AUSTRALIAN television and radio we have a problem — and it’s a big white one.

That is the view of a leading expert in multicultural affairs in the wake of the news that the national broadcaster, the ABC, is looking for a “healthy mix of ethnicities and accents” in its shows and coverage.

University of Technology, Sydney, sociology professor Andrew Jakubowicz said the only time we saw diversity on Australian airwaves or radio was when it took place on reality television shows.

With the exception of multicultural broadcaster SBS, the ABC and commercial networks had few voices of difference and failed to represent and reflect what Australia was about, he said.

According to Prof Jakubowicz, new ABC boss Michelle Guthrie calling for more diversity on air is a positive step forward, however he was unsure whether it would actually happen.

Prof Jakubowicz said the lack of diversity wasn’t restricted to the ABC, which at least heavily promoted indigenous programs and voices.

He said it was even worse on the commercial stations, which were full of “blondes” and devoid of any other colour.

While stopping short of advocating tokenism or quotas, Prof Jakubowicz said all broadcasters needed to start looking at ways to increase and retain the diversity of its workforce and targeting talent.

He told news.com.au the government shouldn’t just think because it funded the SBS it was fulfilling its role in promoting diversity.

“SBS has a specific charter (in terms of diversity) but so does the ABC, which it is failing,” he said.

“Australian Story is a classic example, aside from indigenous voices, it is full of white people.

“As for the commercial channels, they get it right when it comes to reality TV, but resort to the fantasy elite for fictional TV.”

Prof Jakubowicz said The X-Factor winner Dami Im and the My Kitchen Rules winners for 2016, Indonesian Australian sisters Tasia and Gracia, were proof of how mixed our society was.

Yet we only ever saw them on reality television screens.

“The only time we see this richness of diversity is on shows like MasterChef or The Voice,” he said.

Tasia and Gracia crowned My Kitchen Rules champions After a five course cook-off against Carmine and Lauren, Tasia and Gracia's authentic dishes earned them the title of My Kitchen Rules champions. Courtesy: My Kitchen Rules/Channel Seven

His comments come as Ms Guthrie told staff the ABC on her first day on the job that the ABC must “extend our reach and our relevance into areas where we are under-repres­ented”, meaning “more diversity in both our staff and our content”, The Australian reported.

“Australia is changing and we need to change with it. Shaped by my background and work experience, I passionately believe that the ABC should be relevant to all citizens.”

Prof Jakubowicz former ABC boss Mark Scott had done little to advance diversity and he believed Ms Guthrie, while well intentioned, would be able to do little to change the status quo.

“I’ve been talking to the ABC about this issue for the past 20 years,” he said.

“It’s about time the ABC started looking like a national broadcaster. It simply doesn’t represent the society if broadcasts to.”

It also follows the news last month that The Project host Waleed Aly, who is of Egyptian heritage, and Indonesian-born SBS news presenter Lee Lin Chin were nominated for the coveted Gold Logie.

Last year’s winner Carrie Bickmore received another nod, as did other (deeply white) stars Scott Cam, Essie Davis and Grant Denyer.

However the Logies awards were harshly criticised for being too blokey with just one woman being inducted into its hall of fame in its 32 year history.



Today Extra host David Campbell told news.com.au in an earlier interview he couldn’t believe Ruth Cracknell was the only woman to have received the gong.

“Television was a white male boy’s club and that’s the way it was,” he said of the TV industry.