The Workplace Gender Equality Agency has released a new scorecard on progress in the Commonwealth public sector towards gender equality.

The report, which is an Australian first, looks at the actions public sector employers are taking to drive gender equality and to highlight areas that need improvement.

Minister for Women and the Public Service, Senator the Hon Katy Gallagher, said the Albanese Government is focused on improving equality for women and the Commonwealth public sector should be a model employer.

OLIVER PETERSON, HOST: We bumped our next guest yesterday for the Prime Minister, but Patrick Gorman is the Assistant Minister to the Prime Minister and the Member for Perth. And he joins me in the studio today. Patrick, good to see you.

PATRICK GORMAN, ASSISTANT MINISTER TO THE PRIME MINISTER AND ASSISTANT MINISTER FOR THE PUBLIC SERVICE: Good to see you Oly, I did worry that the Prime Minister had such a good time yesterday that you might bump me for a second day in a row, go back to back.

PETERSON: I apologise.

Thank you, Sarah. And thank you to Aunty Julie. Just to pay my respects to you and the traditional owners of this country from the lands where I come from, the Yanyuwa people. It is so wonderful to be here with all of you. It has been an incredibly long journey, not physically so much as it has been emotionally for so many families here, but also right across the APY and Central Australia and here in South Australia.

Towards a culture of collaboration

Reaching out. Welcoming others in. Collaborating. Achieving. This has not always been the image of the modern Australian Public Service.

But every one in this room is committed to changing this. We know that in 2024 we need to work even harder for a public service that puts the Australian people and business at the absolute centre. And to do this, we must reject parts of the culture that has dominated the public service for much of Federation.

Community consultations on the design of the Remote Jobs and Economic Development (RJED) program are underway with a constructive session in Beagle Bay and in communities throughout WA.

The Minister joined the consultation in Beagle Bay today.

Local Beagle Bay community including community leaders, job seekers and potential employers can apply for funding to create new jobs in their community when the new program starts later this year.

Beagle Bay is one of around 200 remote communities being consulted on how the new program should work in practice.

First Nations Australians with severe kidney disease will have better access to lifesaving treatment with the opening of a new Coober Pedy renal dialysis clinic. 

The Coober Pedy clinic is the first to open under the Albanese Labor Government’s $73.2 million Better Renal Services for First Nations Peoples initiative.

First Nations adults are twice as likely as non-Indigenous Australians to have chronic kidney disease and almost 4 times as likely to die from chronic kidney disease.

TOM CONNELL, HOST: Joining me now, Assistant Minister to the Prime Minister Patrick Gorman. No Jason Falinski today, Patrick, but I'm sure the first thing you did was you thought, 'What's the Mackellar margin?' It's gone out. It's up to three and a half percent. Look, it's up about 1% or so. Should Jason still run even though he's all the way in the US? I'm sure he's doing something very intelligent and intellectual over there. Are you going to back him even when he's not on the show, to throw his hat in the ring again?

Australia’s progress towards improving gender parity has been reaffirmed by the World Economic Forum's 2024 Global Gender Gap Report.

The World Economic Forum Global Gender Gap Index benchmarks 146 countries on gender parity across four dimensions: economic participation and opportunity, educational attainment, health and survival, and political empowerment.

Minister for Women, Senator the Hon Katy Gallagher, welcomed the report, which saw Australia’s ranking improve by two places to 24th.

The Albanese Labor Government is investing more than $2 million in eight projects in Western Australia that will help marine experts improve the health and resilience of our oceans.

As part of this, the University of Western Australia (UWA) will receive over $650,000 to collaborate with First Nations communities on two projects that will help ranger groups better monitor and manage the health of our Australian Marine Parks.

PATRICIA KARVELAS, HOST: A fourteen-month inquiry into the Big 4 consulting firms in Australia brought to light some pretty shocking revelations about how they were taking the government and taxpayers for a pretty big ride. It also highlighted just how the dependent the Public Service was on external consultants. The report makes 12 recommendations, putting the ball in the government’s court to crack down further on the industry. But the Greens say it doesn’t go far enough. Katy Gallagher is the Minister for Finance and Women, she joins us on the program this morning.