Legislation Interpretation Act 2021

This section applies if an Act or a legislative instrument provides for a member of a body to be appointed by the Governor or a Minister on the nomination of a non‑government entity.

If the Act provides for the non‑government entity to nominate a panel of persons from which the Governor or Minister is to select a person for appointment, the Act will be taken to provide that the panel—

must include at least 1 woman and 1 man; and

must, as far as practicable, be comprised of equal numbers of women and men.

If the Act does not provide for the non‑government entity to nominate a panel of persons from which the Governor or Minister is to select a person for appointment, the Act will be taken to provide that—

the non‑government entity must nominate a panel of persons comprised of not less than twice the number of members of the body to be appointed on the nomination of the entity plus 1; and

the panel—

must include at least 1 woman and 1 man; and

must, as far as practicable, be comprised of equal numbers of women and men; and

the

Governor or Minister must select the person for appointment from the panel.

This section does not derogate from the need to properly assess merit in selecting persons for appointment.

In this section—

man includes a person who identifies himself as a man regardless of the person's designated sex at birth;

non-government entity means a person or body other than an officer, agency or instrumentality (including a Minister) of the Crown in right of the

State or the Commonwealth or another State or a Territory of the

Commonwealth;

woman includes a person who identifies herself as a woman regardless of the person's designated sex at birth.