The cast of 1970s Australian comedy show Kingswood Country. Australian television has not travelled very far in representing our diverse society accurately and fairly.
Recent comments by actors Jay Laga'aia and Firass Dirani about their experiences of racism when working in the mainstream media have been called offensive by commercial television representatives. What I think is offensive is that even today mainstream television hardly reflects Australia's true diversity. Outcries from actors within the industry need to be matched by outrage from viewers.
I grew up as a child of migrant parents in the early 1980s watching Kingswood Country, interestingly screened on the same channel that Laga'aia has accused of only wanting to cast white characters – Channel Seven. In Kingswood Country I learned that it was all right to laugh as the main character called his son-in-law a "bloody wog" or made racist comments about indigenous Australians. New migrants were parodied for their funny accents and different ways.
Australians of Anglo-Saxon backgrounds could be assured that their rough treatment of new Australians was merely tough love, an initiation into Australia's unique brand of mateship.
Luckily this was all turned on its head by Acropolis Now, also screened on Channel Seven, where "wogs" featured front and centre. No more comedic foils to a racist Ted Bulpitt of Kingswood Country, the team of Acropolis Now, who also made the stage show Wogs out of Work, parodied themselves putting Australians of Anglo-Saxon background in marginal roles for a change.
Growing up in Sydney's inner west, I revelled in seeing characters I could relate to on the small screen. Finally, I felt like I belonged in an Australian society where television held up a mirror and reflected back my reality. How naive I was to think that this was the beginning of a change in representing Australia's diversity in our mainstream media.
Fast forward two decades and what do we see on our television stations? Polar opposites of a few token ethnic characters in mainstream television shows and a whole channel devoted to diverse programming in SBS, with very little in between.
Carbo, the only non-Anglo Aussie character on Packed to the Rafters, could have been plucked straight out of Acropolis Now with his stereotypical Greek family – cue hysterical mother and Carbo's wog mansion house. The streets of Neighbours hardly look like any suburban city in Australia with its white families.
As the comedians Fear of a Brown Planet have pointed out, we would be puzzled if we entered a hospital like the one in All Saints and not see a single Asian-Australian doctor.
Beyond drama, the same accusations of failing to hire outside of narrow (white) parameters could be directed at news and current affairs programs. Of course this means limited employment possibilities for Australian actors and television journalists of all shapes, sizes and colours. But what about us, the television viewing public?
We are left to choose between shows that marginalise ethnic characters through ancient stereotypes or, if we want to view diversity, flick over to "our" dedicated channel SBS that we should be happy to have and stop complaining.
Yet diversity is commercially viable. We knew that when Acropolis Now and Wogs out of Work became huge successes with sell-out stage shows for many years. Dirani was voted by the public as Cleo magazine's Bachelor of the Year in 2010.
Multiculturalism and diversity is part of a brand that the state government of Victoria, for example, sees as its niche in attracting visitors and businesses to Melbourne. Most importantly, diversity is the reality of modern Australian society.
It is time for the viewing public to support such actors as Laga'aia and Dirani and get behind their demands for more ethnically diverse casting in the Australia media. We can do this by switching off shows that lazily feed us false images of Australia.
I'll confess to being slightly addicted to Packed to the Rafters, with its nuclear family, pronounceable names, nicely mowed lawns and white suburban characters. But I'm starting to feel that the guilty viewing pleasure is leaving too bad a taste in my mouth.
Like a lot of Australians I loved The Slap, where everyday Australia's cultural diversity was represented as ordinary. Television shows such as this, and their commercial success, have reassured me that a diverse Australia can be found in the mainstream media.
It is up to us, the viewing public, to let programmers and commercial television stations know our demands. Then it is hoped it won't take another 20 years for these changes to happen.
Melissa Phillips is a doctoral candidate at the University of Melbourne.
Follow the National Times on Twitter: @NationalTimesAU
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