Section 18 of the Public Service Act 1999 (Public Service Act) requires agency heads to establish workplace diversity programs, to assist in giving effect to the APS Employment Principles. In 2012–13, 75% of APS agencies had such a program in place in at least part of their agency, a slight reduction on last year's result of 77%. As of 1 July 2013, changes to the Public Service Act require agency heads to publish the details of their agency's workplace diversity program on their agency's website. At the time of completing the agency survey,

43% of APS agencies had a workplace diversity program available on their website.

Based on APSED data, Figure 5.1 shows that in 2012–13 the proportion of women employees increased slightly, the proportion of Indigenous employees and employees from a non-English speaking background stayed the same, while the proportion of employees with disability declined.

Figure 5.1 Representation of diversity groups among ongoing employees, 1999 to 2013

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Source: APSED