The Workplace Gender Equality Amendment (Setting Gender Equality Targets) Act 2024 (Cth) commenced 4 April 2025.

The Act amended the Workplace Gender Equality Act 2012 (Cth) to require Australian employers with 500 or more employees to select, and achieve or make progress on, gender equality targets over a period of 3 years.

If the Workplace Gender Equality Agency determines that an employer has failed to meet or demonstrate improvement against the targets without reasonable excuse this may impact its eligibility to contract with the Australian Government through its procurement processes.

The gender equality targets and rules are set out in the recently made Workplace Gender Equality (Gender Equality Targets) Instrument 2025.