NFAW submission on reporting requirements under the Workplace Gender Equality Act 2012

Executive Summary

This submission has been prepared by the National Foundation for Australian Women (NFAW) as a corroborative supplement to the submission prepared by the Coalition for Working Women. The NFAW is a feminist organisation working in partnership with other women’s organisations to advance and promote the interests of Australian women. We are independent of government funding, and while we are not affiliated to any political party, we are affiliated to Women on Boards and to two women’s peak bodies: Economic Security 4 Women and the Equality Rights Alliance.

The NFAW and its affiliates were instrumental in building a broad coalition of business, nongovernment, industry and representative associations of women across all sectors (the Coalition of Working Women) to lobby Government to withdraw its exposure draft of a legislative instrument that would remove a range of key items from a list of matters that relevant employers are required to report on annually under the Workplace Gender Equality Act 2012 (the WGE Act).

We wish to join our affiliates in endorsing to Government the detailed proposals on appropriate reporting matters that have been presented by the CWW and are also attached to this submission at Appendices A and B.

• The table at Appendix A lists some of the reporting matters employers will be reporting on in 2013-14, which will now remain in place for reporting in 2014-15, and the CWW recommendation on their retention or removal.
• The table at Appendix B includes those reporting matters that were first listed in Schedule 2 for additional reporting in 2015 and the CWW recommendation on their retention or removal.