Commonwealth Public Sector Reporting

The Workplace Gender Equality Act 2012 requires Commonwealth public sector employers that employ 100 or more people to submit a report to the Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA), annually, as a part of the Commonwealth Public Sector Gender Equality Reporting program.

The program has been designed to provide a picture of gender equality in Commonwealth public sector workplaces, enable benchmarking and comparisons between employers and highlight key areas for action on gender equality.

By submitting your report, you’re contributing to WGEA's world-leading dataset on gender equality in Australian workplaces, as well as meeting your legislative obligations. The process can also help you identify gender equality issues in your workplace and put action plans in place.  

Submissions are made in the WGEA Portal during the two-month submission period from 1 September to 31 October, each year.

This guide aims to support Commonweath public sector employers to complete their reporting.

Private sector employers report to WGEA, separately, as a part of the Gender Equality Reporting program.

Where Australian Public Service (APS) workforce data is already captured by the Australian Public Service Commission (APSC), the APSC will provide this data directly to WGEA to remove duplication and simplify reporting for agencies.

To have your data transferred to WGEA from the APSC, you must select ‘yes’ to the ‘bulk upload’ options when registering to report with WGEA. The below data will then be transferred:

• all data required for the Workplace Profile file and
• data for questions 1-4 of the Workforce Management Statistics file.

For employers where the APSC is transferring data:

You must complete the online Questionnaire and questions 5-7 of the Workforce Management Statistics. You must upload the Workforce Management Statistics Excel file to the Portal and allow 12-24 hours for the rest of the data to be transferred from the APSC. All sections will then be marked in the Portal as ‘completed’. 

For employers where no transfer of data from the APSC is taking place:

You must complete the online Questionnaire, as well as the full Workforce Management Statistics and Workplace Profile. You must upload the Workforce Management Statistics and Workplace Profile Excel files to the Portal.

Find the Workforce Management Statistics and Workplace Profile Excel templates here.

View the Prepare for Commonwealth Public Sector Gender Equality Reporting in 2024 webinar below:

For help with reporting, please review the information in this guide.

If you cannot find an answer to your question, email publicsectorsupport@wgea.gov.au, outlining the nature of your query.