Key Points
- US President Donald Trump has done away with diversity, equality and inclusion measures in parts of the public service.
- Peter Dutton has said public service DEI roles do not "improve the lives of everyday Australians".
- DEI experts say progress has been made on Australian workplace diversity but note a lack of "legislative clout".
Among the first executive orders US President Donald Trump made upon re-entering the White House in January were a number that did away with diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) measures.
A number of global businesses based in the US have followed suit, with Google scrapping its goal to hire more employees from underrepresented groups and announcing a review of some of its DEI initiatives.
Could the trend continue in Australia?
The Donald Trump effect
Speaking about putting an end to DEI in the military service academies, Trump said he would end government policies that he claimed aimed to "socially engineer race and gender into every aspect of public and private life".
In line with , administration officials have been dismantling training initiatives, scrapping grants and even sidelining workers. Trump's order applies across all US government departments and agencies.
The rise of DEI in Australia
Judy Lundy, a lecturer in management at Edith Cowan University’s (ECU) School of Business and Law, said the DEI movement evolved out of the civil rights movement in the US and resulted in policies and practices to address discrimination and promote equality "to right the wrongs of the past".
"Affirmative action in Australia has primarily been from that social justice perspective trying to say there are certain groups that have always been disadvantaged, let’s try and address that," she said.
Lundy said following on from that a "business case approach" for diversity started to be seen in Australia.
"That was more about saying we can better appeal to our diverse customers, we can probably make more innovative decisions because we are not all thinking the same," she said.
Uma Jogulu, also a lecturer at ECU's School of Business and Law, said Australia had made "a lot of progress" in making workplaces more inclusive.
Criticisms of DEI measures have stemmed from a sentiment that people employed through such programs may not merit their success, and therefore deprived more deserving candidates who are not part of a minority group.
Legislative clout
When asked about the future of DEI in Australia on the ABC's Insiders program last week, Women's Minister Katy Gallagher said good employers made sure women and people with disability or from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds got "a fair go".
She also pointed to the Workplace Gender Equality Act which requires employers with 100 or more employees to report annually against six gender equality indicators.
"We have got arrangements in law, the Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA) has requirements for businesses to report against certain targets and measures," Gallagher said.
"All of those companies that have operations in Australia have confirmed, of course, that they would continue to operate within Australian law which does allow for reporting and for progress to be made particularly around issues of gender equality."
While Jogulu said there is much work going into DEI initiatives around Australia, beyond this reporting specific to women in the workplace, the area lacked "legislative clout".
Uma Jogulu, a senior lecturer in management with Edith Cowan University's School of Business and Law, said there had been much progress in creating workplaces that better reflect Australia's population in recent years. Source: Supplied / Stephen Heath
She said: "it is pretty easy for organisations to slack back on diversity so to speak because it is A) not required B) there is a bit of pushback now with what we see in the trends coming from the US".
Lundy said while there is anti-discrimination legislation in Australia that covers many different identity groups, simply not breaching that legislation was "a pretty low bar" to meet.
Opposition plan for public service
In a policy speech at the end of January, Opposition leader Peter Dutton spoke of cutting the size of the public service.
"Positions advertised have included culture, diversity and inclusion advisers, change managers, and internal communications specialists," he said.
"Such positions, as I say, do nothing to improve the lives of everyday Australians.
"They're certainly not front-line service delivery roles that can make a difference to people's lives."
"I have not met an Australian across the country ... who can tell me their lives are better off because the government's employed 36,000 public servants in Canberra," he said.
"I have met people ... who say their lives are worse off because of the extra bureaucratic red tape that comes with the employment of 36,000 more public servants."
Opposition leader Peter Dutton has spoken about making the public service more "efficient." Source: AAP / Steven Markham
In a post on LinkedIn, he said while DEI-focused public service roles "are not the solution to eradicating , removing them completely without putting in place something stronger sets us backwards".
"These roles are part of broader, current work on ensuring that our public service is more reflective and responsive to all of the communities it’s meant to serve.
"It's clear that in the public service, particularly in ascending to positions of leadership.
"Having DEI positions at least recognises this and makes it an issue that can be progressed."
Agenda of the government of the day
Lundy said: "The federal public sector has done an extraordinarily good job building DEI capability".
"They look much more like the Australian public — they are much more diverse than many workplaces because what they have done has been effective."
Last year Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s government committed to achieving a target of 15 per cent CALD representation within senior leadership of the federal public services within four years, with a longer-term goal of 24 per cent.
With a federal election to be held on or before 17 May, Lundy and Jogulu said they would both have concerns over the future of DEI under a government led by Dutton, given his recent comments about such initiatives in the public sector.
Judy Lundy is a lecturer management discipline at Edith Cowan University's School of Business and Law. Source: Supplied / Stephen Heath
"So at the very least I’m really fearful for those gains that are being made."
Lundy has concerns a Coalition government under Dutton may reconsider social procurement in which government agencies look more favourably on bids and tenders that agree to deliver certain services or projects with a certain percentage of workers from particular minority groups.
Given his comments around "bureaucratic red tape" she said she "could imagine that that could be something that Dutton could change significantly and yet social procurement has been seen to have incredibly positive outcomes for a lot of marginalised cohorts".
Optimism about increasing diversity
Despite this, Lundy said there are a number of reasons she remains optimistic about the future of DEI in Australia and one of them is occupational health and safety rules.
She said in every state and territory except for Victoria, such legislation lists "pretty much most of the different identity groups under anti-discrimination legislation in terms of talking about psychosocial risk".
Lundy said businesses face a "very real risk" of "expensive compensation claims" involving matters that may involve staff and centre around diversity, equality and inclusion.
She said businesses would likely want to avoid being the subject of such claims as they are "the most expensive and problematic types of claims".
Lundy also pointed to the many companies that had been vocal in their support of diversity, equality and inclusion in the wake of Trump's opposition to it.
"There are many US companies who are standing firm and they are saying we are not doing this and they are having extraordinarily positive receptions," Lundy said.
"Costco are talking a very strong stance that they are not going to back down on their DEI and they have never been busier, the public are supporting them by flocking into the CostCo stores and Ben and Jerry’s is another, I’ve heard."
