Surprise! Australia Is Run Almost Entirely By White People

Of Australia’s 103 federal and state government department heads, only one is “non-European”. One!

The shocking stat was dropped this morning as part of this year’s Leading for Change: A blueprint for cultural diversity and inclusive leadership revisited report by the Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC).

Put together by Race Discrimination Commissioner Tim Soutphommasane, the 34-page report documents the exact racial make up of Australia’s most senior political, business and education posts.

It found that of the 2490 most senior posts in Australian state and federal governments, 95 per cent are held by white people. Despite making up three per cent of the population, Indigenous Australians compose just 0.4 per cent of those positions.

In business, only one of the 372 surveyed chief executive officers was Indigenous. Ten others were “non-European”.

“All up there are 11 of the 372 CEOs and equivalents who have a non-European or Indigenous background. A mere cricket team’s worth of diversity,” Soutphommasane said.

“These are dismal statistics for a society that prides itself on its multiculturalism. They challenge our egalitarian self-image.”

Our new research finds that just 3% of CEOs in Australia have a non-European or Indigenous background (vs an estimated 24% in the gen pop). In an egalitarian, multicultural Australia we should see more diversity in leadership https://t.co/8cxXd6iCOU

— Tim Soutphommasane (@timsout) April 10, 2018

Out of Australia’s top 200 companies, there are no known Indigenous CEOs.

Similarly, none of Australia’s 39 vice-chancellors, or our 130 deputy vice-chancellors, are Indigenous.

The report also compares data from 2016 to the 2018 figures to see whether there has been any significant improvement and… nope! In 2016, four percent of the top 200 CEOs were non-European: this year, that’s now five percent.

In a piece for the Sydney Morning Herald, Soutphommasane suggested that targets, or even quotas, might be the best solution to the lack of racial representation.

“Economists at the University of Sydney, in a recent study involving résumés, found those with an Anglo name are three times more likely to be invited for interview, compared to candidates with a Chinese name,” Soutphommasane wrote.

“If we are serious about shifting numbers, it may be necessary to consider targets for cultural diversity — if not quotas.”

In a Proudly Diverse Australia, White People Still Run Almost Everything https://t.co/C6KAfLyaZN @AusHumanRights @timsout #LeadingforChange

— AusHumanRights (@AusHumanRights) April 10, 2018

The Leading for Change report was co-authored by the Committee for Sydney, Asia Society Australia, and the University of Sydney Business School.

You can read it here.