Australian employers have been dropping or significantly stepping back their diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs following the Trump-led war against such initiatives, according to a new report from Pride In Diversity (PID) this week.
Executives in anonymous conversations with PID director Dawn Emsen-Hough said that Trump’s aggressive rollback of DEI measures had led Australians to challenge local inclusion measures.
PID also heard that multinational organisations in Australia have faced international pressure to minimise their efforts on inclusion, with one executive noting they have had to “remove the word diversity from presentations in case the US sees it.”
Earlier this year, analysis of the annual reports of major Australian employers, including Macquarie Bank and BHP, found that they had significantly downgraded references to DEI efforts.
News that Australian employers are responding favourably to the US-led “war on woke” should please the Trump administration.
But what about those Australians who continue to criticise the US administration on their social media accounts, or perhaps suggest that diversity in business is actually a good thing?
The Trump administration now has a plan for that, too, should those Australians plan on visiting the United States as tourists.
Overnight, the Trump administration announced plans for tourists coming into the US, including Australians, to share their social media activity from the past five years. The nationals of 42 countries would need to comply with the mandatory disclosures, covering all nations that can currently enter the US without a visa. The US Customs and Border Protection agency published the notice on Tuesday, adding that telephone numbers and email addresses used in the last decade will need to be provided, alongside face, fingerprint, DNA and iris biometrics. Details of family members would also be required, including names, addresses, birthdates and places of family members.
The Trump administration, meanwhile, remains as committed to the AUKUS plan as ever. Especially now that Australia has committed to paying even more for it.
Earlier this week, Australian ministers, including Penny Wong and Richard Marles, met with their US counterparts over the AUKUS deal, with the US announcing Australia has promised an additional $1 billion to help expand US submarine capacity building in the United States.
We learned that AUKUS is moving “full steam ahead”, and that the US and Australia plan to “expand” and “strengthen” the security and submarine deal. A joint statement from Australia and the US revealed that ministers have agreed to a “range of new initiatives for Australia and the US and in the Indo-Pacific.
US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth declared the US will be “upgrading logistics and infrastructure in Darwin and establishing “new and resilient logistics networks across Australia.”
And he applauded “Australia’s upcoming delivery of an additional $1 billion to help expand US submarine production capacity.”
At a follow-up press conference in Washington today, Richard Marles said he was “very excited” about the progress being made on the security pact.
He did so while again standing next to Hegseth, who is facing accusations of war crimes from the media and some Democrats and foreign officials following strikes on alleged drug boats off the coast of Venezuela.
The AUKUS deal, first signed in 2021, commits Australia to purchasing US-built nuclear-powered submarines from the 2030s, before building our own submarines using UK technology. It’s estimated it will cost Australia $368 billion over 30 years, although that figure already appears to be expanding as the Trump administration further negotiates its terms. Australia has also been redirecting foreign aid to the Pacific and South-East nations, after Trump dismantled USAID programs.
There is no greater friend of Australia than Trump’s USA, as long as we keep the billions coming, watch the “diversity” talk, and keep the social media accounts in check.