Cultural diversity

I want to congratulate all of you for completing our inaugural Elevate and Advocate Program so it's great to see you all today I know the last few times I would have seen you would have been on screen so it's fantastic to have all of us in the room together I want to say what an incredible and what a momentous occasion this is is to be having the official close of the program I'm really proud of the impact this program has had so far and I'm also proud of the progress we're making as a sector it's provided me the opportunity to put myself at the center and take true intentional ownership of my goals it's really important for the New South Wales public sector Workforce to reflect the diversity of the the community that we serve so that we're better able to understand and respond to the needs of the community and ultimately to deliver better outcomes we we we are Multicultural yes but are we socially cohesive no um we are so we for example some stats for you to sort of will blow your mind um there's somewhat uh there are more positive attitudes towards migrants from um the UK from the US from Canada uh from Nordic countries but there are negative and very negative somewhat negative views for certain cohorts Chinese Australians Indian Australians Sudanese Australians Middle Eastern Australians anywhere from 49% up to 70% somewhat negative or very negative attitudes now tell me that bias doesn't walk in when someone walks in into the workplace that is the sort of stuff that sponsors can address and stop in the in the processes right it's really difficult for us to figure everything by ourselves and people who have walked that path and you know they have a story to tell or that living experience bring that light to what we are already feeling right now and this is why programs like this show that the government or the public sector really care about our community or like people who are from that background um to step ourselves out of the Comfort zones and start doing things that we are potentially capable of elevate and advocate really is about thinking and prioritizing the people that we serve in the state that we all work for as a public service if people who are from culturally diverse backgrounds don't see leadership roles that are like them people that are like them because that does impact inclusion and belonging and that also impacts the kind of services that are created for our diverse Community to not feel alone to feel that there are others that have had the similar experience or Journey like I have and that gives you more confidence and empowers you because you're part of a larger group and Community sometimes we don't have a strong voice to be heard so I think sponsorship and advocacy through programs like these are essential for us to be able to access circles that we wouldn't have otherwise I'd say it's important because we know that there's things that are operating that we don't always see that impact the outcome of recruitments and other processes in government and so sometimes we do need to implement uh programs like sponsorship to make sure that we can um tackle some of those barriers what we learn from this program we actually go back and can put into our own organization so for me it's about looking what we do in the New South Wales police force in the called Ally space and being able to do that better I may have a different take of a of a problem or situation as opposed to my uh peer and that's the strength and the the the way that we can use diversity to really be Innovative uh to be collaborative to really understand each other's strengths and play to them from just the cohort that we've worked with in this first um group for the program we hope that we also see the ongoing impacts for them as well so while we still have some way to go to achieve a public sector that truly reflects the cultural diversity of the community that we serve especially at the senior leadership level all I can say is that we're on the right track and everyone in this room is playing a part in that.