The latest report card on ABC boss Michelle Guthrie's push for diversity at the public broadcaster shows women make up 45 per cent of executives, while just 12 per cent of senior staff come from non-English speaking backgrounds.
The first woman appointed managing director of the 5000-strong organisation, Ms Guthrie has previously questioned why programmers cared more about the British royal family than culture in Australia's own region.
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A new report on equity and diversity shows 148 women were employed at the senior executive level in 2015-16, compared with 175 men.
The number falls short of a goal for 50 per cent female representation.
![ABC boss Michelle Guthrie has pushed for diversity in the organisation.](/web/20170326150615im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/l/s/g/x/q/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gv4lbu.png/1490408002469.jpg)
The broadcaster also missed its target for 20 per cent female technologists, employing 15.4 per cent female staff or 57 people last financial year.
The former Google executive wants the ABC to extend its reach and relevance through diversity in staff and content, while former managing director Mark Scott nominated a lack of ethnic diversity as a key regret after a decade leading the ABC.
In 2015-16, the ABC employed 4908 people across Australia.
The latest report showed 56.2 per cent of employees classified as "content makers" were women, up from 51.3 per cent in 2014-15.
Women made up 72.6 per cent of staff in the administrative and professional category.
The number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander employees grew by seven people to 105, increasing their workforce share to 2.6 per cent, exceeding a 2.5 per cent target for Indigenous employment.
Just two Indigenous employees work at the senior executive level, representing 0.6 per cent of total full-time employees.
The broadcaster fell short of a target for 15 per cent of senior executives from a non-English speaking background, reaching 12.1 per cent.
Overall, 12.3 per cent of ABC staff, or 419 people, reported coming from diverse language backgrounds.
Divisions with the highest proportion of non-English speaking staff included the ABC's international division, finance and operations and technology and digital operations, while the main languages spoken included Italian, Chinese, French, Greek, German, Spanish and Arabic.
The ABC employed 213 staff who reported having a disability, 7 per cent of its workforce. The number exceeds the target of 5 per cent of staff with a disability, and included 6.3 per cent or 17 staff at the senior executive level.
The report said 175 women and 81 men took parental and partner support leave from the broadcaster last financial year, while 460 women and 75 men were employed on a part time basis.
Ms Guthrie was unavailable for interview for this story.
Multicultural broadcaster SBS has 42 per cent employees from non-English speaking backgrounds, while women hold 46 per cent of leadership positions. Staff from Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander background make up 4 per cent of staff, while 1.1 per cent have a permanent disability and 13 per cent identify as LGBTQI.
ABC Friends spokesman Ranald Macdonald said diversity was a key concern as about 200 staff, including one in five managers, will lose their jobs in Ms Guthrie's wide reaching restructure, announced this month.
"The whole concept of the ABC is that it should satisfy the needs, the ambitions and the interests of all Australians and unless we have a representative and diverse organisation producing programs, in every aspect, then it will fail in its job," Mr Macdonald said.
On Thursday, the Turnbull government appointed NBN board member and former Telstra executive Justin Milne as chair of the ABC.