white australian policy in TV

'TV soaps have White Australia policy' | NEWS.com.au Entertainment

TV PRODUCERS have been accused of operating a "White Australia" policy when it comes to casting actors for top-rated soap operas.

Neighbours and Home and Away have been branded racist for consistently failing to feature families from ethnic minorities.

Now academics and politicians fear that international viewers could get the "wrong impression" about Australia.

University of Queensland Aboriginal studies lecturer Sam Watson said the dramas were operating an "exclusive white family club" that didn't reflect Australia's true demographic.

"The producers and directors of these shows are very sadly harking back to the White Australia policy of the '40s and '50s," he said. "Instead of embracing the rich diversities of our country, they are shunning it."

In contrast, British soaps such as EastEnders and Coronation Street, and New Zealand's Shortland Street have been successfully casting actors from ethnic minorities for years.

It's a huge concern for actors' union the Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance, which will discuss the problems at a conference in Sydney next month.

The union's national director of actors' equity, Simon Whipp, said he had been campaigning on the issue for 20 years and still little improvement had been made.

"Our members are missing out on roles for no other reason than the fact that they are not white," he said.

The White Australia policy began in 1901 to restrict non-white immigration to the country.

While it was scrapped in 1973, viewers of Neighbours and Home and Away might be forgiven for thinking otherwise.

In Neighbours, white Ramsay Street residents Susan and Karl Kennedy regularly laugh over the fence with their equally white neighbours Steve and Miranda Parker - even though the soap is set in the culturally diverse city of Melbourne.

In Home and Away, the residents of Summer Bay, just north of multi-cultural Sydney, are also white Australians, with the exception of Jai Fernandez - an Asian character who lost his parents in the Boxing Day tsunami.

The discrimination has not gone unnoticed in Britain either, where Neighbours was recently dubbed "too white" by black and Asian viewers.

Aboriginal MP Marion Scrymgour, who is Arts Minister for the Northern Territory, said people in indigenous communities needed greater representation on television.

"It's important that young Aboriginal people are able to see there are opportunities for interesting and rewarding employment," she said.