Investment & Technology

August, 2011

Page: 53

An innovative employment program that aims to partner with business and governments to create more than 50,000 jobs for indigenous people is calling on the financial services industry to also take up the challenge.  

The Australian Employment Covenant (AEC) recently announced it had received commitment from businesses nationally to create more that 58,000 jobs for Australian indigenous people. 

While Australia's biggest four banks have been enthusiastic supporters of the initiative, there has been scant involvement from the wider financial services industry since the scheme was launched two years ago. 

The other financial industry participants are a five-person accounting practice in Queensland, a small financial planning practice in South Australia, and Traditional Credit Union, which provided banking services to indigenous people in remote areas. 

AEC boss Rhonda Parker says the banks have realised the benefits of encouraging a diverse workplace and she calls on other members of the industry to boost employment rates of indigenous Australians.  

"I throw out a challenge to the members of the industry," Parker says. 

"Certainly, the big four banks have had success in creating traineeships and environments where indigenous employees can thrive and there is plenty of scope for that to happen right throughout your employer group."

The initiative has strong backing from prominent members of Australia's business community, with billionaires Andrew Forrest and James Packer among those leading their support. 

Parker says businesses will commit to create a certain number of jobs for indigenous people, with the Federal Government making its own commitments about training potential job seekers. 

Along with publicly listed companies such as Myer, Coca-Cola Amatil and mining giant Rio Tinto, small business has also committed to creating jobs.  

"We talk to a business about how many people they employ a year and challenge the company to say: 'if you are at parity with the percentage of the population that is indigenous then you would allocate at least 3 per cent of that recruitment to indigenous people," Parker says. 

It is a common misconception that many indigenous live in remote areas in Australia, with Parker saying urban businesses can play a vital role in job creation. 

More than 60 per cent of indigenous people live in Australia's capital cities, with the remainder split evenly between remote and rural areas. 

The largest number of indigenous job seekers live in western Sydney but there is a notion that it is the mining companies and those sorts and industry employers that are the ones that need to step up here," Parker says. 

AEC currently has more than 800 vacancies on its online jobs board.  Businesses also forecast vacancies and Parker says up to 8000 jobs are expected to be posted online in the next 12 months.