Mehreen Faruqi (NSW, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

Our ABC has a diversity and a race problem. In June 2022 a damning internal report into workplace culture at the ABC found that First Nations employees felt undervalued, ignored and discriminated against. Justin Stevens, the director of news, apologised to staff after this. Being a public broadcaster, the ABC has a key role to play in setting standards and practices when it comes to diversity and cultural safety and protecting its staff from racism. That starts with reflecting diversity at the highest level. Yet the executive board of the ABC is embarrassingly bereft of diversity. It completely lacks the lived experience of people who are routinely discriminated against in this country: First Nations people, people of colour, disabled people and LGBTQIA+ people.

This is a glaring problem and one where I have been on the case for some time. Last month I wrote to the communications minister urging the government to ensure the board is diverse. The complete absence of diversity has no doubt contributed to the poor treatment of First Nations journalists like Stan Grant and journalists of colour like Antoinette Lattouf. It also likely contributes to a failure to recognise and respond to concerns from the public and ABC staff that the ABC's coverage of the genocide in Gaza has been pro-Israel. I am pleased to report that my pushing and prodding has had some results. Tabled yesterday, the updated selection criteria for the ABC's non-executive directors add a new one, which requires 'an understanding of, or the ability to credibly represent, the communication needs of Australia's diverse society'. Of course, this is not enough. There should be an explicit requirement for the board to include members from marginalised, diverse communities, and I will keep pushing for it.