Warrnambool City Council’s Jacinta Ermacora says it is time council took a leadership role in increasing diversity – both within the organisation and the wider community.
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Cr Ermacora will put a motion forward at Monday night’s council meeting proposing the creation of a diversity strategy that includes a gender diversity action plan to speed up cultural change.
"If we keep doing things the same as we are now, we will continue to get the same outcome and that is males promoted to senior positions instead of a mix and not good diverse representation,” she said.
“It's all about us having a look at how we see the world a little bit differently."
Cr Ermacora said diversity referred to gender, the LGBTI community, people with disabilities, Indigenous people, people from non-English speaking backgrounds and people from different age groups.
She said despite women making up the majority of the population in Warrnambool (51.6 per cent) and the LGBTI community making up 1.7 per cent of the population, the spread of people across different positions in the community, including senior positions, was not representative.
The stereotyping of people in to particular roles through ‘unconscious bias’ – such as assuming women are more suited to reception work and men to doing outdoors work – was as important issue to consider, Cr Ermacora said.
“It’s about bringing more diversity into the workplace, not just on total figures and not just at the hierarchy, but across different departments where we don’t have as much diversity,” she said.
Cr Ermacora said it was crucial to remember the value diversity brings to organisations by adding a variety of perspectives and experiences.
Under the motion, Warrnambool City Council would also offer to host an Australian Local Government Women’s Association - Victoria conference in 2017, at a cost of about $3,000.
“It's been an issue on my mind for a long time,” Cr Ermacora said.
‘I think that there's always a right time to bring something forward and with the recent momentum with the Victorian Government, the recent momentum on diversity in the private sector – particularly in the leading businesses in our nation – i think that it's now time for us to look at this as well.”