Australia’s taxpayer-funded national broadcaster the ABC has posted an advertisement for a media role which excludes the vast majority of the population.
The Senior Cultural Advisor, Content, position is permanent and full-time, and based in the ABC’s offices in Ultimo, Sydney, or Southbank, Melbourne, and was first advertised on February 15.
The role pays up to $129,000 per year plus 15.4% superannuation, but only Indigenous applicants – just 3.8% of the population – are eligible to apply.
“The ABC’s Content Division is looking for a media professional to provide advice, support and guidance on Indigenous issues, protocols and opportunities,” the advertisement reads.
“You have experience leading cultural initiatives policy or plans and bring high-level leadership and influencing skills.”
The ad also states that the ABC provides “various opportunities for Indigenous staff, including attending the national Indigenous staff conference, activities during NAIDOC week, regular networking events and mentoring support”.
Anglo-Celtic advocacy group the British Australian Community told Noticer News the ad showed that the ABC was “out of touch with the Australian mainstream”.
“The ABC is in greater need of Anglo-Celtic cultural advisers. Indigenous Australians have their own free-to-air television channels. They are also represented on the ABC and SBS. That cannot be said for Anglo-Celtic Australians,” a spokesman said.
“The British Australian Community calls for Anglo-Celtic perspectives to be fairly represented on the national broadcaster.”
According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population was 983,700 at the time of the 2021 Census, an increase of more than 25%.
Of the 163,557 people added to the Indigenous population between 2016 and 2021, only 43.5% were accounted for by births and migration.
The remaining 56.5% of the increase was “non-demographic”, explained by changes in identification, and changes in Census coverage and response.
The ABC’s exclusionary ad comes just weeks after the Australia Space Agency started hiring for a similar role – a Senior First Nations Engagement Policy Officer to “work at the inter-section (sic) of First Nations science and space science” on the First Nations Engagement Team.
