EQUITY AND DIVERSITY ANNUAL REPORT - About the...

EQUITY ANDDIVERSITY AN

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Black Comedy, Photo: ABC TV

AUSTRALIAN BROADCASTING CORPORATION EQUITY AND DIVERSITY ANNUAL REPORT 2016–17

PLANNING AND REPORTING 2

PERFORMANCE MONITORING 3

PERFORMANCE 4

DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION HIGHLIGHTS 8

GENDER 13

INDIGENOUS 15

NON-ENGLISH SPEAKING BACKGROUND 17

DISABILITY 18

CONTENT HIGHLIGHTS 21

Contents

Contents 1

Planning and reporting

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) is Australia’s national broadcaster and was established as a statutory corporation under the Australian Broadcasting Corporation Act 1983 (the ABC Act). The ABC Act, which includes the ABC Charter, sets out the functions and duties of the Corporation.

As a Commonwealth authority employer, the ABC is bound by the provisions of the:

• Equal Employment Opportunity (Commonwealth Authorities) Act 1987

• Racial Discrimination Act 1975

• Sex Discrimination Act 1984

• Australian Human Rights Commission Act 1986

• Disability Discrimination Act 1992

• Age Discrimination Act 2004

• Fair Work Act 2009

The Equal Employment Opportunity (Commonwealth Authorities) Act 1987 (the EEO Act) requires the ABC to promote equal employment opportunity for designated groups:

• Gender

• Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people

• people from a non-English speaking background (NESB)

• people with disabilities

This report is made under the provisions of section 9 (2) of the EEO Act. The reporting period covers 1 September 2016 to 31 August 2017.

About the Equity and Diversity ProgramThis program has been designed to eliminate discrimination and promote equal opportunity for women, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, people from a non-English speaking background and people with disabilities.

The ABC is a member of a number of key national diversity organisations, including the Diversity Council of Australia.

ABC Managing Director, Michelle Guthrie, is a member of the Leadership Council on Cultural Diversity which is chaired by the Race Discrimination Commissioner, Tim Soutphommasane. The Council is committed to improving the cultural diversity of senior people within Australian organisations.

ABC Equity and Diversity Plan 2016 – 18This covers the period 1 January 2016 to 31 December 2018 and is available at about.abc.net.au/reports-publications/equity-and-diversity-plan-2016-18.

The ABC monitors and reports performances to the ABC Leadership Team each year. Some of the activities undertaken are reported in the ABC Equity and Diversity Annual Report.

ABC Stretch Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP) 2016 – 18This covers the period 1 January 2016 to 31 December 2018 and is available at about.abc.net.au/reports-publications/abc-reconciliation-action-plan-rap-2016-18.

Results are reported to Reconciliation Australia and twice a year to the ABC Leadership Team and Board. An annual report is available on the ABC’s website.

2 AUSTRALIAN BROADCASTING CORPORATION EQUITY AND DIVERSITY ANNUAL REPORT 2016–17

Performance monitoring

All new employees are asked to complete an Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) questionnaire related to gender, disability, language and culture. Answers are provided on a voluntary basis.

• At the end of the reporting period 78.4 % of all employees had provided EEO data.1

• Data was requested from applicants for all vacant positions and work experience.

• Monthly Indigenous employment statistics and quarterly diversity employment statistics were reported to the ABC Leadership Team.

Content teamsABC Content teams collect and analyse content to measure how diverse groups are represented. This analysis helps them to implement measures to address under-representation.

ABC News Data from eight days in October 2016 was collected from News and Current Affairs output across radio, television and online platforms with a focus on the interviewees and guests who appeared in stories, studios and panel discussions. Coverage was assessed for gender and cultural diversity, as well as for people from Indigenous backgrounds.

ABC Television The team surveyed first-run Australian content from all genres broadcast in 2016. The analysis focused on the lead and supporting roles in scripted content, presenters and other roles in non-scripted content. The review covered gender, cultural diversity, Indigenous, disability, sexual orientation and regional diversity.

For content broadcast in 2016 and 2017, the ABC has also been capturing off-screen crew diversity statistics across key roles. This information is currently provided on a voluntary basis by crew members.

ABC KIDS and ABC MEIn 2016, an independent analysis of external television productions broadcast on ABC KIDS and ABC ME was conducted over a month. It focused on the diversity of characters, cast and content makers. Diversity data was collected for every production and discussions were held with writers and producers to increase the diversity of the content.

RegionalThe Regional team has completed a baseline survey of content. A survey brief, including a methodology, was finalised in March 2017 and endorsed by Australia’s Race Discrimination Commissioner, Dr Tim Soutphommasane. Seven ABC Regional locations were selected to undertake the survey based on an analysis of the 2011 Census, which had revealed a high Indigenous population or cultural diversity. The results of the survey will be used by content teams to devise and implement measures to address under representation of relevant groups.

CommercialOver the past four years, ABC Commercial teams (Music, Books, Audio and Video Entertainment and Distribution) have audited their current products based on Indigenous content and cultural and linguistic diversity.

Performance monitoring 3

Performance

GENDER

Senior Executive

Administrative/Professional*

Content Maker

Technologist

Total 52.5%

47.5%

16.5%

83.5%

53.3%

47.7%

70.8%

29.2%

50.5%

49.5%

Female

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%

Male

52.1%in 2015–16

52.6%in 2015–16

45.8% in 2015–16

16.5% in 2015–16

65+

40–44

45–49

50–54

55–59

60–64

35–39

30–34

25–29

20–24

<20 2 1

64 25

215 153

352 270

331 248

300 265

299 265 263 265

175 261

84 119

35 49

Female

0 100 200 300 400

Male

162The total number of WOMEN

in senior executive roles is

Equity and Diversity Plan 2016–18 Targets for representation of women in the workforce: 50% of senior executives20% of technologists

The percentage of women employed at a senior executive level SIGNIFICANTLY

INCREASED from 45.8% in 2015–16 to

Gender distribution by job group, August 2017

Representation of gender by age, August 2017

50.5% in 2016–17

The complete data is available on page 13.

* The Administrative/Professional group employed a higher proportion of women than men and this was (71.0%).


INDIGENOUS

ABC Stretch Reconciliation Action Plan 2016–18 Targets for representation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander employees to at least:2.7% of the workforce by the end of December 20173% of the workforce by the end of December 2018

The number of INDIGENOUS SENIOR EXECUTIVES has

to 1.2% in the past year

doubled


2.6%of ABC’s workforce is Indigenous, with the highest numbers in NSW

and the Northern Territory.59%

4%

4%

5%5%

1%1%

12%

9%

the target of 3%

Indigenous PROCUREMENT spend was 6.4%, more than

double

Performance 5

NON-ENGLISH SPEAKING BACKGROUND

12.8%

of ABC employees reported being from NON-ENGLISH

SPEAKING backgrounds in 2016–17 compared with 12.3%

in 2015–16.

Equity and Diversity Plan 2016–18 Targets for representation of employees from Non-English Speaking Backgrounds (NESB): 15% of senior executives 12% of content makers


SENIOR EXECUTIVES from a non-English speaking background represent

of employees11.2%

8%Spanish 23%

Italian

21%Chinese

(incl Mandarinand Cantonese)

13%French

13%Greek

12%German

9%Arabic

Italian and Chinese are the two most common Non-English languages

spoken at home


DISABILITY

At the end of August 2017,

ABC EMPLOYEES identified as having a DISABILITY or 7% of those who

provided EEO data.

199

Equity and Diversity Plan 2016–18Target for representation of people with a disability 5% of the workforce


EMPLOYEES WITH A DISABILITY make up 7% of all staff,

exceeding the target

of 5%5%

7%

40%OVER TARGET

Performance 7

Diversity and inclusion highlights

LGBTIThe ABC is a member of Pride in Diversity, Australia’s first and only not-for-profit employer support program for the LGBTI community.

The organisation works with employers and employees to improve the health and wellbeing of LGBTI people and to reduce exclusion, invisibility, homophobia and stigma in the workplace.

Activities include:

• training programs to increase LGBTI awareness.

• reviewing policies and plans.

• helping to improve our LGBTI employee network.

• external forums and networks.

An ABC Pride committee has been created to develop initiatives and engagement across the corporation.

ABC employees L-R Lisa Keelan, James O’Brien, Manda Hatter, Warren Brown, Chrissie Tucker, Alison Hamill and Anita Quinn at the launch of ABC Pride. Photo Phillipa McDermott.


Harmony DayOn 21 March 2017, Harmony Day was celebrated with forums and activities. At Ultimo, celebrations included a meal with a Middle Eastern influence prepared and served by ABC Radio Sydney’s Simon Marnie to 150 employees.

The event included a cultural competition, prizes, diversity awards and a talk by employee, Ameer Ali, about his migration to Australia. In recognition of their contribution to cultural diversity at the ABC, awards were presented to Jeremy Fernandez (News) and David Hua (Audiences).

R U OK? DAYThe ABC celebrated its first R U OK? Day on 7 September 2016 and hosted a panel discussion focusing on mental health awareness and resilience for carers. Kumi Taguchi chaired the panel with special guests, Consulting Psychologist Dr Geoff Orme, ABC presenter Craig Hamilton and ABC technologist John Price. The discussion was followed by a fundraising dessert bake off judged by Annabel Crabb, host of the ABC’s Kitchen Cabinet.

Harmony Day awards. L-R Jeremy Fernandez, Louise Higgins, Samantha Liston, David Hua. Photo Phillipa McDermott.

Diversity and inclusion highlights 9

Managing Director speeches Over the reporting period, ABC Managing Director Michelle Guthrie gave 30 speeches highlighting issues about diversity and inclusion.

Highlights include:

Address at the Garma Festival, 5 July 2017Michelle Guthrie spoke about reconciliation, how the ABC has progressed towards it and how it can be improved. She spoke about the ABC’s role and responsibility facilitating the conversation around reconciliation, but more broadly in telling Indigenous stories.

http://about.abc.net.au/speeches/abc-managing-director-michelle-guthrie-address-to-garma/

Keynote speaker, National Ethnic and Multicultural Broadcasters’ Conference, 27 November 2016Michelle Guthrie argued that for the ABC to be strong and remain relevant, it needs to represent the diversity of modern day Australia. She also highlighted the need for the ABC to embrace diversity in content and in operations.

http://about.abc.net.au/speeches/a-diverse-abc-is-a-strong-abc/

Address to the Telstra Business Women’s Award 17 November 2016Michelle Guthrie spoke about the perception and experience of women in the workplace.

http://about.abc.net.au/speeches/address-to-2016-telstra-business-womens-award/

“ Diversity, in all its aspects, is very much a key to relevance. I have driven this issue hard in my first six months at the ABC. Not because as a daughter of Chinese Australian parents I can claim some sort of moral superiority on the issue. But it is because the ABC Board and I fervently believe that the national broadcaster can only truly reflect cultural diversity if it lives it.”

An extract from the New News Conference on 28 October 2016


School Engagement program 2016–2017The ABC worked closely with three schools in NSW with a high ratio of students from Indigenous and culturally diverse backgrounds. The objective was to empower students, offer leadership and mentoring opportunities, and engage the wider school community to raise awareness of the ABC.

The schools were Bankstown Girls High School, Plumpton High School and Matraville Sports High School.

ABC Skills DayThe ABC partnered with the University of Technology, Sydney to create an ABC Skills Day. Students, teachers and principals listened to speakers and worked together on activities about further study and career information. Attendees were from Bankstown Girls High School and Plumpton High School.

Plumpton High School ABC mentors attended Year 11 and Year 12 Positive Psychology classes and shared stories about their own career development. In August 2017, students experienced mock job interviews to help them prepare for real life interviews.

Matraville Sports High SchoolJournalists presented topics related to the English syllabus. They also held social media sessions with Physical Education students, teaching them how to present themselves publicly as professional sporting people.

Bankstown Girls High SchoolJournalism club students learned new techniques and skills for creating video and online content in a digital age.

Plumpton High and Bankstown Girls Skills day with Jason Olm. Photo Jo Elms.

Diversity and inclusion highlights 11

ABC Radio internshipThe Radio team identified diversity as a priority in order to find new talent to create engaging content. A diversity targeted internship for tertiary students studying media related courses was created in NSW and the ACT.

ABC Radio

Diversity target intern program 2017

Intern placements

52%

RADIO

23%

NEWS

25%

REGIONAL

OUTER SUBURBAN AREAS

33%

REGIONAL AREAS

25%

LOW SOCIO-ECONOMIC AREAS

10%

TOTAL INTERNS52 48%

CULTURALLY DIVERSE


The ABC Board is made up of five women (55.6%) and four men (44.4%). In February 2017, two new female directors were appointed to the ABC Board, Dr Vanessa Guthrie from Western Australia and Georgina Somerset from Queensland.

Earlier in the year, Louise Higgins was appointed Chief Financial Officer.

Women in Broadcast Technology scholarshipsIn 2016–17, five women were awarded the ABC Women in Broadcast Technology Scholarship. The winners were given four weeks paid, on-the-job training and a $1,000 educational allowance. Three of the award winners were given further paid work opportunities in 2017 following the training period. This program has been in place for more than 23 years and has helped to increase the number of women in technologist roles from 2.4% in 1993 to 16.5 % in 2017.

Presentation of Women in Broadcast Technology Scholarship to Elizabeth Cowling L-R Patrick Sproule Elizabeth Cowling, Margaret Cassidy.

Representation of gender by occupation August 2017 August 2016

Job Female Female Male Male Total Female Female Male Male Total

Occupational Group No. % No. % No. No. % No. % No.

Senior Executive 162 50.5% 159 49.5% 321 148 45.8% 175 54.2% 323

Administrative/Professional 456 71.0% 186 29.0% 642 483 72.6% 182 27.4% 665

Content Maker 1,430 53.3% 1,252 46.7% 2,682 1,444 52.6% 1,299 47.4% 2,743

Technologist 63 16.5% 318 83.5% 381 57 15.4% 312 84.6% 369

Retail 9 60.0% 6 40.0% 15 10 66.7% 5 33.3% 15

Total 2,120 52.5% 1,921 47.5% 4,041 2,142 52.1% 1,973 47.9% 4,115

Note: Number and percentage based on Total Head Count, Non-Casual Employees, within Job Group. Data as at 31-08-17.

Gender

Gender 13

Name Institution Location

Elizabeth Cowling Australian National University

Australian Capital Territory

Janhvi Raj RMIT Victoria

Nengjia (Kim) Qiu TasTAFE Hobart Tasmania

Gurcharanjit Kaur TAFE NSW, Granville College

New South Wales

Laura Buttle Monash University

Victoria

Development programs

Program Female Male Total%

female

Leadership Principles Development Program 84 95 179 47%

Strategic Media Leadership Series 7 7 14 50%

Foundations of Leadership (3 Programs) 35 27 62 56%

Aluel and Amena Besties. Photo ABC TV.


The ABC has an Indigenous Advisory Group known as the Bonner Committee. It develops, implements and reports on Reconciliation Action Plans and employment is a priority area.

New Indigenous content teamsIn 2016–17, Indigenous content increased significantly across all platforms as two new content teams were created. Stan Grant became Editor, National Indigenous Affairs coverage and Lorena Allam became Manager, Indigenous Radio.

Content teams all have senior editorial managers responsible for overseeing Indigenous programming and these teams continue to deliver a range of high quality programming by, for and about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians.

Indigenous scholarshipsAn Indigenous Staff Conference is held every two years. During this conference the ABC presents career development awards valued at up to $10,000 each under its Indigenous Employee Scholarship Program. This provides opportunities for Indigenous employees to build their skills and experience.

3% of non-technical contracts must come from Indigenous suppliers by 2020, according to Commonwealth targets. This excludes major technical and broadcast contracts.

During this reporting period, the ABC worked with an Indigenous construction management service on a contract involving significant works. As a result, Indigenous procurement spend was 6.4%, more than double the target of 3%.

Indigenous

Indigenous employee scholarship winners. L-R Natalie Williams and Yale Macgallivray. Photo by Tahnee Jash.

Indigenous 15

NAIDOC Week 2017NAIDOC Week was held from 3 to 10 July 2017 and the theme was Our Languages Matter. Activities were conducted nationally and included content, services, community connections and initiatives for employees.

• ABC Ultimo hosted an Indigenous themed Trivia event attended by 120 employees.

• Radio hosted a pop up digital station on ABC Extra dedicated to Indigenous programming.

• Seven Word Up social videos were created across the week.

• Second series of Cleverman was launched.

• The ABC Board held its first Community Forum in Alice Springs to coincide with NAIDOC week.

National Reconciliation Week 2017Reconciliation Week was held from 27 May to 3 June 2017 and the ABC continued to promote the need to build on respectful relationships between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people. The theme was Let’s Take the Next Steps.

The ABC reflected on two significant anniversaries in the nation’s reconciliation journey—50 years since the 1967 referendum and 25 years since the historic Mabo decision. Substantial content was created to support these significant anniversaries.

Distribution of Indigenous employees by job group

Job group

August 2017 August 2016

No. % No. %

Senior Executive 4 1.2% 2 0.6%

Administrative/Professional 28 4.3% 24 3.6%

Content Maker 66 2.5% 70 2.6%

Technologist 8 2.1% 9 2.4%

Total 106 2.6% 105 2.6%

Note: Number and percentage based on Total Head Count, Non-Casual Employees, within Job Group. Data as at 31-08-17.

Tahnee Jash celebrating Reconciliation Week at Reconciliation Australia. Photo Phillipa McDermott.


at 29.2%, which is an increase from 28.4% in 2015–16.

There is a high ratio of NESB

NESB CONTENT MAKERS increased to

compared with 7.8% in 2015–16.

8.3%

Representation of employees of a non-English speaking background

Occupational group


Number of employees with

NESB


EEO data


NESB


EEO data

No. % No. % No. % No. %

Senior Executive 31 11.2 276 86.0 36 12.1 298 92.3

Administrative/Professional 116 21.1 550 85.7 122 19.5 608 89.4

Content Maker 168 8.3 2,029 75.7 169 7.8 2,163 78.9

Technologist 91 29.2 312 81.9 92 28.4 324 87.8

Total 406 12.8 3,167 78.4 419 12.3 3,393 82.5

* Number and percentage based on Total Head Count, Non-Casual Employees, within Job Group, who provided information on the ABC’s EEO Data Collection Form in regard to their non-English speaking background. Employees with EEO data represents Total Head Count, Non-Casual Employees, who completed the language section of the EEO Data Collection Form—both English speaking and non-English speaking backgrounds.

Non-English Speaking Background

technologists

Non-English Speaking Background 17

Recruitment activities for people with disabilitiesRecruitment processes were reviewed and new tools and communication mechanisms implemented to increase the number of people with disabilities applying for roles.

Five Disability Champions or Sponsors within the ABC promote disability awareness with activities for employees to encourage more employment placements.

• The ABC Radio 2016 internship campaign attracted 10% of students with disabilities or with experience as carers for people with disabilities.

• The ABC partnered with disability job placement agencies to employ people with intellectual disabilities at the Ultimo head office and at the ABC in Brisbane.

• A six week placement for a person with a disability at ABC Ultimo head office was provided as part of a transition to work program.

• On a national basis, the ABC provided work experience, employment information and hosted tours for groups of people with disabilities.

Workplace access for employees with disabilitiesThe ABC provided the following for people with disabilities:

• Accessible working environments in buildings and workstations.

• Special software and modified equipment.

• Accessibility features in eLearning programs.

• Created partnerships with disability organisations and became involved with initiatives such as Accessible Arts and filmmakers at Attitude Pictures.

Online accessibilityThe ABC is committed to providing accessible digital experiences for people with vision, hearing, mobility and cognitive limitations. The ABC follows Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), international standards and uses research, internal practices and audience feedback to help make better decisions.

In 2016–17, ABC Accessibility released more than 20 new products and created significant updates to existing products.

Representation of employees with disabilities

Occupational group



disability


EEO data


disability


EEO data

No. % No. % No. % No. %

Senior Executive 13 5.2 248 77.3 17 6.3 271 83.9

Administrative/Professional 46 8.7 528 82.2 50 8.3 578 85.0

Content Maker 114 6.4 1,790 66.7 120 6.4 1,876 68.4

Technologist 26 8.9 291 76.4 26 8.6 301 81.6

Total 199 7.0 2,857 70.7 213 7.0 3,026 73.5

* Number and percentage based on Total Head Count, Non-Casual Employees, within Occupational Group, who provided information on the ABC’s EEO Data Collection Form that indicated they have a disability. Employees with EEO data represents Total Head Count, Non-Casual Employees, who completed the disability section of the EEO Data Collection Form – both those who have a disability and those who do not have a disability.

Disability


ABC METhis website and mobile application contains videos for children. The app seamlessly integrates with screen readers used by children who are blind, and many videos feature closed captions for children with hearing impairments.

RadioEach year radio audiences vote for their favourite music on triple j’s Hottest 100 and Classic 100 websites. In 2016–17, voting and listening options were improved for people with limited vision, hearing and mobility.

Web and televisionImmersive web collections like Right Wrongs and Our Focus: War on Waste complemented television and radio stories. The ABC provided improved keyboard access, captions, text transcripts and audio descriptions.

Other releases and updates with significant refinements in 2016–17 included ABC News, ABC Radio, ABC iview and Kids iview. Work has begun on new initiatives for 2017–18.

Captioning and accessible servicesIn 2016–17, the ABC provided captioning services for people who are deaf or who have hearing impairments. Captioning delivers on screen descriptive text describing speech and scenes, and closed captioning indicates that text is available when people need it.

The ABC provided captions on 99.9% of all programs transmitted on its primary television channel between 6am and midnight.

This is 0.1% below the required target of 100% outlined in the Broadcast Services Amendment (Improved Access to Television Services) Act 2012. The shortfall was due to technical faults.

Captions were available on many programs broadcast on ABC, ABC2, ABCKIDS, ABCME and ABC NEWS.

Over

hours of first run programming across all channels were broadcast with captions over the 2016–17 reporting year.

8,000

Disability 19

Closed captionsProgramming with closed captions on the ABC’s internet catch up service, iview, continued to increase. This includes most of the content originally broadcast on the ABC main channel and ABC2, plus many children’s and educational programs and selected iview exclusives.

Audio descriptionAudio Description is a second audio track that explains visual content to blind and vision impaired audiences.

In October 2016, the ABC submitted its report on a 15 month trial of Audio Description on ABC iview iOS services to the Department of Communications and the Arts.

Consequently, the Federal Government established an Audio Description Working Group to examine options for increasing the availability of audio description services in Australia. The ABC is an active participant of this Working Group.

ABC products

BooksA range of titles published by ABC Books are now available through the Australian publishing operation, Read How You Want. This customised book publishing service offers a print-on-demand service for people unable to read standard formatted books. Titles are available in large format editions. ABC Books made 22 titles available during 2016–17.

ABC AudioAudio books across many genres and all ages are accessible to the vision impaired and people with a print handicap. In 2016–17, ABC Audio released, through the licence agreement with audio book publisher Bolinda, 90 titles in physical and digital formats.

of these titles were from ABC ORIGINATED content

19were ADULT TITLES, and 20 were

CHILDREN’S TITLES

70


Indigenous Radio – Reconciliation WeekThe ABC partnered with the National and State libraries to create Right Wrongs, a major online collaboration commemorating 50 years since the 1967 Referendum.

Right WrongsOverall, social media reached 2.2 million.

• 57,700 visits, 123,000 page views, 1280 visits per day, average seven minutes on the site.

16 short form videos were published on the News and ABC main Facebook pages and cross posted to various Regional, Capital City Radio, TV and Indigenous pages with 470,000 views.

Don’t Fence Me InTo commemorate 25 years since the Mabo case, Eddie Mabo’s daughter Gail provided an exclusive insight into Mabo family life before, during and after the historic decision.

NAIDOC• Seven social videos produced for Word Up

had 901,000 views.

• Launched Word Up as a podcast.

• ABC App had 865,000 views.

• Social video on Aboriginal English had 390,344 views and 28,169 likes and shares.

2.2 million

Word Up Overall SOCIAL MEDIA reached for Right Wrongs

Launched

as a podcast

Content highlights

Content highlights 21

ABC Television’s Indigenous team develops and produces screen content with Indigenous characters and stories, created by Australian Indigenous screen practitioners. These programs include:

• The Warriors

• Kiki and Kitty

• Aussie Rangers

• Rowdie’s Chemical Romance

• Cleverman 2

• Black As Black Comedy

• ABC Splash

ABC Splash partnered with First Languages Australia to run the Indigenous Languages Competition. Students were invited with their local Indigenous language group to translate and record their performance of the song, Marrin Gamu.

TV Fiction• Pulse is set in the transplant unit of the

fictional City West Hospital in Sydney’s western suburbs. Most of the lead cast are from diverse backgrounds with actors of Indian, African, Chinese, Greek, Samoan, Lebanese, Syrian, and Zimbabwean heritage.

• Ronny Chieng: International Student. A comedian’s experience as an international student at university in Australia with a diverse cast and emerging actors.

• Lost in Pronunciation (6 x 5’ series for iview and TV). Created by and starring Ivan Aristeguieta (Venezuelan comic) about the immigrant experience.

Children• Let’s Go explored 5 locations across regional

Australia, with children from different cultural backgrounds and abilities showing us where to ‘Walk’, what to ‘Eat’, where to make a ‘Splash’, who to ‘Meet’ and where to ‘Jump’ in their hometowns.

Pulse, Lost in Pronunciation, Ronny Cheing, The Warriors, Kiki and Kitty, Goober, all photos by ABC TV


• Besties is a short-form series that explores friendship, diversity and acceptance with real life best friends from mixed cultural backgrounds, genders and physical and mental abilities.

• News to Me, ABC ME’s weekly good news and entertainment program followed junior roving reporters celebrating their own culture and heritage at the Diwali and Lunar New Year celebrations.

• My Year 12 Life followed 14 Australian year twelve students as they self documented their final year of high school. The students were from broad socio economic groups and cultural backgrounds.

• Kick is a mini documentary series that follows girls at a Melbourne under 11 soccer team who dream of playing professional football.

• Little J and Big Cuz was commissioned by NITV and screened on ABC ME for NAIDOC Week in 2017. This series is the first animated kids show to feature Indigenous Australians and their culture.

Gender• Growing Up Gracefully. Hannah and Eliza

Reilly have a solution to the gender pay gap, imploring women to leave work early.

• Advice To Your Younger Self Heroes. The Story of Women’s AFL on International Women’s Day.

Disability• You Can’t Ask That. Marginalised people

answer questions you’d never ask in person.

– Down Syndrome 42 million views.

• Invictus Games. The ABC is the exclusive broadcaster for the Invictus Games to be held in Sydney in 2018.

Race and religious equality• You Can’t Ask That. Refugees

• Compass.

– Speed Date A Muslim

– Turban Legends

– The Troublesome Priest

– Out Of Egypt

– The Copts

42 million

DOWN SYNDROME views:

Most viewed post in ABC’s history.

Content highlights 23

LGBTQI equality• You Can’t Ask That. Children of Same

Sex Couples

• Compass. Power To The People Series (Mardi Gras)

Indigenous equality• Right Wrongs social campaign for NAIDOC

• Compass. Power To The People series with guest host Stan Grant.

Australia Plus China• Six-episode food series – The Story of the

Signature Dishes (in English and Chinese). This show features migrants from Korea, Turkey, France, Italy, Singapore and Indonesia who are contributing to Melbourne’s multi-cultural food culture.

• Produced listicles featuring Chinese-Australian women in different life stages. Mothers with different stories and scientists making breakthroughs to celebrate International Women’s Day, Mother’s Day and National Science Week.

Australia Plus Indonesia• Story on the growing trend in the Indonesian

community about selling food through social media.

• Michael J, a singer from Papua in Indonesia, toured five states to teach Indonesian languages through music for high school students.

• For the Eid Mubarak, two stories were created about the traditions around animal slaughter in Australia and what has changed from traditions in the Moslem world.

• For Ramadan, people were profiled from Moslem minority countries such as an imam who moved to Melbourne from Europe several years ago and a new convert.

The annual ABC Corporate Tracking Study indicates that 91% of non-Australian-born respondents believe the ABC performs a valuable role for the Australian community, and 62% of non-Australian-born respondents believe the ABC does a ‘good or very good’ job of broadcasting programs which reflect the cultural diversity of the Australian community.2

Non-Australian-born respondents believe the ABC performs a VALUABLE ROLE for the Australian community

Non-Australian-born respondents believe the ABC does a ‘GOOD OR VERY GOOD’ job of broadcasting programs which reflect the cultural diversity of the Australian community

91%

62%


ABC Equity and Diversity Annual Report 2016–17Equal Employment Opportunity Report to the Minister for Communications and the Arts

Published by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation 2017 ISSN 1839-3292 (Print) ISSN 1839-9452 (Online)

For information about this report, please contact: Lead Indigenous Employment and Diversity Australian Broadcasting Corporation GPO Box 9994 Sydney NSW 2001

Footnotes1 EEO data till end August 2017 – excluding casual employees.2 ABC Corporate Tracking Study, August 2016.

GPO Box 9994

in your state/territory capital

Phone 13 9994

Fax 02 8333 5344

TTY 1800 627 854

abc.net.au

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