The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) has released new commissioning guidelines to ensure more diverse faces, voices, cultures and stories are reflected and represented on Australian screens.
Director of Entertainment and Specialist at ABC, Michael Carrington said the Broadcaster’s guidelines, Diversity and Inclusion Commissioning Guidelines – Screen Content, required production companies to provide greater access and opportunity to under-represented people and perspectives (on and off screen) including gender diversity, Indigenous Australians, culturally and linguistically diverse communities, people living with a disability and the LGBTQI+ community.
“While we already prioritise diversity and inclusion at the ABC, this is the first time we have prescribed guidelines to track progress towards our goal of looking and sounding like contemporary Australia,” Mr Carrington said.
“We’ve already taken steps in this direction but we need to do more to better reflect the wonderful diversity of this nation in an authentic way,” he said.
“We will work with our production partners to make the industry a more inclusive workspace, by opening the doors to diverse creative talent, on and off screen.”
Mr Carrington said that under the Guidelines, producers would need to demonstrate how their content reflected authentic diversity and inclusion in its subject matter or cast, as well as diversity in key creative, production and crew roles.
He said the Guidelines also set out a framework for creating practical and meaningful opportunities for under-represented groups to advance their careers.
“The principle of ‘nothing about us without us’ is key, ensuring that all productions about a specific diverse community or subject must include at least one person who is representative of that diversity within the core creative team,” Mr Carrington said.
The ABC’s new nine-page Guidelines can be accessed at this PS News link.
