Culturally and Linguistically Diverse strategy to be released later this year, as study reveals diversity gaps in APS

The findings from the Crawford School of Public Policy come as the Public Service Commission works to release its first Culturally and Linguistically Diverse employment strategy by the end of the year.

The ANU paper used data from the Public Service Commission to track promotions and separations between 2001 to 2020 by gender, for people with a disability and people from non-English speaking backgrounds.

While prospects for women improved from 2017 to 2020, this was not the case for those who identified as being from non-English speaking backgrounds, authors Robert Breunig, Nu Nu Win and David Hansell found.

This group was less likely to be promoted than similar people from English speaking backgrounds, and the gap in prospects increased as rank did.

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The study also found this trend was "only partially explained by language fluency and cultural assimilation", indicating results which showed Asian-born people from non-English speaking backgrounds who arrived before the age of six had similar promotion prospects to Asian-born people from English speaking backgrounds.

At the same time, Asian-born people from non-English speaking backgrounds who arrived after the age of five had worse promotion prospects than non-Asian people, also from non-English speaking backgrounds, who arrived after five.

"These two results suggests that there is some 'Asian penalty' that is not related to language or cultural assimilation," the authors found.

Staff who reported disabilities were less likely to be promoted than similar people who did not report a disability, but the gap narrowed as rank increased.

Responding to the findings, Community and Public Sector Union national president Melissa Donnelly pointed to a survey by the union which found a higher proportion of APS staff from non-European backgrounds reported barriers in their career development.

In the poll of 178 members of the union's CALD network, 40.2 per cent of those from non-European cultural backgrounds reported experiencing barriers, compared to 33.3 per cent of those from European cultural backgrounds.

"Our survey findings indicate that bias and discrimination are evident across APS workplaces," Ms Donnelly said in a statement.

She highlighted the importance of an APS CALD Employment Strategy, currently under development, to correct inequalities.

The ANU report also found policy played a role in reshaping the APS, referring to the 2012 passage of the Workplace Gender Equality Act as one of the reasons outcomes for women had improved.

Greens senator Mehreen Faruqi successfully called for the CALD strategy earlier this year, alongside better data collection about ethnic diversity in the APS census.

A spokesperson for the Public Service Commission said it was asked to develop the strategy after concerns were raised about discrimination and racism.

"The APSC has undertaken extensive consultation across the APS and with external experts to understand the current experience for CALD Australians in the APS," they said.

"Findings from the CPSU Survey provide useful insights that have been taken into account in the development of the APS CALD Employment Strategy."

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