What’s underway: Recent Commonwealth actions

This Strategy is not the beginning. The Australian Government has already undertaken a range of actions and investments to progress gender equality.

Priority area 1: gender-based violence

Released the National Plan to End Violence against Women and Children 2022–2032, along with states and territories, to guide actions towards ending violence against women and children in Australia, as well as the First Action Plan and dedicated Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Action Plan. The National Plan is supported by $2.3 billion in funding commitments.
Invested to support First Nations women's safety through the development of a standalone First Nations National Plan for Family Safety, and by providing over $200 million for a range of initiatives to address family safety and to Close the Gap. This includes for cultural healing services, to support National Family Violence Prevention Legal Service providers, to address safety and early intervention initiatives for First Nations Australians in Central Australia, to enable place-based initiatives in regional and remote Central Australia, and to fund Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Service.
Taken action to improve consent and support respectful relationships, including investing in consent and respectful relationships education, social media resources for young people on consent and community-led sexual violence prevention pilots and releasing the Commonwealth Consent Policy Framework.
Improved criminal justice responses to sexual violence and reduced trauma for victim-survivors by supporting the Australian Law Reform Commission to undertake an inquiry into justice responses to sexual violence, informed by a national roundtable and a lived experience expert advisory group of victim-survivors and their advocates, and by developing an Action Plan Addressing Gender-based Violence in Higher Education to address sexual assault on campuses and improve student and staff safety.
Invested to prevent violence from happening in the first place, providing $104.4 million to Our Watch, Australia's national leader for the primary prevention of gender-based violence.
Reformed the Family Law System so that it is simpler, safer and more accessible for separating families and their children, including making changes to the Family Law Act 1975 and expanding programs in the Federal Circuit and Family Law Court of Australia. The Government has also supported Australia's implementation of the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction to make it safer for women and children impacted by international parental child abduction.
Acted to prevent and respond to sexual harassment by supporting implementation of all recommendations of the Respect@Work: Sexual Harassment National Inquiry Report. This includes the introduction of a new positive duty on employers to prevent workplace sexual harassment, sex discrimination and harassment under the Sex Discrimination Act 1984. The Government is also supporting implementation of the Set the Standard: Report on the Independent Review into Commonwealth Parliamentary Workplaces.
Invested in access to housing for women and children experiencing family violence by establishing a $10 billion Housing Australia Future Fund. This will support 30,000 social and affordable homes, with an intent to provide 4,000 homes for women and children impacted by family and domestic violence and older women at risk of homelessness. The Government has continued the Safe Places program, to increase crisis or emergency accommodation places for First Nations women and children, women and children from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, and women and children with disability. The Government has also provided investment to support homelessness services through the National Housing and Homelessness Agreement, alongside developing a new National Housing and Homelessness Plan.
Helped ensure women don't have to choose between their work and their safety by amending the Fair Work Act 2009 to introduce an entitlement to 10 days paid family and domestic violence leave.
Supported migrant and refugee women who experience violence by expanding family violence provisions within the Migration Regulations 1994, supporting visa holders experiencing domestic and family violence. The Government is also establishing a Forced Marriage Specialist Support Program.
Invested in frontline services for women experiencing domestic and family violence, extending the National Partnership on Family, Domestic and Sexual Violence Responses to provide $159 million for an additional 2 years and funding 500 frontline service and community workers, with support targeted to women and children in rural, regional and remote areas; First Nations people; the culturally and linguistically diverse community; women with disability; and the LGBTIQA+ community.
Supported a range of early intervention efforts to address violence, engage with men and boys and stop violence escalating, through a healthy masculinities project trial to combat harmful gender stereotypes perpetuated online; funding a new national early intervention trial for young men and boys who present with adverse experiences, including family and domestic violence, and who are at risk of perpetrating family, domestic or sexual violence; funding No to Violence for the Men's Referral Service and Brief Intervention Service; developing a perpetrator risk assessment framework for frontline service providers; extending the MensLine Changing for Good service; and developing a national perpetrator referral database of services to improve uptake of intervention services. Funding is also being provided to partner with states and territories to trial innovative responses to address the behaviour of perpetrators.
Improved data and reporting on domestic, family and sexual violence, by establishing a new statistical dashboard to provide more timely reporting on intimate partner homicide, to be introduced by mid-2024, and by working with states and territories to improve data sharing and support women's safety through the Data and Digital Ministers Council and Women and Women's Safety Ministers Council.
Released the National Principles to Address Coercive Control in Family and Domestic Violence, to inform more effective and consistent responses to family and domestic violence.
Invested in actions to prevent and respond to technology-facilitated abuse, including through the Preventing Tech-based Abuse of Women Grants Program; a National Roundtable on Online Dating Safety to improve safety for Australians using online dating platforms; and establishing the Online Harms Ministers Meeting to coordinate policy across the Australian Government to address online harms experienced by Australians.
Committed to establish a National Student Ombudsman, as part of an Action Plan to address gender-based violence in higher education, which has been agreed with state and territory Education Ministers.
Supported the Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence Commission to promote coordination across government and communities, monitor progress of the national plan, and amplify the voices of people with lived experience, including by establishing a lived experience advisory committee.

New investments in the Budget 2024-25

Invested in financial support for victim-survivors leaving a violent intimate partner relationship and providing support services for up to 12 weeks, with $925.2 million for the permanent Leaving Violence Program.
Bolstered the evidence base by establishing an independent rapid review of prevention approaches to end gender-based violence. The Commonwealth Government established the review in May 2024, led by six experts, with a mix of skills to draw together advice and identify opportunities to strengthen prevention efforts and approaches across all forms of violence against women and children, including a particular focus on homicides.
The report from the independent rapid review of prevention approaches to end gender-based violence, Unlocking the Prevention Potential: accelerating action to end domestic family and sexual violence, was released on 23 August 2024.
Strengthened complaints avenues for higher education students by investing $19.4m over two years to establish a National Student Ombudsman as an ongoing function of the Commonwealth Ombudsman. The National Student Ombudsman will allow higher education students to escalate complaints about the actions of their higher education provider, including complaints relating to gender-based violence, if they are unsatisfied with their provider’s response. It is expected to start taking complaints on 1 February 2025, subject to passage of legislation.
Committed $18.7 million over four years from 2024-25 to introduce the National Higher Education Code to Prevent and Respond to Gender-based Violence. The National Code will establish a new set of best practice standards to ensure higher education providers embed a whole-of-organisational approach to prevent and respond to gender-based violence.
Invested in an age assurance trial to protect children from harmful online content
Enhanced safe places for women and children to stay and recover by providing outreach trauma-informed healthcare in women’s crisis accommodation and services.
Invested $1 billion towards social housing for young people and women and children fleeing violence.
Supported remote housing by entering into a 10-year remote housing agreement with the Northern Territory Government to reduce overcrowding in remote Northern Territory communities.
Strengthened legal assistance by investing $44.1 million to support the National Legal Assistance Partnership and Family Violence Prevention Legal Services, including one-year indexation supplementation to the funding for Legal Aid Commissions, Community Legal Centres, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Services and additional funding to address community legal sector pay disparity.
Provided a further $11.7 million to extend the First Nations Family Dispute Resolution pilot to support culturally safe family dispute resolution services.
Invested in domestic and family violence support for refugee and migrant women as part of the Settlement Engagement and Transition Support (SETS) program and funding a specialised visa support service in the Department of Home Affairs to assist temporary visa holders who experience violence to regularise their visa status.
Bolstered information sharing by funding the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission (ACIC) to support enhanced collaboration and information sharing through the continued integration of state and territory law enforcement agencies into the National Criminal Intelligence System.
Strengthened firearms safety by investing $161.3 million to develop and implement a National Firearms Register to keep the community and frontline police officers safe.
Expand Perpetrator Research and Evidence Base with a $4.3 million investment to commission Australia’s National Research Organisation (ANROWS) for Women’s Safety to further build the evidence base on pathways into and out of perpetration of family, domestic and sexual violence.

New investments announced through the 6 September 2024 National Cabinet

Invested $3.9 billion over five years (from 2025) to the new National Access to Justice Partnership, including a critical $800 million increase in funding to the legal assistance sector, with a focus on uplifting legal services responding to gender-based violence, and a commitment to provide ongoing funding beyond the five year agreement.
Contributed $351 million towards a renewed, five year National Partnership Agreement on Family, Domestic and Sexual violence Responses (from 2025), with matched investments from states and territories to deliver a total investment of $700 million. This will support frontlines services, with a focus on specialist services for women, services to support children and working with men.
In partnership with the states and territories, agreed to a range of initiatives that strengthen our approach to prevent and respond to violence, including developing new national best-practice risk assessment principles and a model best-practice risk assessment framework, to be developed in close consultation with, and give specific consideration for implementation to, First Nations people and communities; supporting enhancements to the National Criminal Intelligence System; extending and increasing nationally-consistent, two-way information sharing between the family law courts and state and territory courts, child protection, policing and firearms agencies; trialling new focussed deterrence models and Domestic Violence Threat Assessment Centres, to use intelligence, monitor individuals and intervene with those at high risk of carrying out homicide, to be developed in close consultation with, and give specific consideration for implementation to, First Nations people and communities.
Committed to provide over $80 million to enhance and expand child-centric trauma-informed supports for children and young people, and design and implement new and revised initiatives for children and young people with experiences of violence by working with sector experts. This work will include a specific focus on First Nations children and young people, and culturally safe consultation and expertise.
Provided funding to establish national standards for men’s behaviour change.
Commenced an audit of key Commonwealth government systems to identify areas where they are being weaponised by perpetrators of family and domestic violence.

Priority area 2: unpaid and paid care

An alarm on a stack of books and the silhouette of an adult with two children

Improved and extended paid parental leave, investing $1.2 billion over 5 years to make the scheme more accessible, flexible and gender equitable, and increase the length from 20 to 26 weeks by July 2026, with 4 weeks reserved for each parent and up to 4 weeks that parents can take together. The Government also completed a review of the Maternity Leave (Commonwealth Employees) Act 1973 in 2023.
Invested $4.7 billion to make it easier and cheaper for parents to access early childhood education and care. This is supported by investment in the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) inquiry into the cost of child care, and the Productivity Commission inquiry to undertake a broad review of the childcare system to help chart the course for universal, affordable early childhood education and care. The Government has also provided families with First Nations children access to a minimum level entitlement of 36 hours per fortnight of subsidised early childhood education and care from July 2023. An investment of $72.4 million will build and retain the early childhood education and care workforce, 92% of whom are women. The Government is also developing an Early Years Strategy 2024-2034 to focus on the development and wellbeing of children in their early years.
Advocated for and invested in a pay rise for aged care workers, providing $11.3 billion to fund this increase for this workforce, which is overwhelmingly made up of women.
Invested to better value paid care work and feminised industries, by developing a National Strategy for the Care and Support Economy, which will set a vision for a sustainable and productive care and support economy that delivers quality care with quality jobs. The Government is establishing an Expert Panel on the Care and Community Sector in the Fair Work Commission; investing to address acute bottlenecks in the psychology training pipeline, with 80% of psychologists being women; expanding the Australian Apprenticeship Support Loans Scheme to provide interest-free loans of up to $24,492 in areas such as early childhood education, aged care and disability care; and supporting the delivery of the National Teacher Workforce Action Plan. The new 5-year National Skills Agreement includes up to an additional $2.4 billion to support state and territory training systems including in critical industries such as essential care services.

New investments in the Budget 2024-25

Reinforced the value of care work through the introduction of a Commonwealth Prac Payment financial support for students undertaking mandatory (nursing and midwifery), social work and teaching placements to help address workforce shortages in key feminised industries. The Budget also committed additional funding for initiatives to support, attract and retain aged care workers.
Backed wages growth by committing to funding the decision of the Fair Work Commission to increase the award wages of many aged care workers, a highly feminised industry, as well as including provision to provide funding towards a wage increase for early childhood education and care workers.
Enhanced support for carers and parents by modifying Carer Payment employment participation limits from 25 hours per week to 100 hours over a four week period and implementing other changes to reduce barriers to workforce participation for recipients, who are mostly women. Additonal support for the Raising Children Network, the Fathering Project, and the Brave Foundation’s Supporting Expecting and Parenting Teen’s Program.

Priority area 3: economic equality and security

A house next to three building blocks stacked with coins

Delivered tax cuts through a gender lens to support participation and deliver a fairer share of tax relief and a tax cut for all women who pay tax.
Put gender equality at the heart of economic policy and decision-making through the re-introduction of gender responsive budgeting and gender impact assessments to the Commonwealth Budget process, and making gender equality a priority at the 2022 Jobs and Skills Summit, and in Working Future: the Australian Government's White Paper on Jobs and Opportunities.
Established a Women's Economic Equality Taskforce to provide advice to Government on key priorities for the 2023–24 Budget and recommendations for immediate and long-term actions in its final report, Women's Economic Equality: A 10-year-plan to unleash the full capacity and contribution of women to the Australian economy 2023–33.
Put gender equality at the heart of the workplace relations system, making gender equality an objective of the Fair Work Act 2009, banning pay secrecy, legislating a statutory equal remuneration principle and establishing an Expert Panel on Pay Equity in the Fair Work Commission. The Government has introduced new protected attributes in the Fair Work Act 2009 on breastfeeding, gender identity, subjection to family and domestic violence, and intersex status. The Government is providing funding for the Fair Work Commission to undertake a review of modern awards with priorities including consideration of the impact of workplace relations settings on work and care, and consideration of the need to improve access to secure work across the economy. The Fair Work Commission is also conducting a research project about occupational segregation and gender undervaluation. The Government introduced changes to unpaid parental leave to complement improvements to the Government's Paid Parental Leave Scheme and help families share work and caring responsibilities.
Improved support for women through the payments system, including the $1.9 billion expansion in the eligibility of the Parenting Payment Single to single principal carers, the majority of whom are women, with a youngest dependent child aged 8 to under 14 years of age. The Government has also provided $2.7 billion to increase the maximum payment rate of Commonwealth Rent Assistance by 15% for all recipients, with single women making up the largest proportion of recipients, and provided $4.9 billion to increase support for people receiving working age and student payments, including JobSeeker.
Made the child support scheme fairer by implementing legislation to improve the timely collection of child support owed to parents – who are overwhelmingly women – and help prevent future debt among low-income parents. The Government is building the evidence base for longer term improvements, looking at issues like noncompliance as a means of financial abuse, whether the child support formula reflects the current costs of raising children in Australia, and what can be done to support parents where private collect arrangements have broken down.
Announced the abolishing of the ParentsNext Program and the development of a replacement voluntary program to be introduced on 1 November 2024. As a first step, compulsory aspects of ParentsNext were paused from 5 May 2023.
Improved transparency and reporting on the gender pay gap, passing legislation to give effect to a range of recommendations from the Workplace Gender Equality Act 2012 Review, including to publish gender pay gaps of employers with 100 or more workers – these were reported for the first time on 27 February 2024.
Invested in feminised industries to improve women's wages, including $560 million to support community sector organisations to meet additional cost pressures and through the Government's changes to indexation, including for organisations delivering women's safety initiatives. The Government has also introduced reforms so that, from 1 July 2026, employers are required to pay their employees' superannuation at the same time as their salary and wages, which overwhelmingly benefits women in service industries.
Supported women's representation and opportunities in traditionally male-dominated industries through the Australian Skills Guarantee, which includes national targets for women in apprenticeships, traineeships and cadetships. The Government is investing in Australia's vocational education and training (VET) system and addressing skills shortages; commissioning an independent Pathway to Diversity in STEM Review to evaluate existing women in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) programs and make recommendations on the most effective approaches to improve equity and representation of women and other under-represented groups in STEM education and work; and also providing further funding for the Women in STEM and Entrepreneurships Grants program. The Government is supporting new digital career opportunities in the Australian Public Service (APS) through the APS Digital Traineeship Program, which supports priority groups – including women returning to the workforce or seeking a career change – to undertake a Certificate IV qualification and is funding support for women in male-dominated trade apprenticeships. Through its Cyber Security Strategy, the Government has committed to improving diversity of the cyber security workforce, and established a workstream for industry leaders to develop initiatives to improve the diversity of the cyber workforce. The Government has a released a Women in Aviation Initiative to improve retention in the industry and increase visibility and awareness of the sector among girls and women, and is working with states and territories regarding options to increase women's participation in major Commonwealth-funded infrastructure projects.
Supporting women's access to housing, through the $2 billion Social Housing Accelerator and the National Housing and Homelessness Agreement. The Home Guarantee Scheme has already helped over 13,000 women buy their own home since May 2022.
Invested in fee-free TAFE, supporting almost 300,000 students to enrol in 2023 (to 30 September) and making a further 300,000 places available for 2024 to 2026 – with women making up 60% of enrolments.
Investing up to $12.6 billion over 5 years through the National Skills Agreement, to support state and territory training systems and address national challenges such as sustaining essential care services, and to deliver reforms, for example to improve VET completions, including for women and others who face completion challenges.

New investments in the Budget 2024-25

Eased cost-of-living pressures through greater tax relief to low- and middle-income taxpayers from 1 July 2024, with 90 per cent of women taxpayers receiving a bigger tax cut than under previously legislated settings at an average additional benefit of $707 and further easing pressure by increasing all Commonwealth Rent Assistance maximum rates by 10 per cent.
Reinforced closing gender gaps by paying superannuation on Government-funded Paid Parental Leave.
Fairer student loans, by capping indexation of Higher Education Loan Program (HELP) and other student loans to the lower of the Consumer Price Index or Wage Price Index which will wipe around $3 billion in debt, with a significant benefit for women, who hold around 60 per cent of HELP debts.
Increased opportunities to access jobs and careers of the future by supporting a thriving, skilled and diverse STEM workforce in response to the Pathway to Diversity in STEM Review, with funding going towards scaling up women in STEM and science engagement programs. The Government will also launch the Building Women’s Careers program to fund large-scale projects to support women to access training in clean energy and construction and help drive change in workplace cultures.
Supported families in crisis through investment in the Outcomes Fund to focus on families and children to prevent cycles of intergenerational and community disadvantage, barriers to employment and inclusive employment models, and housing needs of vulnerable and homeless Australians and moving beyond short-term crisis care.
Created jobs in remote Australia by establishing the Remote Jobs and Economic Development Program, which will create 3,000 jobs and support income support recipients move into paid employment.
Bolstered evidence by delivering an enhanced annual General Social Survey to support Measuring What Matters.
Supported Community Hubs to continue delivering conversational English classes to support migrant and refugees.
Strengthened information and education activities for migrant workers by providing appropriate information about workplace safeguards, protections and compliance measures related to migration laws.

Priority area 4: health

Established the National Women's Health Advisory Council to provide advice to the Government on priority health issues for women and girls in Australia.
Invested in women's reproductive health through a $58.3 million package for endometriosis and pelvic pain, including the delivery of 22 Endometriosis and Pelvic Pain Clinics across all states and territories and investing in the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) to develop 'MenoPROMPT', a menopause assessment tool for women and general practitioners to improve perimenopause and post-menopause care.
Invested in support for positive body image, including for children to build and maintain positive body image and provided funding to enable Australians to continue to access support for eating disorders.
Supported women's health needs, introducing a new Medical Benefits Schedule (MBS) item to determine a patient's risk of recurrent breast cancer and expanding access to critical drugs for treating women's cancers on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS). The Government is also providing funding for the Glen for Women, which provides First Nations women with culturally appropriate alcohol and other drug treatment services.
Investment in pregnancy and peri-and post-natal support, including to extend the Australian Red Cross Lifeblood's role to maintain and expand delivery of donor milk across Australia, and to support the Australian Breastfeeding Association's National Breastfeeding Helpline. Funding is being provided for 12 new perinatal mental health centres across Australia and to expand the pregnancy and postnatal guidelines for expectant parents, including resources for healthcare workers supporting culturally and linguistically diverse people and First Nations people. The Government is also enhancing support for bereaved parents, and increasing the number of autopsies and investigations undertaken after a stillbirth. Support for First Nations mothers is provided through a dedicated Birthing on Country Centre of Excellence to be built in Nowra, NSW.
Improved access to medical support and advice, by introducing a new MBS item for consultations of 60 minutes or more, which are often used by women, to support improved access and affordability for patients with chronic conditions and complex needs.
Invested in research and data lead by women health researchers, creating targets for the NHMRC to award equal numbers of Investigator Grants to women and men, leading to 2023 being the first year that women applicants will receive an overall greater proportion of the funds, and investing in health and medical research and data collection focusing on women's and girls' health outcomes.

New investments in the Budget 2024-25

Invested in over $160 million targeted to women health, including to introduce Medicare Benefits Schedule (MBS) items for longer consultations for patients with complex gynaecological conditions (such as suspected endometriosis), a review of the MBS items used for long-acting reversible contraceptive insertion and removal by MBS Review Advisory Committee (MRAC) and a review of gendered differences in MBS items for diagnostic imaging services; to support the National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation to provide free period products, support for women and their families who have suffered miscarriage and pregnancy loss, and to develop strategies in participating maternity services and First Nations communities to prevent preterm and early term birth; for monitoring the National Stillbirth Action and Implementation Plan 2020-2030, and the continued delivery of the Every Moment Matters awareness campaign to reduce rates of fetal alcohol spectrum disorder; or the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare to develop a dataset on sexual and reproductive health, and miscarriage data scoping study; and funding for a national audit of early pregnancy assessment service clinics; to develop an interactive contraception decision making tool to support placements for health professionals to undertake an accredited Managing Menopause course, and training for long-acting reversible contraceptives, and expand indemnity insurance for privately practicing midwives; by adding abemaciclib (Verzenio®), to treat early breast cancer, to the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS).
Bolstered high quality and tailored maternity care through funding to implement the remaining recommendations from the MBS Review Taskforce – Participating Midwives Report, to promote flexible, high quality and tailored maternity care.
Invested in research into women’s health priorities including menopause, pregnancy loss and infertility through the updated Medical Research Future Fund 10-year Investment Plan.

Priority area 5: leadership, representation and decision-making

A cut-out figure in a dress on a wooden block

Lifted Australia's overall ranking in the World Economic Forum Gender Gap Report to 26th out of 146, compared to 43rd in 2022.
Improved representation of women in parliament, as the first majority woman Commonwealth Government. In the 47th Parliament of the Commonwealth of Australia 44.5% of seats across both chambers are held by women – the highest recorded number of women in an Australian parliament.
Invested to equip and encourage women across the political spectrum to run for public office at local, state and federal levels, providing $5 million to Women for Election Australia.
Increased the representation of women on Australian Government boards to a record 51.6% in 2023.
Supported an increase in nominations of women for the Order of Australia, leading a targeted communications campaign to encourage more nominations for women. Women made up more than 50% of award winners for the first time since 1975 at the Kings Birthday Honours in 2023, then again in the Australia Day 2024 Honours List.
Supported representation of women and girls in sport, through establishing the $200 million Play our Way program to promote equal access, building more suitable facilities, and supporting grassroots initiatives to get women and girls to engage and participate in sport throughout their lives. The Government is also developing a national sports plan, which envisions enhancing diversity, inclusion and equity in sport for all Australians, including women and girls, and supporting women's and girls' participation in talent and development programs to increase female representations in coaching, officiating and sports administration. To help protect sporting participants against discrimination, abuse and mistreatment, the Government is establishing a Safety in Sport Division for Sport Integrity Australia.
Implemented a transparent and merit-based judicial appointments process which ensures all candidates from a diversity of backgrounds have the opportunity to apply, in response to recommendations under the Australian Law Reform Commission's report, Without Fear or Favour: Judicial Impartiality and the Law on Bias.
Endorsed the Equal by 30 campaign to work towards equal pay, leadership and opportunities for women in the clean energy sector.
Established a new Centre for Arts and Entertainment Workplaces to ensure creative workers are paid fairly and have safe workplaces free from harassment and discrimination.
Supported delivery of Wiyi Yani U Thangani (Women's Voices), which was led by the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner, June Oscar AO.
Been a committed global champion of the United Nations Women, Peace and Security agenda, which aims to ensure equal participation of women at all levels of decision-making.

New investments in the Budget 2024-25

Advanced women’s leadership and representation by introducing new targets for Australian Government Boards and for Chair and Deputy Chair positions and board positions at the portfolio level.
Established the Working for Women Program to fund key partnerships to engage with women and the Australian community on gender equality, and further support the inclusion of women’s voices and experiences in policy-making.
Strengthened reporting on women-led business by implementing a voluntary Commonwealth Supplier Registration process through AusTender, giving Government the ability to measure and analyse women-owned and led businesses.
Bolstered the legacy of women’s sport by investing in the delivery of the Asian Football Confederation Women’s Asian Cup 2026 and Netball World Cup 2027, increasing Sport Integrity Australia’s capacity to address contemporary challenges to make sport safe for all participants from grassroots to elite levels and through investment in Play Well priority and capacity sector activities. This aligns with the National Sport Strategy being developed by the Government, which recognises sport has an important role to ensure individuals from all backgrounds, genders and abilities can access the health, social and economic benefits of sport.

Equality cannot be achieved without women from a range of backgrounds meaningfully participating in decision-making.