LeadershipHQ Magazine 3rd Edition September Issue | Page 9

10 Key Revelations
from the Diversity
Debate Dinners
by Sonia McDonald
LeadershipHQ’s recent Diversity
Debate Dinners in Sydney and
Melbourne were exciting and
thought provoking. The panel of
speakers included Laurice Temple,
Amanda Rose, Nicola Mills and
Fiona Vines, Chris Lamb, Barry
Borzillo, Neil Dalrymple and Peter
Birtles.
These high profile CEOs and
industry experts were able to share
their observations and experiences
in the diversity and inclusion areas,
and explain what worked for them
and what didn’t.
One of the first questions often
asked is how do we know that
there is an issue with diversity
and inclusion. Let’s just take a
look at some of the statistics the
panel shared.

Disability:
• 15% of population have a
disability
• 2.1 million working age Australians have a disability and 45%
of people with disabilities are
living near or below the poverty line.
• Improving participation of
people with disability in the
Australian workforce by 33%
over the next decade would increase GDP by $43b

Gender:
• 15% of women in Australia are
the main bread winner for their
family
• Women earn up to 36% less
than men
• 1/3 of women will retire with
no Super
• Women represent over 40%
of the world’s labour force but
only control a ¼ of the world’s
wealth

The overall imbalance is evident.
So how do we change this?
This is where the debate became
really interesting. These are 8 of
the key revelations made during
the debate.
1. Peter Birtles believes that we
need to start with inclusion. We
need to look at the underlying culture in our organisations and, to
some extent, in our communities.
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