Time to check your privilege

It's the year 2022 and you turn up to a meeting, event or panel and it's pale, male and stale, or just pale, still. You see media articles on important matters and it's an all male perspective, you see campaigns targeted at women with a sea of white women.?You see boards appointed and its, standard disappointment.

It's time to talk about the bleeding obvious - it's not ok to pretend there are no other voices and there are ‘reasons’ for exclusions. Because the exclusion of diverse voices excludes perspectives that matter, now more than ever.

I think the 47th Parliament sets a new bar in diversity, it cannot be unseen, diversity of religion, culture and gender is the new norm, so it's going to be more difficult to accept the lack of diversity anywhere else, especially in the public arena.

The gaps in diversity are not aesthetic and in fact do affect a whole chain of events including how we see and prioritise the present and shape the future. Mikaela Jade taught me that unless diverse people are reflected and involved in the design and decision making of policy, systems, emerging technology then what kind of world are we creating??

There were no women involved in the design of autonomous vehicles, so in testing the vehicles did not recognise smaller shapes or sizes such as that of a woman, child or infant, the results were catastrophic and fatal. Similarly, facial recognition couldn't recognise POC? because POC were not involved in the design.

If diverse voices aren't promoted, included, heard then we will continue to have structural inequity, and the attention, funding and kudos will continue to flow to the same people.

This year I have been taken aback by the number of manels (all male panels) and the number of manels with a single female and a single person of colour (POC). If we can't get the basics of equal gender representation right then don't even think about diversity of thought, culture, religion or anything else.

At Beckon we are not perfect either - I joined a firm with some diversity, but there was and continues to be acknowledgement that we are lacking gender, age and cultural diversity on our Board. Our team, including our interns and our advisory collective are more reflective of where we're headed and need to be.?

This is not about any single panel, event, journalist or media outlet, people are well meaning and unconscious bias is at play, it's more about highlighting when it happens that there are lots of diverse voices that need to be heard to give broader perspectives if we want to see change.

This is about each and everyone of us taking a moment to reflect on the message the Australian people just gave - we want to be seen, heard and represented. From all the lands on earth we came, with all the perspectives we bring, from all the places we have been and our lived experience, our voices matter.?

In taking a moment to check our privilege, we have to get that it is critical to have diverse voices and perspectives to shape the present and future. I believe our humanity depends on it.

Anne-Marie is passionate about change and wants the world to be a better place.