Australia has made strides in gender equality at work, but racism remains one of corporate Australia’s biggest blind spots. The new Business in Colour Awards aim to change that.
Launching this November, the inaugural awards will celebrate excellence in anti-racism, cultural strength, and inclusive leadership across Australia’s public and private sectors. For Div Pillay, CEO of MindTribes and co-founder of the awards, the event is not just another night of recognition but a deliberate push to put race on the workplace agenda.
“I think the biggest blind spot is the need for data to make decisions,” Pillay told The Back Cover podcast.
“When the gender movement started in workplaces, it was all about the numbers. It was all about how many women do we have? Where are they? Let’s count them. And when we know that there’s underrepresentation, we target representation first.”
She continued: “The issue of tackling First Nations representation and racially, ethnically diverse people’s representation is far more complex and nuanced than just a simple count.
People identify differently, and it’s hard to measure. So that puts people off in terms of starting, because they feel like they need to have this number to be able to business case and justify the investment.”
That hesitation has left racism work lagging behind. “People have a fear factor and discomfort talking about the negative behaviour of racism in the workplace, but [are] more comfortable talking about sexism,” she said. “Gender has seen some maturity and we haven’t seen the same maturity with racism at work.”
Unlike gender equality, which has benefitted from decades of advocacy and legislation, Australia lacks a clear framework for addressing racism in the workplace. “We don’t have an act or an agency that specifically targets racism at work,” Pillay said.
“And just because people don’t report it doesn’t mean it doesn’t occur. It’s a safety issue — what someone would even think to report, and what they fear as a consequence of reporting it.”
The Business in Colour Awards were designed to counter that silence. Instead of tokenising diverse voices, the awards will amplify stories of progress and celebrate leaders who are already driving change.
“We’re trying to showcase what good looks like, or what progress looks like, to inspire change, rather than have it sit in this, ‘oh, we don’t have the data, we don’t know, we can’t start,’” Pillay explained. “All this time, people of colour are waiting around for the equity to happen.”
The event itself will break with tradition. Rather than a black-tie gala dinner, guests can expect food trucks, cultural performances, and storytelling that places community at the centre.
For Pillay, the goal is urgent: “Racism is a psychosocial hazard. It’s a harmful behaviour that impacts someone’s psychological and cultural safety at work, just like sexism does. It’s so important for these awards to really cause a stir in people’s understanding of what they can actually do.”
The Business in Colour Awards will be held on 13 November 2025 in Melbourne. For tickets, CLICK HERE
