American exports like McDonald’s, Hollywood movies and sitcoms have come to symbolise a cultural invasion of Australia.
While Big Macs, Brad Pitt and canned laughter are often harmless in moderation, not all mass-produced fashions imported from the U.S. are worth keeping.
‘Diversity, equity and inclusion’ policies in workplaces, for example, have proven to be divisive both here and in America, where they originated from.
This woke silliness is already being quietly dropped in the States, with big companies tacitly admitting it was a failed experiment. But some Australian workplaces have missed the memo, with staff still being subjected to mind-numbing cultural awareness sessions on ‘unconscious bias’ and ‘microaggressions’.
Major corporations need to cease with those vacuous, Orwellian declarations about ‘inclusion’ and concentrate on customer service instead of exploiting staff with minority characteristics for marketing purposes.
Instead of focusing on merit, the DEI agenda is really about having an unhealthy fetish for certain fashionable minority groups without really addressing genuine cases of bigotry like age discrimination.
The idea that members of a minority group – whether that be based on race or sexuality – need a so-called ‘ally’ is also downright patronising.
It’s simply demeaning to suggest individuals, because of their demographic status, are somehow too weak for speak for themselves and therefore need to be treated like children who need to be singled out.
Not all mass produced fashions adopted from the United States, that saturate many aspects of Australian life, are worth keeping including ‘diversity, equity and inclusion’ (pictured are revellers at Sydney’s 2023 Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras)
DEI also divides members of minority groups up between those who want to use their minority status to get promoted at work and be visible, and those who are more concerned about their privacy and believe such characteristics to be irrelevant.
The idea of highlighting immutable characteristics like race, ethnicity and sexuality is anathema to the concept of merit where the best man or woman is hired or promoted.
It would be considered to be politically far right for white, heterosexual employees in an Australian workplace to establish a specialist network, and that would surely alienate colleagues who don’t fit those descriptions. Hardly inclusive.
Yet, apparently in the interests of ‘equality’, staff are forming groups based on race and sexuality.
Emphasising the fact someone is gay or from an ethnic minority also creates the impression among other colleagues they are only been promoted for public relations reasons or to help a chief executive have something to add to their résumé.
And it also discriminates against minority employees who simply don’t want to talk about their personal characteristics, and just get on with their job.
It’s also illegal to ask someone in a job interview about their race or sexuality yet Australia’s biggest corporations are actively promoting DEI policies because it’s trendy.
The Commonwealth Bank, Australia’s biggest home lender, declared it has a ‘commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion’.
The Commonwealth Bank, Australia’s biggest home lender, declared it has a ‘commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion’ (pictured is a Brisbane bank branch)
The public is cynical about the banks so in a bid to have a feelgood agenda, CBA has an ‘LGBTIQ+ and ally network’ known as Unity that is apparently designed to ‘advocate a culture of inclusion and respect regardless of sex, sexuality, gender and expression’.
Airline Virgin has Pride Flights for marketing purposes while rival Qantas has an Illuminate staff network ‘to facilitate communication between our LGBTQI+ employees and their allies’.
Mining giant BHP has a Jasper program to ‘drive a safe, inclusive and supportive work environment for everyone by providing advice on ways to reduce bias and make sure LGBT+ people are respected and valued irrespective or their sexual or gender identity’.
Surely, who someone gets intimate with in the bedroom is a private matter that doesn’t need to be mentioned in a workplace.
CommBank, which supported the failed Voice referendum in 2023, also has a Yana Budjari network that ‘supports First Nations people’.
‘This network empowers our people to connect meaningfully with Indigenous peoples, programs and communities,’ it says.
‘It’s also a safe space for our First Nations people to come together, support each other, discuss community affairs and develop their understanding of the people power across the company.’
CBA also has a ‘Mosaic’ group described as ‘our cultural inclusion employee-led network’.
‘Diversity, equity and inclusion’ policies in workplaces, for example, have proven to be divisive both here and in America, where they originated from (pictured are Aboriginal and Palestinian flags at Sydney’s Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras)
Colleagues with things in common can always connect outside of work hours without this being an officially sanctioned workplace policy, based on nothing more than sexual orientation or ethnicity.
But the DEI groups at big corporations have demonstrated the failure of identity politics where some minority groups are considered more worthy than others.
The Commonwealth Bank’s ‘connecting through inclusion’ website says little about older workers despite having an Advantage network to cater for staff ‘no matter what age or life stage our people are going through’.
But it has no pictures on its website to illustrate older staff and make them feel ‘included’ and visible, even though an Australian Human Rights Commission survey found 58 per cent of older workers searching for work experienced age discrimination.
More than a quarter of respondents over 50 in this survey reported experiencing age discrimination, and gay and ethnic minority employees would be affected too as they aged.
The human resources industry is focused on other matters, apparently.
The Australian HR Institute last year held a DEI ‘belonging, inclusiveness, impact’ seminar where 10 out of 14 speakers listed their gender pronouns on their biography to show their support for transgender ideology.
The United States, the birthplace of the DEI movement, is having second thoughts about the DEI agenda.
Motorcycle manufacturer Harley-Davidson in August last year announced it no longer had minority-owned supplier goals and would cease with social training for staff.
Retailer Walmart, beer maker Molson Coors, car giant Ford, tractor manufacturer John Deere, home improvement chain Lowe’s and whiskey distiller Brown-Forman are also scaling back their involvements in diversity programs.
It’s time for DEI, nothing more than a cynical public relations exercise, to be ditched for good.
Employers can ensure staff aren’t discriminated against, on the basis of birth characteristics, without having to seek public validation via DEI policies.
Australia has more serious labour market issues to deal with like a productivity crisis, so big corporations should be focusing on that and getting more value for shareholders instead of succumbing to the latest activist trend.
Diversity, equity and inclusion needs to be scrapped for good so a true meritocracy can flourish with characteristics like race, ethnicity and sexuality are irrelevant and the best man or woman gets ahead in their chosen career.
Let’s get toxic and divisive politics out of the workplace.
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