00:00Major American multinationals including Meta and Amazon have announced they'll scale back
00:04diversity equity and inclusion or DEI programs citing legal and cultural shifts.
00:11Other major chains like Walmart and McDonald's are dropping quotas for gender and racial
00:16representation and replacing bias training with broader initiatives. Tech giant Meta cited a
00:22Supreme Court ruling which determined race conscious admissions programs were a form of
00:27discrimination. In 2023 the US Supreme Court sided with a group known as the Students for
00:33Fair Admissions which had sued Harvard and UNC claiming the schools discriminated against white
00:38and Asian American students who had SAT scores above other racial groups but who were not given
00:44priority admissions. Effectively America's highest courts struck down the right for private
00:50universities to consider race in admissions decisions. DEI programs have become divisive
00:56ever since that ruling which has prompted companies to now officially scrap their initiatives.
01:02The move is something Australian companies institutions and advocacy groups will be
01:06watching closely. In Australia affirmative action plans remain intact but overall there is a much
01:13less uniformed attempt at meeting minority needs in corporate and public Australia. In September
01:202024 the Albanese government marked 30 years since Labor introduced its affirmative action
01:25policy to enable more women to work in parliament achieving a 52% female representation. However
01:33gaps remain. The coalition has not implemented an affirmative action policy and in 2024 just 29%
01:40of its federal parliamentarians were women. Meanwhile in response to missing its indigenous
01:45workforce targets in 2024 the Australian Taxation Office also renewed its commitment
01:51to engaging with indigenous clients and including indigenous workers in its future structural plans.
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