Named, Then Paid: Employers on the Government's Own Gender-Reporting Non-Compliance List Won $14.9 Million in Federal Contracts While Listed — $6.8 Million of It Above the Threshold Where a Compliance Letter Is Required — and No Official Has to Check the List
Since 2013, a Prime Minister and Cabinet policy has required every employer covered by the Workplace Gender Equality Act to produce a WGEA letter of compliance to win Commonwealth work at or above the procurement threshold — and WGEA does not issue that letter to an employer that has not met its obligations. The Act itself says non-compliant employers 'may not be eligible to compete for contracts'. An exact ABN join between WGEA's three published non-compliance lists and 200,391 AusTender contract records shows what that produces in practice: 302 new contract notices worth $14.9 million went to 21 listed employers while their names sat on the live list — 30 of them, worth $6.8 million, at or above the threshold where the letter requirement applies; most of the rest below it, where it does not. The Department of Defence accounts for 96% of the money. One naval-parts supplier was awarded new Defence contracts in 18 of the 19 calendar months since it was named. Part of the design explains why the list leaves no mark: the government's own guidance asks whether officials must check the non-compliant list, and answers, verbatim, 'No.'
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