Hi, my name is Dr Linda Colley, and I am Queensland’s Special Commissioner for Equity and Diversity.

Since 2021, we have made some substantial changes to the equity and diversity sphere in the Queensland public sector. And I am delighted to share some of the changes we have made.

Many of these changes were embedded in the new Public Sector Act introduced last year to provide a great platform for change.

The Act introduced a new approach to recruitment and selection.

Recruitment is the only way to bring new people into the sector, and it was important that the provisions supported a balance between merit and equity.

A hiring manager’s first consideration is that the candidate must be able to do the job, but they can also consider other factors that might indicate additional merit – these include past performance, future contribution to the agency, and the extent to which the appointment would support the agency’s equity and diversity goals.

This will improve progress towards our diversity targets.

We also introduced two new duties for sector chief executives to actively progress equity and diversity and to promote a culture of respect and inclusion in their agency’s workplaces.

To support them to meet these obligations we created an equity and diversity audit process, that assists agencies to take a deep dive into their workforce data to identify progress and potential areas of concern.

We have also been working directly with agencies to better understand and reduce the gender pay gap. This is essential for a sector that has nearly 70% women in its workforce.

It is great to watch the downward trend in the sector’s gender pay gap, with a drop of over 25% to 6.3% in the two years to June 2023. This is also substantially lower than the 13% gender pay gap for the Australian labour market.

Our women in leadership initiative includes a range of strategies that focus agencies on the under-representation of women at executive levels in the sector. The State of the sector report highlights some of our research to understand this under-representation, and the progress being made, as we move towards the target of women holding 50% of roles at every executive level.

I am proud of the progress the sector has made, through these and numerous other strategies. But there is always more work to be done. Over the next 12 months, we will be focused on embedding the new recruitment processes across the sector, and continuing to assist agencies to make progress towards the sector’s diversity targets … and continue reducing that gender pay gap.

Since 2021, the Office of the Special Commissioner, Equity and Diversity have made some substantial changes to the equity and diversity sphere in the Queensland public sector. I am delighted to share some of the changes and progress we have made.

Many of these changes were embedded in the Public Sector Act 2022, (the Act) and provide a great platform for change.

The Act introduced a new approach to recruitment and selection for the Queensland public sector. Recruitment is the only way to bring new people into the sector, and it was important that the provisions supported a balance between merit and equity.

A hiring manager’s first consideration is that the candidate must be able to do the job, but they can also consider other factors that might indicate additional merit – these include past performance, future contribution to the agency, and the extent to which the appointment would support the agency’s equity and diversity goals. This will improve progress towards our diversity targets.

My Office also introduced two new duties for sector chief executives to actively progress equity and diversity and to promote a culture of respect and inclusion in their agency’s workplaces. To support them to meet these obligations we created an equity and diversity audit process, that assists agencies to take a deep dive into their workforce data to identify progress and potential areas of concern.

We have been working directly with agencies to better understand and reduce the gender pay gap. This is essential for a sector that has nearly 70% women in its workforce. It has been great to watch the downward trend in the sector’s gender pay gap, with a drop of over 25% to 6.3% in the two years to June 2023. This is also substantially lower than the 13% gender pay gap for the Australian labour market.

Our women in leadership initiative includes a range of strategies that focus agencies on the under-representation of women at executive levels in the sector. The State of the sector report 2024 highlights some of our research to understand this under-representation, and the progress being made, as we move towards the target of women holding 50% of roles at every executive level.

I am proud of the progress the sector has made, through these and numerous other strategies. But there is always more work to be done. Over the next 12 months, my team and I will be focused on embedding the new recruitment processes across the sector and continuing to assist agencies to make progress towards the sector’s diversity targets, whilst we work towards reducing the gender pay gap even further.