Senate Environment and Communications Legislation Committee, , 8:18:09 to 8:22:39
Senators question the necessity and cost of SBS's partnership with ACON, focusing on workforce diversity strategies and potential impacts on editorial independence.
Topics: Workplace culture, Human rights
Speakers: Ms Jane Palfreyman, Senator The Hon Sarah Henderson, Unknown Speaker
Right. Well I would welcome further information in relation to that. Um thank you. Look, I just want to briefly and I'll put further questions on notice. You would be aware that at the ABC discontinued its partnership with ACON. You have a partnership on foot. Uh can I ask why that partnership was entered into by the SBS given given the ABC made the decision quite properly to discontinue that partnership because of the impact it had on its independence and its editorial independence?
Um Senator, our partnership with ACON is in service of driving an inclusive workforce. It's led through the People and Culture Division and has no bearing or involvement with the editorial division. We have uh an inclusion, diversity and equity strategy seeking to create an inclusive workforce, and that partnership helps us with benchmarks around driving inclusivity.
And uh so does does ACOM provide any training to SBS staff or any guidance?
I don't have that in front of me. I'm happy to provide that to you. Um but do you know whether they do any training or I as I said, Senator, I don't have that detail as in training our staff or training more.
Yeah, or giving guidance to staff?
Uh I think we seek their expertise in creating inclusivity in the workforce. We have a number of employee action groups, whether it's a disability action group, um uh gender equity action group uh looking to remove barriers and ensure we're as inclusive as we can be. We're really proud of the diversity in our workforce across all sort of uh diversity metrics and they assist in our efforts to deliver that.
So in relation to what what is the nature of your partnership with what is the because there are different levels of partnership. There are different levels.
I'd have to take that on notice, and I'm happy to come back to you, Senator.
Does anyone else know at the table? And what's the cost of that partnership per year?
Again, happy to take that on notice, Senator. It is not significant, and as I said, it helps in our commitment to having a workforce that reflects the diversity that exists in Australia. But again, I can provide that to you.
Why isn't SBS capable of managing those matters themselves, yourselves?
Senator, we often look to partners to understand best practice. We often seek to look around the world and hold ourselves to account. Being diverse in our workforce is something we actively work on. We know it drives better business decisions. We know it allows us to think about the lived experience of the audiences we serve, and this is one of those partnerships.
And I'm not the point that I'm making is why is it necessary to enter into third-party partnerships with organisations that have a particular agenda rather than manage these matters yourselves internally?
I think it allows us to get access to information and data and benchmarking that we otherwise don't have outside of our organisation and inform our view.
If you could provide on notice the correspondence between yourselves and ACON since the 1st of January 2025. I mean, like what happened with the ABC. Has there any been ever been any suggestion about the ABC's SBS's editorial programme, what should or should not be included as best practice in programming?
No, Senator, I can assure you has no bearing on editorial. It is it is about, as I said, it's owned by the People and Culture Division, quite separate to our content divisions, designed to give us data and inform our approach around you know our workplace experience.
Okay, thank you. Thank you. Thanks very much, Ms. Pofferman. I will leave my questions at that, put the rest on notice. Thank you, Chair.