5 | Our Structure and Governance
5.3 Location and national reach
The office location of the Commission is in Sydney.
Like other Commonwealth agencies, we have a
growing number of staff working remotely from
locations across the country.
The Commission conducts its activities nationally,
including by maintaining a National Information
Service, and conducting consultations, meetings,
and events across Australia.
5.4 Responsible Minister
In this period the Hon Mark Dreyfus KC MP was the
Attorney-General responsible for the Commission for
the 2023−24 reporting period. The Attorney-General
has various powers under the Australian Human
Rights Commission Act 1986 (Cth).
5.5 Governance
The Commission operates under the Australian
Human Rights Commission Act 1986 (Cth), the Public
Service Act 1999 (Cth) and the Public Governance,
Performance and Accountability Act 2013 (Cth). The
implementation of these responsibilities is outlined
in the Commission’s Governance Framework 2022,
showing how the Commission is to be governed
and its guiding principles; how it is to implement its
functions, responsibilities and roles; and operating
procedures necessary to fulfill the Commission’s
purpose and functions.
The Commission (consisting of the President and
Commissioners) holds formal meetings to which
the Chief Executive reports four times a year. These
meetings facilitate comprehensive regular reporting
of progress against the Commission’s Strategic
Plan and annual work plan, and the President and
Commissioners’ term goals, and provide space for
key strategic decision making. As required, senior
management also provide updates from across the
Commission’s work.
In line with our Governance Framework the
Commission has four Sub-Committees: Budget;
Partnership and Projects; Organisational
Development and Culture; and Strategic Issues and
Engagement. These Sub-Committees are chaired
by Commissioners with diverse and relevant staff
representation. They each meet regularly and report
to the quarterly Commission meetings.
The President and Commissioners, as ‘the
Commission’, must approve acts such as reports,
submissions, interventions in court proceedings,
and the granting of temporary exemptions. The
Commission obtains appropriate ethics approval for
all relevant major activities.
We adopt a positive risk management culture
that promotes an open and proactive approach
to managing risk. We achieve this through our
governance, risk and compliance mechanisms, such
as the Audit and Risk Committee and Governance
Framework Sub-Committees. Our strategic and
corporate planning processes are conducted at all
levels of the organisation and align our strategic
goals and outcomes with our strategic priorities and
financial planning.
In this period the AHRC conducted an independent
Enterprise Risk Assessment that guides our
risk management framework which provides a
mechanism for proactively identifying and mitigating
risks across the organisation, and for monitoring the
operating environment.
5.6 Audit and Risk
Under the Public Governance, Performance
and Accountability Rule 2014 (Cth) (PGPA rule)
requirement (section 17(2)(b)), our Audit and
Risk Committee has assessed the performance
statement contained in this report, reviewing
the completeness and appropriateness of the
performance information, systems and framework,
and performance reporting.
Under the PGPA Rule requirement (section 17BE),
the following information is provided:
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