1. Doesn't equity mean treating everyone exactly the same?

Equity in an equal opportunity context does not mean treating everyone exactly the same.

Equity means acknowledging that there are groups of people that have traditionally been discriminated against on the basis of their inherent characteristics. These are attributes that a person is born with, or has acquired, and which cannot be changed.

Under Australian legislation these groups are:

• Women
• Indigenous Australians,
• People from non-English speaking backgrounds
• People with a disability

Equity aims to ensure that these groups of people have the means to achieving financial independence through success in education and employment opportunities. This may require providing additional assistance to people from these groups to achieve this aim.

For example, it is not equitable to treat people from non-English speaking backgrounds exactly the same as everyone else as there may be significant language barriers and cultural differences which may adversely affect their employment and education opportunities in Australia. These people may require assistance to overcome the barriers of language and cultural difference.

2. What are Equity Target Groups?

There are four equity target groups defined under equal opportunity legislation. These groups have traditionally been disadvantaged or discriminated against in their access to employment and education opportunities. These groups are as already outlined above:

• Indigenous Australians or Aboriginal people
• People with a disability
• People from non-English speaking backgrounds
• Women

3. What are Student Equity Target groups?

In addition to the four groups outlined above DETYA has designated the following two groups as disadvantaged in an educational context:

• People from rural and isolated backgrounds
• People from low socio-economic status backgrounds

DETYA defines the disadvantage for women in terms of their limited participation in non-traditional areas of education and in higher degrees, ie PhDs and Research Masters Degrees.

4. Haven't we achieved equal opportunity?

We will know when we have achieved equal opportunity when people from the equity target groups are proportionately represented in employment, are at higher salary levels and are making a contribution in key decision making roles.

The employment profile of many public institutions indicates low numbers of Indigenous Australians; people from non-English speaking backgrounds and people with obvious disabilities. These groups are often employed in entry level or base salary level positions. Even in those organisations where the percentage of women is close to 50% or more they are most often clustered in the lower salary level positions with limited career paths and limited security or tenure.