To ensure that the Statistical Society of Australia is diverse, equitable and inclusive, the Society established an Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) Committee in March of 2021. This committee has been charged with making recommendations regarding how the SSA can ensure that it is a truly diverse and inclusive society.

The committee will be tasked with examining the processes and procedures already in place within the Society to determine what changes can be made to allow for greater diversity and inclusion, and making recommendations regarding those changes. Members of the committee are expected to serve for two years, and meetings take place every 6 weeks.

This committee is chaired by the current SSA President or nominee, and members are recruited from the SSA community.

The current members of the EDI committee are:

• Jason Li, Australian Bureau of Statistics, EDI Committee Chair
  
• Katrina Scurrah, Australian Institute of Family Studies, Vice-Chair
  
• Alanah Cronin (Lani), Griffith University
• Nicole De La Mata, University of Sydney
• Atousa Ghahramani, Victoria University
• Jessica Kasza, Monash University, Secretary
• Christine Sommerville, Monash University
• Rushani Wijesuriya, Murdoch Children’s Research Institute

A list of past members of the Committee can be found here.

The EDI Committee is always looking for enthusiastic people to join the Committee. Please get in touch with Jessica Kasza, if you’d like more information.

Further, if there are any equity, diversity and inclusion issues that you’d like the SSA to address, please get in touch. Any communication will be dealt with confidentially. You can email Jess, or our Executive Officer. 

The Committee’s aims

The key questions that this committee will initially address are focussed in the areas of ensuring diversity and inclusion within the SSA and Indigenous engagement. Some of these key questions that the EDI Committee seeks to address are:

• The SSA has recently stated that we want to ensure that the SSA leadership team and representation on SSA committees is diverse and reflective of our Society (see https://statsoc.org.au/Governance). How can we ensure that this is the case?
• How can we ensure that our society provides a welcoming, respectful and inclusive environment for our members?
• How can we ensure that our events are welcoming and accessible to everyone, including people who have caring responsibilities, and people who have disabilities?
• How can we ensure that the SSA supports Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander statisticians and students with an interest in studying statistics?
• How can we ensure that the SSA respects and acknowledges the contributions and history of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people?
• How can we as statisticians ensure that we use and analyse data from all populations, including from marginalised groups, responsibly?
  
  

The Committee’s work

A set of guidelines for Branches and Sections to follow to help ensure that their events are accessible and inclusive have been developed. These guidelines are available here. Please note that these will be updated from time to time. The current version of the guidelines was developed in September 2022.

The Committee has developed a statement expressing the support of the SSA for the trans and gender diverse community within the SSA, and more broadly. This statement also encourages all researchers to collect data on sex and gender in an inclusive way, and is available here.

At the end of 2021, the Committee ran a survey seeking the views of statisticians in Australia on the Society and equity, diversity and inclusivity issues. The report outlining the results of this survey and the actions that the Society will take as a result of this survey is available here.

Do you have suggestions for the EDI Committee?

To submit suggestions, please click here.