Australia’s Labor government has quietly brought in “cultural diversity” quotas for senior leadership roles in the public service which will disadvantage people of Anglo-Celtic background.
Minister for the Public Service Katy Gallagher announced the plan on Tuesday, which aims to increase “Culturally and Linguistically Diverse” (CALD) representation for senior executives from the current 11% to 24%. CALD employees are defined as those whose first language is not English.
“We want to harness the skills and experience of CALD employees and remove the barriers they face for career progression,” she said.
“Australia is a multicultural nation, and the Australian Public Service needs to reflect and look like the people it serves.”
Immigration Minister Andrew Giles, who is under pressure to resign for releasing more than 150 convicted criminal illegal immigrants into the community, said: “Our multicultural diversity is our nation’s greatest strength. Our public service is at its best when it reflects the diversity of our society at all levels.
“Through this strategy, the Albanese Labor Government is ensuring that the APS is a workplace for all Australians, no matter your faith or cultural background.”
One Nation federal campaign manager and former Liberal Party MP Craig Kelly responded by asking: “Isn’t this racist?”
“Surely selection should be based on merit? But Labor’s policies will now see people selected on race. Labor are racists.”
Harry Richardson, author and President of Anglo-Celtic advocacy group the British Australian Community, told Noticer News the plan was disgraceful.
“As everyone knows, increasing diversity is simply a Leftist/Minority dog whistle meaning fewer White, European, heterosexual men,” he said.
“This disgusting anti-White racism must never be tolerated from anyone, especially from elected leaders like Katy Gallagher who should be voted out of office at the next election.
“No other type of racism would be tolerated from a public figure. So why should Ms Gallagher be allowed to perpetrate blatant Anglophobic policies which ensure whites are excluded from positions on the basis of skin colour and replace them with less competent people simply because of their ethnicity?”
“Racial quotas in Australian Public Service,” wrote a shocked Australian on X.
“Look at what they’re doing to our beautiful nation.”
But Australian Greens Deputy Leader Mehreen Faruqi, who claimed in court earlier this week that White people can’t be the victims of racism, called the racial quotas “a win for people of colour in the APS” and called for complusory “anti-racism training” for employees.
“I have long criticised the failure of the Australian Public Service Commission and pushed for diversity and inclusion strategies to prioritise the representation of people of colour. It’s good to see that Minister Gallagher has acted on these concerns,” she said.
“There is still more work for the APS to do, including providing mandatory anti-racism training which challenges White privilege and deals with ingrained prejudices. They should also ditch Harmony Day which whitewashes racism.”
According to the Australian Public Service Commission, CALD staff are 25% of the APS as a whole, 20% of the “policy job family”, 17% of the “communications and marketing job family” and 11% of senior executives.
Its Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Employment Strategy and Action Plan states: “While we have a culturally and linguistically diverse workforce, we need to remove the challenges and barriers to progression so we can harness and reflect the diversity of views in our work.”
The APS claims the barriers and challenges include “discrimination and racism”, “a preference for traditional norms and working styles that do not foster cognitive diversity or reflect our multicultural society” and “a lack of cultural literacy that blocks empathy and understanding and inhibits CALD employees contributing their knowledge and perspectives”.
According to the plan, the appropriateness of the term CALD is “contested” and there is “not currently widespread agreement on a single definition”, but notes that some prefer to use “racially marginalised” instead.
The plan states that order to improve identification of CALD employees, the APS decided to use first language spoken, which it compares against census data to determine representation.
Addressing the question of whether “non-CALD” people will end up worse off, the plan states: “We all have a culture but for some of us, our culture is the central norm. Those within that norm may not even recognise the centrality of their experience relative to that of other people.
“Nonetheless, having a singular central norm means people from other cultures always have to adapt rather than having a selfaware conversation about legitimate differences in style, behaviour and manner. This Plan strives for self-awareness, visibility and understanding in the workplace.”
