APS Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Employment Strategy and Action Plan

First Nations Acknowledgement

The Australian Public Service Commission (APSC) acknowledges the Traditional Owners and Custodians of Country throughout Australia and acknowledges their continuing connection to land, waters and community. We pay our respects to Elders past and present.

Employment issues faced by First Nations people are a critical priority for the APS and are being taken forward through a separate comprehensive work agenda. Hence, they are not the primary focus of this strategy, although we note that there are significant cross-overs with regard to aspects of racism, discrimination and cultural understanding. Further information on the whole of APS First Nations employment work is available by contacting FirstNationsUnit@apsc.gov.au [1].

Background

The Australian Government has asked the Australian Public Service Commission (APSC) to develop a Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Employment Strategy for the Australian Public Service.

We have undertaken consultation and analytic work, and have had significant engagement across the APS and with external experts.

Our employment data shows, in terms of the number of CALD employees across the APS, we have representation that is similar to the broader Australian population. However, this representation drops sharply at the senior executive levels and the progression data reflects this.

The data also shows that CALD employees are most represented in technical or specialist job families. Specifically that CALD employees account for:

• 39% of ICT and digital solutions staff
• 34% of compliance and regulation staff and
• 33% of accounting and finance staff

In comparison 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
• only 11% of senior executives [2].

To understand why this drop occurs, we adopted an empirical and human rights centred approach, focussing on the experience of CALD Australians in the APS. During 2023 we undertook extensive consultation to form a multi-dimensional data picture that comes from a variety of sources. This work was summarised in a public consultation paper issued in November 2023 and is briefly outlined below [3].

CALD Australians have a high degree of engagement with the APS, and want to make a contribution by serving the Government, the Parliament and the Australian people. They bring a wealth of knowledge and experience to their work, in the APS, and through the diversity of their background and understanding can make the work of the APS better.

However, this knowledge and experience is currently under-utilised. Analysis shows that there remain significant limitations on career advancement for CALD people, and challenges that stop CALD employees making a full contribution.

We heard many stories, all unique but with many similarities, that helped us identify the areas we need to focus on to remove these challenges. These areas are:

• recruitment and progression processes
• senior representation
• cultural literacy
• cultural safety.

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
• a lack of cultural literacy that blocks empathy and understanding and inhibits CALD employees contributing their knowledge and perspectives.

The consultation paper noted that representation of CALD Australians in the APS as a whole is broadly proportionate to the broader Australian population but decreases significantly at the middle and senior leadership ranks. In essence, 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.

Purpose of this strategy

This strategy takes the next steps from the work presented in the consultation paper. It sets out what we heard during the consultation process, as well as further work on some key issues conducted in parallel. It then sets out the proposed response from the APS, with a particular emphasis on 5 headline actions to drive and sustain the changes needed to address the issues identified. It also outlines a high-level implementation plan (the Plan), and the accountability framework for tracking and reporting on the actions.

The Plan is for all APS agencies. The APSC will monitor and measure progress for 16 departments of state, the 3 large agencies and the APSC as per Figure 1.