How culturally diverse is Australian TV in 2017?

With over 300 languages spoken, more than one million new migrants since 2011, and almost half the population having been born overseas or having a parent born abroad, recent Census data for 2016 has revealed Australia’s population is more culturally and ethnically diverse than ever before.

But do our television screens reflect this diversity? If you look at this season of The Bachelor, the answer is no.

But this issue has been the topic of discussion in Australia well before Matty J arrived on the scene.

According to 2016 Gold Logie winner Waleed Aly, there’s a long way to go before Australian TV truly represents the nation’s multicultural society.

“Things don’t change on that sort of issue over the course of a year,” the Egyptian-Muslim host of The Project told Be at this year’s Logies held in Melbourne.

“That’s more of a 10-20 year sort of a thing,” he continued.

“But I think what has happened is that it’s become something people in the industry are talking about more and I think executives are more switched on to it.”

Waleed’s iconic acceptance speech at last year’s Logies drew attention to the lack of cultural representation on screen.

“Do not adjust your sets, there is nothing wrong with the picture,” he said on stage. “If you're in the room, I'm sure there is an Instagram filter you can use to return things to normal, it'll be fine.”

This year’s Logies red carpet witnessed a hint of diversity, with Waleed and a handful of other ethnic personalities attending TV’s night of nights.

“I think you can see we are making progress definitely, but you just need to look around and can you see any other brown women?” The Wrong Girl star Leah Vandenberg said to Be on the night.

Reflecting on Waleed’s speech, Leah, whose father is Sri Lankan and Indian and mother is Caucasian, continued: “So we’ve got a long way to go but at least it’s really in the forefront of people’s minds now that we need to start representing”.

One show that is representative of progress being made in the industry is SBS comedy, The Family Law.

“We are one of the most diverse nations on the planet and we’ve known that for a very long time as a country but that hasn’t been reflected in the media,” the show’s writer Benjamin Law told Be at the Logies.

Based on his own upbringing in a Chinese-Australian family, Benjamin’s show boasts an almost all-Asian cast, and its second season aired this year.

“One in four of us are born overseas, one of five of us speak languages other than English. We really wanted to show that on screen,” he said.

“And I feel like even if that’s not your family, to see your community reflected back at you is a really positive thing and we’ve definitely got that feedback, both from Asian Australians and non-Asian Australians, saying ‘Thank you for showing my family on screen’.”

Fiona Choi, who plays matriarch Jenny Law on the show, joined Benjamin on the red carpet this year.

“I love the fact that we’re representing Asians on the Logies red carpet,” she said, adding the cast’s also “representing all immigrants” in one way or another.

“My favourite thing about the show is how much immigrants from all nationalities all over the Middle East, Europeans, all other Asian countries, they all identify with our trying to fit in Australia, but it’s also about regular family relationships,” she explained.

Last year Screen Australia released a report titled ‘Seeing ourselves: Reflections on diversity in Australian TV drama’, which exposed the lack of diversity on screen.

As a result, the Screen Diversity and Inclusion Network (SDIN) launched a Charter to promote diversity in the sector just last month.

Screen Australia CEO Graeme Mason said: “We have a lot of work to do to ensure that the Australia we see on our screens more accurately reflects the diversity of Australian society, as the Seeing Ourselves study highlighted, and we know that Screen Australia can’t do this alone.

“It is encouraging to see The Screen Diversity and Inclusion Network (SDIN) bring together television networks, screen agencies, industry bodies and AFTRS who collectively have the ability to make a genuine change across all areas of the screen sector.”

Only time will tell what changes start to come into play.

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