New South Wales’ Division of Local Government has exposed systemic bias in the employment practices in councils across the state.

 

The Census of Local Government Employees has revealed a statistical bias against women, the young, Indigenous Australians and the disabled.

 

State Minister for Local Government, Don Page, has called for more to be done to place women in leadership roles and that councils should be more proactive in recruiting Indigenous Australians and those with disabilities.

 

The census found that Metropolitan councils were least likely to employ people from a culturally or linguistically diverse background. Metropolitan councils averaged 6.7 per cent employment rate of this group, despite having a 24 per cent representation in local population.

 

“Overall, people from a culturally and linguistically diverse background make up 4.7% of the local government workforce in NSW.  This is significantly less than their representation in the NSW population,” the report found.

 

By far the largest discrepancy was that of women to men in senior positions. Results show that women are significantly less likely to hold executive, managerial or other supervisory role.

 

The census, which will be conducted every four years, found that councils employ 49,000 people in the state.

 

The full report can be found here