On diversity and the weaponisation of food

‘I’m here to address concerns that too many perky white males are contributing to a lack of diversity on our screens,’ says perky white male and X Factor host Luke Jacobz (‘with a zee’), introducing Meat and Livestock Australia’s advertisement for ‘the meat that doesn’t discriminate’—Aussie spring lamb, of course. Jacobz then makes way for Bengali-Australian actor Arka Das, who perkily tells us ‘We couldn’t agree more’ before striding into a typical Australian park, where an atypical (by the standards of Australian television) group of Australians has gathered for a typical Australian barbecue.

Those lining up for their helping of ‘the ultimate cross-cultural protein’ represent a diverse array of racial and religious backgrounds, as well as a male same-sex couple holding their newborn baby, Greek trans-gender comedian Jordan Raskopoulus, a woman who communicates with sign language and an older man using a wheelchair. Further signalling that times have moved on since the years during which footballer and ‘lambassador’ Sam Kekovitch ranted that those who don’t eat lamb and drink beer on Australia Day are ‘unAustralian’—and even since 2016’s Australia Day ad in which a SWAT team under the command of SBS newsreader Lee Lin Chin took a flamethrower to the coffee table of a hapless vegan—the food on offer at Jacobz and Das’s barbecue included a token vegetarian dish for the equally token Hare Krishna participants. And in a display of respect to the traditional owners of the land on which the barbecue is held, the advertisement even manages to incorporate a commercial version of an acknowledgement of country. When Das prepares to serve sizzling lamb to the diverse multitude by asking ‘who was here first?’, Aboriginal sporting legends Cathy Freeman and Greg Inglis respond with ‘aaah, that’d be us’.