Workplace Gender Equality Amendment Bill 2023
6 March 2023
On 6 March 2023 the Law Council made a submission to the Finance and Public Administration Legislation Committee in response to its inquiry into the Workplace Gender Equality Amendment Bill 2023 (the Bill).
The Bill seeks to amend the Workplace Gender Equality Act 2012 (Cth) (Act).
The Act relevantly:
- requires relevant employers to lodge reports each year containing information relating to various gender equality indicators; and
- establishes the Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA), which, amongst other things, advises and assists employers in promoting and improving gender equality in the workplace.
The Bill responds in part to the recommendations of a Review into the Act conducted in 2021 by the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, to which the Law Council made a submission. The Review Report concluded that the gender pay gap in Australia was not closing at a fast enough rate and made ten recommendations to accelerate the rate of change on workplace gender inequality and reduce the reporting burden on employers.
In its submission to the inquiry, the Law Council focused on the implementation of the Review recommendations which specifically related to, or resulted in, amendments to the Act. While the Law Council broadly supported the amendments proposed by the Bill, it, amongst other things:
- suggested—in relation to the amendments proposed to require WGEA to publish employer remuneration data—that:
- it may be preferable that the Act also oblige employers to provide remuneration data to the WGEA, rather than leaving this requirement in the relevant legislative instrument; and
- consideration should be given to amending the Bill so that it requires that the data be published ‘as an overall figure and by quartile’, consistent with the relevant Review recommendation;
- suggested amendments be considered to clarify details to be published in an Industry Benchmark Report which CEOs would be obliged to all members of their governing body; and
- queried why there are two Review recommendations that call for primary legislative change have not been addressed in this Bill, specifically to amend the Act to:
- enable the WGEA to collect data on non-binary people; and
- ensure that all relevant employers must comply with WGEA’s reporting obligations to be eligible for Commonwealth grants and to participate in Commonwealth procurement.
- queried why there are two Review recommendations that call for primary legislative change have not been addressed in this Bill, specifically to amend the Act to:
On 16 March 2023 Committee produced its report on the Bill, which contained a single recommendation that the Bill be passed.
The report notes concerns raised in submissions that ‘the bill does not go far enough, and that it does not address all the recommendations of the Review’.
It noted in particular that recommended amendments to legislative instruments directed to bridging the ‘action gap’ between the existence of workplace policies to support gender equality and showing the outcomes of those policies, with new gender equality standards, had not been fully implemented.
The report advises that the Committee had received ‘assurances from the Office for Women that further progress will be made by the government’ in relation to implementing the outstanding Review recommendations.
Last Updated on 11/08/2023
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