ANZ chief executive Mike Smith says the Abbott government's watering down of gender reporting requirements will mean that the nation's top companies could fail to reach their targets for more women in senior leadership and on boards.
Mr Smith has also suggested that the money initially set aside for Tony Abbott's controversial paid parental leave policy could now go to initiatives such as tax deductible childcare.
After much pressure from his ministers and backbench, Mr Abbott dumped his signature paid parental leave scheme. Instead some of the $5 billion set aside for it, being raised through a 1.5 per cent levy on big business, will be directed to a "families package", which is still being worked on by the Coalition.
At the same time, gender reporting requirements for private organisations under Tony Abbott will be different to those planned under former Labor prime minister Julia Gillard.
Speaking on the Abbott government's recent decision to cut additional gender reporting requirements that were due to take hold in April this year, Mr Smith told Fairfax Media it could result in some top companies not meeting targets to increase the number of women in senior leadership roles.
"I suspect some won't [meet targets] if there's no requirement to do something and it is perceived as not necessary," Mr Smith said.
"Putting targets out and having them published is quite effective. If you put out targets and you're publishing targets then you have to do something about meeting them or have a good explanation why you can't. If you drop that requirement it's much easier [for a company] to not make the change."
Under legislation passed by Labor, non-public sector employers with 100 or more employees are required to report to the government against gender equality indicators.
The scrapped requirements include reporting on CEO salaries, the pay of casual managers, the components of total remunerations, the numbers of job applications and interviews, and requests and approvals for extended parental leave. Employers will still have to report against six indicators, including the gender composition of its workforce and governing bodies, the remuneration of men and women and sexual harassment.
Mr Smith said he also was supportive of tax deductible childcare, providing issues around accessible and affordable childcare were addressed first.
"What's your most precious asset in your life? It's your kids. Why dish them out to somebody you don't know?" he said.
"There's broader questions. But [we need to look at] anything that improves the availability of childcare and affordability of childcare, and indeed if it can be tax deductible, that's a very sensible move."
Mr Smith's comments come as PwC on Tuesday will launch a new report showing that Australia dropped six places to 15th position – the largest drop out of the 27 OECD countries measured – in an annual index that ranks female economic empowerment.
Australia was in eighth position on the PwC Women in Work Index in 2011 and ninth in 2012.
The report said the recent drop was largely due to the widening gender pay gap in Australia, which moved from 14 per cent in 2012 to 18 per cent in 2013, and a small increase in female unemployment.
PwC's global head of people business, Jon Williams, said the "reductions" in gender reporting requirements could be detrimental to gender diversity.
"Achieving gender equality requires consideration of all different kinds of levers, including recruitment, retention, promotion, remuneration, and workplace policies," he said.
"It is vital we continue to collect data on things like recruitment measures and chief executive officer pay. What gets measured gets done and, as these results demonstrate, we still have a long way to go in Australia."
