On the face of it, the underrepresentation of cultural diversity within Australian leadership looks like it is beginning to shift.
The recent New South Wales state election and change of government elevated Indian-Australian MP Daniel Mookhey to treasurer, the first MP in Australia’s history to take oath on the Bhagavad Gita.
Pru Car, also of Indian origin, became deputy premier of NSW and Charishma Kaliyanda became the first Indian-born Australian to be elected to NSW parliament.
Whilst this new NSW cabinet, along with our first Asian Australian foreign minister, senator Penny Wong, may reflect the image of a more modern Australia, the representation is yet to be mirrored in boardrooms, university chancelleries and various other corridors of power.
In the 2021 Australian Census approximately 17% identified as having Asian ancestry. And 783,958 people declared Indian ancestry, representing 3.1% of the Australian population, a statistic not reflected in the leadership of the top Australian companies. The 2021 Board Diversity Index found that it would take 18 years for ASX 300 boardrooms to reflect Australian cultural diversity. The danger for Australia is that without senior leadership opportunities, diaspora talent will become disengaged and look to move to countries elsewhere.
The Indian diaspora in the United States makes up a significantly lower percentage of the population compared to that of Australia, yet Indians in the US have risen to influential leadership positions and have added significant value to the US economic and cultural fabric.
The past 20 years have seen the US House of Representatives grow from having one Indian-American member to five Indian-Americans. Ten years ago, fewer than 10 Indian-Americans served in state legislatures. Today it’s nearly 50. Nikki Haley’s campaign announcement makes 2024 the third consecutive cycle in which an Indian-American has stood for president, complementing Kamala Harris, the first Indian-American elected to the senate and to become vice president.
Former DFAT secretary Peter Varghese’s authored India Economic Strategy says the Australian-Indian diaspora is a national economic asset. The 2022 DFAT Diaspora Mapping Report highlights the Indian diaspora as Australia’s fastest growing, with Indian-born residents in Australia quadrupling between 2006 and 2020. It finds that Indian-Australians are ‘active’ across business, politics, the judiciary, government, civil society, academia, science, the arts and sport.
The Indian diaspora is the second-largest tax-paying diaspora after UK residents. Australia’s Indian-born population is on average younger, has higher educational attainment and earns a greater income than the general population.
However, when it comes to positions of leadership in business and politics, Australians of Indian origin have been underrepresented. Australia lags behind the US, Canada and the UK, which have made significant headway with their respective Indian diaspora in leadership positions. That’s what makes the recent NSW state election so significant, with the election of four Indian-Australians to state parliament and two into cabinet. But is this a one-off or a change of things to come?
On top of that, representation in Australia of federal department secretaries, university vice-chancellors and top business leaders of non-European backgrounds is dismally low. But you cannot address a problem unless you can measure it. That is why collecting comprehensive data on cultural diversity leadership is paramount to assessing just how far Australia is falling behind in our image as an inclusive modern multicultural country.
Such research should build on the Australian Human Rights Commission’s 2018 Leading for Change report and look at how much or little improvement has been made on its findings, including the dismal figure that 97% of chief executives are of Anglo-Celtic or European background.
At the policy level, governments cannot address these issues in isolation. The private and public support for leading organisations active in the cultural diversity space like the ANU Centre for Asian Australian Leadership, the University of Melbourne’s Asialink and the Australia India Institute are pivotal to addressing the cause. They are at the coalface of addressing the long-debated roadblocks to representation including unconscious bias in employment opportunities and other racial prejudices.
But advocating for cultural diversity should not just be left up to those that already represent it. High-profile Australians in leadership positions speaking on cultural diversity help signal a commitment to multiculturalism and set an example from the top down.
Australia is a country rich in multicultural talents, with some of the best and brightest hailing from the subcontinent and the broader Indo-Pacific region. Representation of Indian-Australians at the NSW election shows great promise. But overall, at the business, political, government and university levels we can and must do better.
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