Australia’s media leadership convene Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Roundtable – Media Diversity Australia (MDA) on Friday, July 14, held its inaugural industry roundtable in Sydney, bringing together Australia’s media leadership and Federal Communications Minister, The Hon Michelle Rowland, to commit to a path to industry-wide improvement around diversity, equity and inclusion.
The meeting, which was held at SBS, brought together the CEOs, Managing Directors and other senior representatives from MDA member organisations AAP, the ABC, Private Media Group, News Corp Australia, Nine, SBS, Seven, Ten, The Daily Aus, The Conversation Group and The Guardian, alongside the Minister for Communications Michelle Rowland.
Notable attendees included Nine’s CEO, Mike Sneesby, Ten’s Executive Vice President, Chief Content Officer & Head of Paramount, Beverley McGarvey, Seven’s Chief People and Culture Officer, Lucinda Gemmell, ABC’s Chief Content Officer, Chris Oliver-Taylor, SBS’s News Director Mandi Wicks, NITV Director of Indigenous Content, Tanya Denning-Orman, Editor of The Guardian Australia, Lenore Taylor, CEO of The Conversation Media Group, Lisa Watts, Co-Founder of The Daily Aus, Zara Seidler, and News Corp Australia’s Group Executive, Corporate Affairs, Campbell Reid.
The roundtable provided a platform for an honest and robust discussion around barriers to equity and inclusion and opportunities for industry collaboration.
The group also started initial discussions concerns around the talent pipeline and debated the merits of uniform measurement and tracking progress across all parts of the industry to ensure greater accountability.
The event included Minister Rowland’s address, reiterating her support for MDA’s mission.
Mariam Veiszadeh, CEO of Media Diversity Australia, commented on the importance of the roundtable providing a launchpad for shifting the dial on industry-wide change.
“For the first time, we brought together members for an authentic and frank conversation about what needs to be done to make real inroads in diversity, inclusion and equity. As individual media organisations, each member has the power to have a meaningful impact, but as a collective, this group’s ability to move the dial cannot be underestimated.
“The pace of industry-wide change is slow and inconsistent. This roundtable was a call to action to the industry – together, we have started the journey towards agreeing on collective commitments.”
Isabel Lo, Chair and Founder of Media Diversity Australia, reflected on the roundtable’s significance.
“MDA is proud to have facilitated a conversation with industry heads about what we can be doing as a collective to improve representation in mainstream media that truly reflects Australia, one that supports and empowers journalists from all walks of life so they can report on vital issues in the public interest.”
Key outcomes:
- The event was the first time this group of Australia’s most influential media industry representatives have come together to consider actions to progress diversity, inclusion, and equity as a sector.
- The first roundtable focused on establishing a firm commitment around the importance of having a media that is truly representative of our community, setting out the challenge at hand and sharing information on approaches media organisations are using to boost diversity, equity and inclusion.
- There was broad agreement that sustained effort was needed to boost the diverse talent pool across the media and there was an appetite to collaborate with MDA to achieve this.
- Attendees were united in collective commitment to ensure a diverse media industry and welcomed support and guidance to accelerate these efforts.
- A working group will be established to continue discussions and to prepare an agenda for upcoming roundtable meetings. MDA member Nine will host the next roundtable in early 2024.
- MDA member Nine will host the next roundtable in early 2024. The group will meet twice yearly to ensure ongoing discussions take place and that communication channels remain open across the sector.
Media Release – Media Diversity Australia
Link to Media Diversity Australia HERE
TV Central News HERE
