I am pleased to share with you VGSO's 2026-2030 Gender Equality Action Plan (GEAP). Our GEAP has been endorsed by our Executive Leadership Team (ELT) and represents our commitment to gender equality.
VGSO takes great pride in acknowledging and celebrating the diversity of our workforce. Since its establishment almost 10 years ago, our Diversity and Inclusion Committee, with support from ELT and our People and Culture team, have played a valuable role initiating and leading critical initiatives that support our people to participate fully and thrive at work. I am honoured to work with this Committee, as Executive Sponsor, and am grateful for the contributions and commitment of all its members.
With 77% of our workforce being women, we acknowledge the importance of ensuring our workplace is free of gender inequality. In 2022, VGSO welcomed the opportunity to prepare its first GEAP, with the successful delivery of initiatives resulting in positive and meaningful change in our workplace, particularly in supporting equitable pay outcomes and mitigating gender-based pay disparities in recruitment. The preparation of our 2026-2030 GEAP has encouraged valuable reflection on our progress and encouraged us to identify ways we can further enhance our commitment to building and nurturing a diverse and inclusive workplace culture.
Our 2026-2030 GEAP reflects both the findings from our workplace gender audit and employee-identified priorities. In developing this GEAP we relished the opportunity to engage with our people, understand their experiences and ultimately develop priorities and actions that will positively impact their workplace experiences.
We have set clear, achievable actions structured around three priority focus areas:
- Fair, equitable and bias-resistant workforce systems: embedding gender equality into hiring, pay, promotion and development processes
- Accountability, ownership and visible progress: making gender equality everyone's responsibility through clear expectations and transparent reporting
- Culture, inclusion and sustainable work across all life stages
Our vision is a workplace where gender equity is embedded in every system, championed at every level, and experienced by every person - across all identities and all stages of working life.
In a broader sense, VGSO acknowledges gender equality as a human right, a precondition for the prevention of family violence and other forms of violence against women and girls and essential for an economically prosperous, safe and healthy society.
I, along with VGSO's ELT, fully endorse the actions within our GEAP and recognise the significant opportunities identified to further embed a gender equitable workplace culture at VGSO.
Matthew Hocking
Victorian Government Solicitor
Updated