss specific and relevant data from your previous audit and your progress audit to support your self-assessment as to whether you have made progress;
• identify and discuss any areas where inequality appears to have notably increased; and
• where practicable, consider whether progress is consistent across intersecting forms of disadvantage and discrimination. This includes in relation to Aboriginality, age, disability, ethnicity, gender identity, race, religion, sexual orientation, and other attributes.

For more detailed advice on how to analyse your audit data, the Commissioner encourages you to review the below guidance note prepared for the 2021 workplace gender audit.

Defined entities must make ‘reasonable and material progress’ in relation to the workplace gender equality indicators.

The Commissioner must take the following factors into account when determining whether a defined entity has made reasonable and material progress:

1. the size of the organisation, including the number of employees
2. the nature and circumstances of the organisation, including any barriers to making progress
3. requirements that apply to the organisation under any other Act, including an Act of the Commonwealth
4. the organisation’s resources
5. the organisation’s operational priorities and competing operational obligations
6. the practicability and cost to the organisation of making progress; and
7. genuine attempts made by the organisation to make progress.

Your are encouraged to use the drop-down in columns E-K of the template to indicate whether or not you believe one or more of the factors above has affected your organisation’s progress against each indicator. Column L of the template allows you to discuss the factors that you have applied to each indicator. If you selected multiple factors, you may discuss each separately, or in general terms.

This section provides information on how to submit your organisation's progress report in a consistent and timely way. This will help you and the Commissioner to monitor your organisation's progress over time.

What you need to do

Requirements

The Commission has developed progress report templates, published alongside these guidelines.

In line with the Gender Equality Amendment Regulations 2023, you must use these templates to complete and submit your progress report.

The Commissioner has extended the progress report submission date from 31 October 2023 to 20 February 2024 for all organisations.

You must submit the progress report template and the progress audit template to the Commissioner via the reporting platform. The Commissioner will then assess the compliance of your progress report.

Before publishing your progress report, you must remove any personal or potentially identifying information. This also applies to any additional supporting documents you provide as part of your progress report.

You must publish your progress report on your external website as soon as reasonably practicable after submitting it to the Commissioner. We recommend you also publish the progress report on your organisation’s internal website.

You may wish to wait until the Commissioner has assessed your progress report as compliant before publishing. If you publish your progress report prior to the Commissioner assessing it as compliant, and updates to your progress report are required, you will need to update your published version once deemed compliant.

We suggest you include a disclaimer noting that the progress report has not been checked for compliance by the Commissioner, and it may be subject to changes.

The Commissioner will also publish compliant progress reports on their website.

Recommendations

In addition to the progress report template, you may wish to submit an optional supporting document that provides further background, context, reflections, or key learnings relating to the data provided in your defined entity’s progress report.

For example, you may wish to describe in further detail strategies or measures in your defined entity’s GEAP that are progressing well or better than expected, whether there are any issues hindering your progress, or if there have been any unexpected or surprising outcomes resulting from implementing a strategy or measure or through undertaking a GIA. You may also wish to provide case studies relating to GIAs undertaken during the relevant period.

Supporting documents can be submitted on the reporting platform and published on your website alongside your progress report. They may also be published on the Commissioner’s website where appropriate, and with the agreement of your organisation.

Although optional, the Commissioner recommends that you provide a supporting document as it may:

• Enable you and your employees to better understand why progress was or was not made in relation to certain workplace gender equality indicators or GEAP strategies and measures. This information will assist you to further develop and tailor your GEAP strategies and measures.
• Assist you to determine the need for additional funding or resources to improve progress in future, and to develop the necessary business case to obtain such funding or resources.
• Provide more detail to assist the Commissioner to assess your organisation’s compliance with the requirement to make ‘reasonable and material progress’.

Defined entities have a responsibility to make progress on gender equality. Publicly reporting on progress and data ensures that defined entities are transparent and accountable to their employees and the communities they serve.

Publishing progress reports on your website

As a defined entity, you must publish your progress report on your organisation’s external website. We recommend you also publish the progress report on your organisation’s internal website.

The Commission will assess progress reports for compliance under the Act. You will be notified about the outcome of assessments, and advised of a timeframe for publishing, which we expect to be later in 2024.

If you publish your progress report before it is compliance checked and updates are required, you will need to update your published version. If you publish early, we suggest you include a disclaimer noting that:

• the progress report has not been checked for compliance by the Commissioner
• the progress report may be subject to changes.

You must not alter the wording in the required sections. However, you can fix any grammatical errors.

You must remove any personal or potentially identifying information before publishing your progress report. This also applies to any supporting documents.

You are not required to publish your workplace gender audit data or employee experience data. You may instead wish to link to the Commission's public data insights portal. This is where 2021 and 2023 summary data for all defined entities is presented.

Format of progress reports on your website

You can choose to publish your progress reports in the following formats:

• in the progress report Excel template submitted to the Commission
• in an alternative designed or accessible format.

Publishing your progress report Excel template is the easiest way to ensure you have published all of the required content. Publishing your supporting documents is optional but strongly recommended.

Redesigning your progress report

You may choose to present your progress report in a designed or accessible format for your website. If you do choose to reformat your progress report, you must include all 'required' sections of the progress report for:

• gender impact assessments
• strategies and measures
• workplace gender equality indicators.

You must not alter the wording in the required sections. However, you can fix any grammatical errors.

The Commission strongly encourages you to also include the 'recommended' sections.

The redesigned progress report can include summary information. You may also choose to produce a separate report that contains a summary of the full progress report. However, summary information should accompany the complete progress report. It must not replace the sections required to meet compliance under the Gender Equality Act(opens in a new window).

You may also choose to produce a separate report that contains a summary of the full progress report. This should accompany the complete progress report but cannot replace it.

What the Commission will publish

How the Commission will publish progress reports

Defined entity

The Act applies to certain organisations that have 50 or more employees, called defined entities. These include public service bodies, public entities, special bodies, local councils, universities, Court Services Victoria, and the Office of Public Prosecutions (s5(1)). You can find a full list of defined entities on our website. Throughout this guidance, defined entities have also been referred to as ‘organisations’.

Employee

Section 3 of the Act defines an employee as a person employed by the defined entity on a full-time, part-time, casual, or fixed term basis (including an apprentice or trainee) but does not include:

1. a contractor or subcontractor; or
2. an outworker; or
3. a person on a vocational placement; or
4. a student gaining work experience; or
5. a volunteer

Employee representative

A body who represents and speaks officially on behalf of an employee or group of employees. In most organisations this will be a trade union but may also include other representative bodies.

Governing body

The governing body is responsible for strategic oversight and financial management of an organisation. This could be a board, council (elected or otherwise), or committee of management. If there are multiple boards or sub-committees of management, choose the most senior governing body for the purposes of this reporting (although it is recommended that you analyse the gender composition of the others as well).

Intersectional gender inequality

Section 6(8) of the Act outlines that gender inequality may be compounded by other forms of disadvantage or discrimination that a person may experience based on Aboriginality, age, disability, ethnicity, gender identity, race, religion, sexual orientation, and other attributes. For the purposes of this guidance, the Commission refers to this concept as “intersectional gender inequality”.

The concept of intersectional disadvantage or discrimination is sometimes called intersectionality. Intersectionality explains how people may experience overlapping forms of discrimination or disadvantage based on social characteristics such as (but not limited to) sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, ethnicity, language, religion, class, socioeconomic status, gender identity, ability, or age.

To learn more about intersectional gender inequality and intersectionality, please refer to our Leading practice resources page.

For more information on how to apply an intersectional lens for each of the obligations, please see our guidance on applying intersectionality.

Personal information

Under the Gender Equality Act 2020, defined entities have important privacy obligations:

• to remove any personal information from their GEAPs or progress reports prior to publishing
• when submitting any material that is likely to be published, to advise the Commissioner whether the material contains any personal information.

Personal information has the same meaning here as in section 3 of the Privacy and Data Protection Act 2014. Privacy and Data Protection Act 2014It refers to information about an individual whose identity is apparent, or can reasonably be ascertained, from the information.

Policies, programs and services (gender impact assessments)

Policy: Policies are formal or informal principles, statements, standards or rules to be followed by an organisation. Policies requiring a gender impact assessment will mostly be external-facing policies aimed at the general public (for example, customers, clients, students, patients, community members, and consumers). This could include a community engagement policy, grants policy, legal policy or reviews that impact the public, or a privacy policy.

The terms ‘strategy’, ‘plan’, ‘framework’ and ‘policy are often used interchangeably. Strategies, plans and frameworks often set the direction for future programs and services by stating priorities and shaping budget allocations. Because of this, it is likely that a strategy, plan or framework will fall under the definition of a policy.

Programs: A program is an initiative or set of projects with a set of deliverables. It may have a defined duration or be ongoing. A program is geared towards accomplishing a major goal or set of goals or outcomes. For example, small and large-scale grants programs, infrastructure development, and public-facing leadership programs. Large scale programs of work such as budget bids and business cases (including budget bids developed across Victorian Government departments) are considered programs. This is because a budget bid is the proposal for a program of work.

Services: Defined entities providea wide range of services to the public that may vary from one entity to another. Services may include aged care, childcare, health care, safety, environment, emergency and waste management, open space planning, student services, libraries, recreation and other public facilities and infrastructure. Services may also include transport, cost, accessibility, and communication methods.

Relevant period

Relevant period means the previous two financial years to 30 June in a progress reporting year. In the case of this progress report, the relevant period is 1 July 2021 to 30 June 2023 (or 1 April 2021 to 31 March 2023 for universities).

Different components of a progress report may have different reporting periods that fall within the relevant period. For example, you are required to report on all GIAs undertaken across the period from 1 July 2021 to 30 June 2023, however some components of the progress audit track data measures across a 12-month period within this timeframe. Reporting periods for each component are explicit throughout the guidance.

For all defined entities except universities, the current progress audit reporting period is 1 July 2022 to 30 June 2023.

For universities, the current progress audit reporting period is 1 April 2022 to 31 March 2023, to align with Workplace Gender Equality Agency reporting periods.

Strategies and measures

Strategies and measures are the planned actions in your GEAP. Setting strategies and measures in your GEAP is a requirement under the Act. The primary focus of them should be on promoting gender equality in your workplace (s10(1)(b)), focusing on the people who are part of your workforce as defined in section 3 of the Act.

Workplace gender equality indicators

As defined under section 3 of the Act, ‘workplace gender equality indicators’ means the following:

1. gender composition of all levels of the workforce
2. gender composition of governing bodies
3. equal remuneration for work of equal or comparable value across all levels of the workforce, irrespective of gender
4. sexual harassment in the workplace
5. recruitment and promotion practices in the workplace
6. availability and utilisation of terms, conditions and practices relating to:
   1. family violence leave; and
   2. flexible working arrangements; and
   3. working arrangements supporting employees with family or caring responsibilities
7. gendered segregation within the workplace
8. any other prescribed matters.

Please note that there are no other prescribed workplace gender equality indicators for 2023 progress reporting.

New entities

If your new organisation has not previously submitted a GEAP, you are not required to submit a progress report. Your next obligation will be to submit a GEAP in 2025.

Significant structural change

Your organisation may have experienced a significant change, such as:

• merging with another organisation
• splitting into multiple new organisations
• changing its name.

In some cases, your organisation, or part of your organisation, may have completed a GEAP prior to this change.

After notifying the Commission of your significant organisational change, your organisation would have received a letter from the Commissioner informing you about whether you are required to submit a progress report.

If you are unsure whether your new organisation is required to submit a progress report, please contact the Commission at enquiries@genderequalitycommisison.vic.gov.au.

The Commission acknowledges that structural changes in your organisation may impact the way in which you report on progress. If you are unsure how to complete your progress report considering these changes, please contact the Commission at enquiries@genderequalitycommisison.vic.gov.au.

This section outlines the relevant sections of the Gender Equality Act that defined entities are required to comply with. Part 5 of the Act refers to progress reporting.

Gender impact assessments

Section 9(1)

Defined entities must undertake a GIA when developing or reviewing any policy, program or service that has a direct and significant impact on the public.

Section 9(2)(c)

If practicable, defined entities must take into account intersectionality when undertaking GIAs.

Section 19(3)(a)

In its progress report, defined entities must identify all policies, programs and services that were the subject of a GIA in the relevant period, and report on the actions taken to develop or vary these to promote gender equality.

Section 19(4)

Defined entities must not identify or report on a policy, program or service if it would disclose confidential or prohibited information. This includes:

1. information that, if it were included in a document, would make that document an exempt document within the meaning of the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (Cth); or
2. information of which the disclosure is prohibited by a provision of another enactment – such as any other existing relevant privacy legislation that may apply to your organisation; or
3. information about any other confidential matter. This may include Cabinet in Confidence material for Victorian Public Service departments.

For further advice, organisations should seek legal advice, or contact the Office of the Victorian Information Commissioner (OVIC) which also has further information about exemptions under the Freedom of Information Act.

Gender Equality Action Plans

Section 19(3)(b)

Defined entities must report on the progress they have made in relation to the strategies and measures set out in their GEAP.

Section 10(3)

Defined entities must ensure adequate resources are allocated to developing and implementing a GEAP. Allocating a specific budget and staffing for your GEAP is a critical means to drive progress in your defined entity.

Workplace gender equality indicators

Section 19(3)(c)(i)

Defined entities must report on progress made in relation to the workplace gender equality indicators within the relevant period.

Section 16(1)

A defined entity must make reasonable and material progress in relation to the workplace gender equality indicators.

Section 16(2)

For the purposes of section 16(1), the Act sets out several factors that the Commissioner must take into account in determining whether a defined entity has made reasonable and material progress. The factors are:

1. the size of the organisation, including the number of employees
2. the nature and circumstances of the organisation, including any barriers to making progress
3. requirements that apply to the organisation under any other Act, including an Act of the Commonwealth
4. the organisation’s resources
5. the organisation’s operational priorities and competing operational obligations
6. the practicability and cost to the organisation of making progress; and
7. genuine attempts made by the organisation to make progress.

Submission and publication of progress reports

Section 19(1)

Defined entities must submit a progress report to the Commissioner on or before:

• 31 October in every second year after submitting a GEAP; or
• any later date specified by the Commissioner.

For the purpose of 2023 progress reporting, the Commissioner has extended the deadline for progress reports. This applies to all defined entities. Progress reports are now due on 20 February 2024.

Section 20

Defined entities must publish their progress reports on their website as soon as reasonably practicable after it has been submitted to the Commissioner. The Commission interprets ‘website’ to mean a defined entity’s public-facing website.

Section 21

The Commissioner must keep a register of all submitted progress reports. All submitted progress reports will be published on the Commission’s Insights Portal.