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Equity and Inclusion at APRA AMCOS

Back to Year in Review

APRA AMCOS continued to make important progress on its equity and inclusion commitments to staff, members and the Australasian music community over the 2022 – 2023 financial year.

  • APRA and AMCOS Boards APRA and AMCOS Boards retained Audit, Risk and Culture Committees established in late 2021.
  • Leah Flanagan’s role of Director, NATSIMO now reports directly to the CEO, with scope for NATSIMO to advise across the business on engagement with, and delivery of services to, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities and to consumers of works featuring Indigenous Cultural & Intellectual Property (ICIP) and Indigenous Knowledge. NATSIMO resourcing and funding were also increased so it can meet this brief.
  • In a similar vein, we acknowledge the significant contribution and influence of Dame Hinewehi Mohi as Manukura, Puoro Māori/Director, Maori Membership. Her work on the development of the ORO project - creating a bilingual music industry in Aotearoa, including our Pokapū program, translating waiata into te reo Māori, and her work taking those songs to the world via the Waiata Anthems platform, has changed the landscape dramatically. Dame Hinewehi Mohi hosted an informative discussion for the combined APRA and AMCOS Boards and for senior management on the Waiata Anthems work, with support from Kim Boshier (MD, Sony Music Aotearoa) and Adam Holt (Chair, Universal Music NZ). The discussion focused on their work in enabling a bilingual music industry in Aotearoa New Zealand and the potential applications for Australia.

NATSIMO Observership Program

Alice Springs/ Mparntwe-based singer, songwriter, industry leader and founding member of ‘Desert Divas’, Catherine Satour and Butchella Songman, language custodian and cross-genre artist, Fred Leone were appointed to NATSIMO’s APRA Board Observership positions this year.

The new leadership opportunity saw a 12-month Observership program with the APRA Board (Australasian Performing Right Association), which commenced at the Board's February meeting, with four more meetings in the calendar year. The initiative was conducted with support and training from The Observership Program.

Photo: Georgia Ginnivan

  • Reconciliation Australia APRA and AMCOS Boards conditional approval of APRA AMCOS’ Reflect Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP).
  • Bundjalung artist and graphic designer, Christine Slabb, has been commissioned to create the artwork that will capture APRA AMCOS' RAP commitment and journey.
  • APRA AMCOS’s RAP Advisory Group continues to guide this work and the internal RAP Working Group builds internal awareness, understanding and capability through events and information. Staff came together to participate in the Reconciliation Australia Choir initiative, Voices for the Generations and performed the iconic song by Kev Carmody (Kobalt Music Publishing) and Paul Kelly (Sony Music Publishing) ‘From Little Things Big Things Grow’ live at a staff gathering during Reconciliation Week.
  • APRA AMCOS staff participated in training facilitated by Accessible Arts to inform our work on how our business processes could be more accessible and inclusive. We hosted our first paid internship in partnership with Accessible Arts and Diversity Arts Australia.
  • In partnership with Our Race, we engaged with a cross-section of members from under-represented communities to define our Community Engagement Principles which aim to move us from a consultation model towards co-design and partnership with the objective of enabling self-determination.
  • National Music Industry Review released the Raising Their Voices Report in November 2022. APRA AMCOS was an early signatory to the Music Industry Joint Statement of Acknowledgement and affirmed its commitment to continue working for long-term, lasting change towards a safer, more inclusive and respectful music industry. We also issued a separate statement drawing attention to the experiences of exclusion reported especially by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and people of colour. The Review’s lead consultant, Alex Shehadie, briefed the joint Boards on the outcomes of the Review at the September 2022 Joint Boards meeting.
  • APRA AMCOS strongly advocated for, and welcomed, the recent establishment of Music Australia and Creative Workplaces that will provide broad government leadership and support for positive change towards equity, inclusion and safety in our industry.
  • We partnered with Support Act as the music industry's leading charity and independent safe space providing mental health and wellbeing programs and services. APRA AMCOS is a founding signatory to Support Act's Minimum Standards for a Mentally Healthy Workplaces and has provided support in kind on the development of Support Act's Guide to Safer Workplaces in the Music Industry and Guide to Sexual Misconduct, Bullying and Discrimination.
  • Recognising the diverse backgrounds of our staff, APRA AMCOS introduced a Flexi Public Holidays policy in October 2022 enabling staff to swap up to three national public holidays for alternative days of cultural or religious significance to them. We also introduced an Extended Paid Compassionate Leave / Sorry Business Leave policy in September 2022 and appointed a Workplace Inclusion Pride Partner to help enable support and inclusion of LGBTQI+ staff at APRA AMCOS.
  • We marked International Women’s Day 2023 with statements from the women on the APRA and AMCOS Boards (including NATSIMO Observer, Catherine Satour), celebrating the progress seen on gender equality in the music industry over the course of their careers and sharing insights and advice for women in our industry. The statements were widely read and proved to be our most engaged post of the year. This was complemented internally with a highly successful panel discussion that showcased the capability and careers of women in our technology team (in line with the United Nation’s IWD Theme of DigitALL: innovation and technology for gender equality).
  • APRA AMCOS lodged its Modern Slavery Statement in December 2022.

The Community Engagement Principles

Relationships: take the time it takes to build trust and work with key stakeholders within the community about the best way to engage and work.

Self Determination & Representation: “nothing about me, without me” - people can’t be what they can’t see, ensure appropriate representatives are involved in the business decisions, processes, strategy, and program designs that affect their community.

Consent: ensure informed, prior, and ongoing consent is obtained, maintained, and handled ethically.

Co-design and collaboration: understand the power dynamics at play, ensure sustainable and authentic exchange happens and uphold people’s lived experience as having authority, being valued, listened to, actioned and remunerated.

Accessibility: everyone has something to contribute - ensure environment, pathways, opportunities, and experiences cater to people’s unique needs.

International Women's Day 2023
Photo: APRA AMCOS

International Women's Day 2023
Photo: APRA AMCOS

In line with the requirements of the Workplace Gender Equality Act 2012 (Act), APRA lodged its annual public report with the Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA) on 25 May 2023. The public report can be found on our website. (PDF 730kb)

Highlights from this most recent Report:

  • APRA's internal Gender Pay Gap as reported to WGEA, decreased by 4.2 percentage points over the reporting period (from 22.3% to 18.1%, significantly below the 22.8% gender pay gap reported by WGEA in its 2022 Gender Equality Scorecard). It's important to note that the Gender Pay Gap is not the same as Equal Pay. This article published by WGEA provides detail on the difference. Every industry in Australia has a gender pay gap in favour of men. Equal Pay is a legal requirement for like for like roles: APRA assesses and audits this regularly and is compliant.
  • APRA's workforce is made up 51.9% women and 48.1% men Note: WGEA collects gender non-binary data on a voluntary basis and is not yet reporting on this measure. While this may be the case, we are doing internal reviews on how to implement best practice for collecting a wider more inclusive data set.
  • APRA's management team (including team leaders up to Divisional Heads) is made up of 53.8% women and 46.2% men.
  • Eight women were promoted to management roles: up 34% from the previous 12 months and representing 89% of management promotions over the reporting period.
  • Women made up 72% of promotions across the business overall, over the reporting period.
  • The number of men (6) accessing paid parental leave has increased almost 50% in the last 12 months: for the first time, we had almost equal numbers of men (6) and women (7) accessing APRA's paid parental leave benefit.
  • Female representation on the APRA Board grew from 25% to 31% and on the AMCOS Board from 13% to 19%. The APRA Board also welcomed two Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Board Observers, one of whom is a woman.
  • APRA AMCOS has a sound foundation for the promotion of equity, which includes offering:
    • gender and carer-status neutral paid parental leave and superannuation top-ups;
    • hybrid and flexible working arrangements;
    • access to purchased leave;
    • support for learning and development, access to mentoring, frequent feedback and internal career mobility; and
    • a resourced and supported Equity Action Plan that looks at diversity broadly, including gender, race, ethnicity, sexual identity and disability.