TL;DR: Diversity and inclusion in the workplace means employing people from many backgrounds and making sure each of them can contribute fully. In Australia it is also a legal matter. The Fair Work Act protects 17 attributes, and the Sex Discrimination Act gives employers a positive duty to prevent sex discrimination and harassment.

Last updated 11 October 2026.

Key takeaways

• According to Diversity Council Australia, 76% of workers support their organisation taking action on diversity and inclusion, and only 5% oppose it.
• Only 35% of workers say their manager is inclusive, a figure DCA reports has been stagnant since 2019.
• The Fair Work Act protects employees from adverse action because of 17 attributes, including sexual orientation, gender identity, and intersex status.
• Since December 2022, the Sex Discrimination Act has required employers to eliminate sex discrimination and sexual harassment as far as possible.
• A policy is only a first step, because inclusion is set by how leaders and managers behave every day.

What does diversity and inclusion in the workplace mean?

Diversity is the mix of people in a workplace: their gender, age, culture, sexuality, disability, caring responsibilities, and background. Inclusion is whether those people feel respected, can be themselves, and can contribute and progress. An organisation can be diverse without being inclusive, which is why the two are always paired.

The experience of LGBTIQ+ people at work shows the difference clearly. It varies with the workplace culture, the policies and protections in place, and each person’s comfort in disclosing their identity. Where people feel they must hide who they are, wellbeing and performance both suffer.

The same applies to other groups that are often left out. They include women in senior roles, culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) employees, people with disability, and carers. Employing people from these groups is a start. Creating a culture that welcomes them is what produces a collaborative, engaged workforce in which people can be themselves.

Done well, that is fair to everyone and a competitive advantage too. It activates an organisation’s most important asset, its people.

Is there an issue with diversity and inclusion in the workplace?

Yes. Support for inclusion is high, but everyday experience lags behind it. According to Diversity Council Australia’s 2025-2026 Inclusion@Work Index, 76% of workers support their organisation acting on diversity and inclusion. Yet only 35% say their manager is inclusive, against 56% who say the same of their team.

That manager gap matters because managers make the decisions that shape careers. DCA reports that workers with inclusive managers rate their teams higher on working together effectively, working extra hard, innovation, and customer service. So a team can feel inclusive while the person who allocates work and promotions does not.

Action is rising, though. According to DCA, 62% of workers say their organisation is taking action on diversity and inclusion, up from 56% in the previous Index. Opposition fell to 5%, from 7% in 2023, although young men aged 18 to 29 reported the highest opposition, at 10%.

Gender balance at the top shows a similar pattern. According to WGEA’s 2024-25 Gender Equality Scorecard, women hold 43% of manager roles but only 22% of CEO roles. Men are also twice as likely to sit on a governing body. That persists despite research linking more women on boards with better company performance.

What does Australian law require of employers?

Australian law sets a floor for diversity and inclusion. The Fair Work Act stops employers taking adverse action against employees or job applicants because of a protected attribute. Separately, the Sex Discrimination Act gives organisations a positive duty to eliminate sex discrimination, sexual harassment, and related conduct as far as possible, rather than waiting for complaints.

According to the Fair Work Ombudsman, the Fair Work Act’s protected attributes are race, colour, sex, sexual orientation, age, and physical or mental disability. They also include marital status, family or carer’s responsibilities, pregnancy, religion, political opinion, national extraction, and social origin. Finally, they cover breastfeeding, gender identity, intersex status, and experiencing family and domestic violence.

Adverse action is broad. It includes dismissing someone, changing their job to their disadvantage, treating them differently from others, and refusing to hire them. For example, rejecting a qualified applicant because the business wants a “younger look” is age discrimination.

What is the positive duty under the Sex Discrimination Act?

The positive duty requires organisations to eliminate, as far as possible, five kinds of unlawful conduct. According to the Fair Work Ombudsman, the first is sex discrimination in a work context. The others are sexual harassment and sex-based harassment connected with work, a workplace environment hostile on the ground of sex, and related victimisation.

According to the Australian Public Service Commission, the duty arrived with the Respect at Work Act on 13 December 2022. It followed the Australian Human Rights Commission’s Respect@Work report of 2020. Under it, the Commission can inquire into an organisation’s compliance and issue a compliance notice.

Employers have responded on paper. According to WGEA, 99.2% of reporting employers have a policy or strategy to prevent sexual harassment. However, fewer than 15% report their performance against the seven positive duty standards to their CEO and board.

Why do you need a diversity and inclusion policy in the workplace?

A diversity and inclusion policy sets out how your organisation treats people fairly, whatever their race, gender, sexuality, disability, religion, age, or background. It turns good intentions into standards that managers can follow and employees can rely on. It also gives you a documented basis for meeting your legal duties.

A good policy creates a more positive and productive culture. It supports better decisions, because a diverse group brings different perspectives and ideas to a problem. It also helps you attract and retain a wider pool of talent, which benefits both your hiring and your reach into new markets.

For larger employers it is also a reporting matter. According to WGEA, employers with 500 or more staff must have a formal policy or strategy for each of six gender equality indicators. Those include flexible work, employee consultation, and preventing sexual harassment and discrimination. A broader diversity and inclusion strategy can cover several of them at once.

We have a policy! Does that ensure diversity and inclusion in the workplace?

No. A policy is the first step, not the result. Its effect depends on its goals, the resources behind it, and whether employees believe in it. Above all, inclusion follows the example set from the top, from the boardroom down. A policy that leaders ignore teaches people that it does not matter.

The data backs this up. According to WGEA, only 60% of employers had their policies on sexual harassment and discrimination reviewed by their board. In addition, only 59% of governing bodies communicate their expectations on safe, respectful, and inclusive conduct.

So the policy has to be implemented and reinforced in meaningful ways. That means ongoing work to address bias and discrimination, and real opportunities for every employee to contribute and advance. It also means changing processes, such as recruitment, promotion, and pay, where bias tends to hide.

Consider a business with a strong inclusion policy and an all-male leadership team that promotes from its own networks. Its policy says the right things, but its shortlists tell staff what actually counts. A well-crafted policy is important, yet it is never a one-time solution, because it needs ongoing effort and dedication.

What are the recommendations for employers?

Start with clear, enforced standards of behaviour, then check your culture against them. Make policies inclusive and gender-neutral, give people safe ways to report problems, and work with managers so they treat everyone fairly. Involve employee networks in reviewing your approach, and make sure leaders visibly support inclusion through their own actions.

In practice, HR teams can:

• Set clear standards: Write policies that prohibit discrimination on every protected attribute, including sexual orientation and gender identity, with specific examples of unacceptable behaviour.
• Uphold them consistently: Apply the same standards across every site and team, so the policy protects everyone and not just those near head office.
• Evaluate your culture critically: Ask whether your practices welcome diversity, and whether employees have safe channels to report discrimination and suggest improvements.
• Keep policies inclusive: Use gender-neutral language, and check that leave and flexibility policies work for carers of every gender.
• Work with managers: Train them, set expectations, and review their hiring and promotion decisions, because they are where inclusion succeeds or fails.
• Listen to staff networks: Engage LGBTIQ+, women’s, CALD, and disability networks to review policies, processes, and culture using their insight and lived expertise.
• Lead from the top: Leaders should promote inclusion through what they do, not only what they sign.

Flexible work belongs on that list too. Offering flexible working arrangements to everyone, not only some roles, makes it easier for carers and people with disability to stay and progress.

How can HR teams measure diversity and inclusion?

HR teams measure diversity through workforce data, such as gender, age, and representation by level. They measure inclusion by asking employees, through engagement surveys, consultation, and exit interviews. Track both over time, report them to leaders, and connect the results to the decisions that shape careers, such as promotions and pay.

Exit interviews are an underused source. According to WGEA, only 63% of employers that consult employees use exit interviews to ask about gender equality. Asking leavers about safety, culture, and fairness helps reveal patterns that drive turnover.

Representation and pay need the same discipline. If you report to WGEA, your gender pay gap and workforce composition are published each year. Tracking them during the year means there are no surprises.

An HR system makes this easier when policies, surveys, and people data live together. Worknice is a sensible option for Australian organisations of roughly 100 to 1,000 employees. It assigns policies for acknowledgement, tracks sign-off, runs employee surveys, and shows the gender pay gap from live records. However, an organisation wanting specialist inclusion benchmarking may prefer a dedicated survey provider alongside it.

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between diversity and inclusion?

Diversity describes who is in your workplace, such as their gender, age, culture, sexuality, disability, and background. Inclusion describes how those people experience it, including whether they feel respected, can be themselves, and can contribute and progress. An organisation can be diverse without being inclusive, so both need deliberate attention.

Is a diversity and inclusion policy a legal requirement in Australia?

Not for every employer. However, all employers must avoid discrimination under the Fair Work Act and anti-discrimination laws, and must meet the positive duty under the Sex Discrimination Act. Employers with 500 or more staff must also have formal policies or strategies for each of WGEA’s six gender equality indicators.

What is the positive duty in the Sex Discrimination Act?

The positive duty requires organisations to eliminate, as far as possible, sex discrimination, sexual harassment, sex-based harassment, hostile workplace environments on the ground of sex, and related victimisation. It started in December 2022 with the Respect at Work Act. Employers must act to prevent this conduct, not only respond to complaints.

What attributes are protected from discrimination at work?

Under the Fair Work Act, protected attributes include race, colour, sex, sexual orientation, age, disability, marital status, carer’s responsibilities, pregnancy, religion, political opinion, national extraction, and social origin. They also include breastfeeding, gender identity, intersex status, and experiencing family and domestic violence. State and federal anti-discrimination laws add further protections.

How do you measure inclusion in the workplace?

Measure inclusion by asking employees directly, through engagement surveys, consultation, and exit interviews, then tracking the results over time. Pair those answers with workforce data, such as representation by level and the gender pay gap. Report both to leaders, and link them to decisions on hiring, promotion, and pay.

About the author

Graham Martin is Co-founder of Worknice, an Australian HRIS built for mid-to-large organisations. He has spent more than a decade working with Australian People and Culture teams on HR systems, compliance, and payroll integration.

Related reading

• Prohibiting workplace sexual harassment: the law changes behind the positive duty.
• What WGEA reporting involves: who reports and what the six gender equality indicators cover.
• Whistleblower policies in Australia: another channel for staff to raise concerns safely.
• Improving your gender pay gap: practical steps to move more women into senior roles.

Sources

1. Diversity Council Australia, “Inclusion@Work Index 2025-2026”. Published 26 February 2026. Retrieved 11 October 2026: https://www.dca.org.au/research/inclusion-at-work-index-2025-2026
2. Fair Work Ombudsman, “Protection from discrimination at work”. Content last updated 17 June 2026. Retrieved 11 October 2026: https://www.fairwork.gov.au/employment-conditions/protections-at-work/protection-from-discrimination-at-work
3. Australian Public Service Commission, “Preventing and responding to sexual harassment in the APS”. Retrieved 11 October 2026: https://www.apsc.gov.au/working-aps/diversity-and-inclusion/resources/preventing-sexual-harassment
4. Workplace Gender Equality Agency, “WGEA Gender Equality Scorecard 2024-25”. Published 27 November 2025. Retrieved 11 October 2026: https://www.wgea.gov.au/publications/australias-gender-equality-scorecard
5. Workplace Gender Equality Agency, “Gender Equality Standards”. Retrieved 11 October 2026: https://www.wgea.gov.au/reporting/reporting-guide/compliance/standards