Only 5 pct of leaders in Australia from non-European backgrounds: study

CANBERRA, April 11 (Xinhua) -- A vast majority of Australia's political and business leaders come from an Anglo-Celtic or European background, research has found.

The study, released by the Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC), Asia Society Australia (ASA) and University of Sydney Business School on Wednesday, examined the cultural backgrounds of senior management of Australia's top 200 companies, members of parliaments (MPs), heads of government departments and university leaders.

It found that of the 2,490 people occupying the most influential posts in Australia, 75.9 percent were from Anglo-Celtic backgrounds while 19 percent had European heritage.

Only 4.7 percent had a non-European background and 0.4 percent an indigenous background.

"Described another way, about 95 percent of senior leaders in Australia have an Anglo-Celtic or European background," Tim Soutphommasane, Australia's Race Discrimination Commissioner and lead author of the study, wrote in the report.

"Although those who have non-European and Indigenous backgrounds make up an estimated 24 percent of the Australian population, such backgrounds account for only five percent of senior leaders."

Soutphommasane said that only eight chief executives within the ASX 200, the group of Australia's top 200 companies, had non-European heritage.

"Of the 30 members of the Federal Ministry, there is no one who has a non-European background, and one who has an indigenous background," he said in a media release on Wednesday.

"It is similarly bleak within the public service, where 99 percent of the heads of federal and state government departments have an Anglo-Celtic or European background (that's one person of 103 heads of department).

"These are dismal statistics for a society that prides itself on its multiculturalism. They challenge our egalitarian self-image. And they challenge our future prosperity as a nation. If we aren't making the most of our multicultural talents, we may be squandering opportunities." Enditem