The National Association of Women in Construction (NAWIC), the peak body for women in construction, has applauded announcements by the Victorian and more recently Western Australian and Australian Capital Territory governments to include gender equality as part of their procurement policies.
The Victorian government released its Building Equality Policy with a mandated target of 3 per cent women in trade roles, 7 per cent in non-trade labour, 35 per cent women in management and supervision, and 4 per cent female apprentices for all publicly funded projects greater than $20 million by 2024.
There will be a graduated approach to compliance over the next two years but significantly, suppliers to the Victorian government will be required to provide a project-specific Gender Equality Action Plan (GEAP) when submitting bidding for government-funded construction work.
Those GEAP’s will then form part of the procurement contract.
Prior to the VIC government’s announcement, no other state or territory had come as close to placing ‘gender on the tender’ and the response to Victoria’s announcement has caused enquiries to NAWIC to increase exponentially.
Last month, WA’s Women’s Interests Minister Hon Simone McGurk announced the introduction of a 12-month pilot to introduce a gender equality clause into public sector procurement.
Suppliers with 100 or more employees will have to provide a copy of a compliance letter demonstrating that they meet federal gender equality reporting requirements.
Companies supplying goods and services to the WA government will need to show that they have complied with their obligations under the Workplace Gender Equality Act 2012.
The policy does not rule out non-compliant suppliers but does establish a new visibility of gender equality compliance.
NAWIC hopes that this is the first step towards achieving a systemic cultural change with the next step being the requirement of compliance.
Recently the ACT government announced tenderers for the construction of a new public school will be required to have 100 per cent female management team and with women employed by every trade subcontractor.
Currently only 2.6 per cent of construction workers in the ACT are women (based on the 2016 Census).
The ACT government is aiming to increase female participation in construction to 10 per cent in the coming years.
There needs to be ambitious programs demonstrating strong female leadership and providing inspiration to the next generation.
NAWIC advocates for diversity at all levels and their long-term aim is for sustainable gender equity on all sites.