The federal government will overhaul its STEM diversity programs and develop a new strategy to drive greater inclusion of under-represented groups, in line with the recommendations from last year’s diversity in STEM review.
Industry minister Ed Husic made the surprise announcement at the Southstart conference in Adelaide on Wednesday, pledging to accept all 11 of the year-old recommendations and “make them a reality”.
“We frankly do not have time to stuff around with inane barriers that have stopped people, particularly women and people from under-represented groups, from playing a part in building a better nation…” Mr Husic told attendees.
Led by Cicada Innovations chief executive Sally-Ann Williams, the Pathway to Diversity in STEM Review was initiated by the government in September 2022 to look a the effectiveness and impact of its inflight STEM diversity programs.
After a year-long consultation, the panel – which also consisted of Indigital founder and CEO Mikaela Jade and University of Western Australia Professor Parwinder Kaur – found successive programs had failed to address the structural diversity barriers.
“People from diverse cohorts face additional and often intersecting barriers… As a result, they cannot pursue their aspirations and interests in STEM in the same way as peers who do not face these challenges,” the February 2024 report concluded.
The outside review called for a new approach centred around a new whole-of-government strategy and a dedicated advisory council, as well as a new suite of diversity in STEM programs that address barriers for underrepresented groups.
Tougher diversity and workplace safety conditions were also backed, with the panel calling on organisations with STEM workers to stamp out bullying and harassment, and commit to improving diversity indicators.
Mr Husic on Wednesday said that as Australia looks to add 200,000 tech-related jobs by 2030, telling “certain groups of people ‘we’re not interested’, particularly women, and particularly for under-represented groups” was madness.
“Why would we have that? We have so much going on, and we have a barrier that says that we’re not going to improve women, or female participation, either as a founder or as an employee,” he said.
Mr Husic thanked Ms Williams, as well as Ms Jade and Professor Kaur, for their work on the review, before committing the government to accept the recommendations, which he said would be seen as “landmark in the years ahead”.
“Sally, I don’t want to just thank you for the work that you, Mikaela Jade and Parwinder Kaur did, but I also want to say that the government is going to accept all the recommendations of that report and make them a reality,” he said.
Ms Williams, who spoke later on Wednesday, said that one of key “parallels” to the review is the workplace, using data published by the Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA) this week to highlight the ongoing inequality.
“Everyone wants keep fueling the pipeline. More in at the top of the funnel, more in at the top of the funnel, and we just keep stuffing that top of the funnel, and we’re not seeing the throughput because we’re not investing further down,” she said.
“… The pipeline is being primed. The numbers are coming through. Is it where it needs to be? No, more can always be done. But what we’re not fixing is our workplaces, and that includes our very small businesses and our very large businesses.”
Ms Williams said the WGEA data, which shows that the tech industry is closing its gender gap faster than the national rate, was particularly revealing in that it also shows which companies are
“You can drill down to all of those companies out there that say they care about diversity and inclusion, and you can look at whether they’ve actually done a gender pay gap analysis or not… You can look at the composition of their board…
“Most importantly, what you can look at is their board aware and does their board actually govern what happens in their workplace practices. So, are things like sexual harassments and misconduct elevated and overseen by the board.
“A great majority of those companies have a big fat no tick next to their names on there, so the board doesn’t have that accountability and that governance and oversight in the way that they should.”
Justin Hendry attended the Southstart conference in Adelaide as a guest of the organiser.
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