Aboriginal Employment Industry Clusters Program

The Hon. T.T. NGO (14:31): My question is to the Minister for Aboriginal Affairs and Reconciliation. Can the minister tell the council about ways the government is supporting employment outcomes for South Australian Aboriginal jobseekers?

The Hon. K.J. MAHER (Minister for Employment, Minister for Aboriginal Affairs and Reconciliation, Minister for Manufacturing and Innovation, Minister for Automotive Transformation, Minister for Science and Information Economy) (14:32): I thank the honourable member for his question, his interest in this area, his passion for programs that help Aboriginal South Australians overcome disadvantage and the role he has played as Chair of the Aboriginal Lands Parliamentary Standing Committee. Many dedicated members of this chamber have sat, and currently sit, on that committee. I know this is a matter of deep interest to him that the honourable member speaks to me about regularly, and I thank him for that.

Economic participation is crucially important to improving the lives of Aboriginal people. We know that there are so many Aboriginal South Australians facing disadvantage across a range of social and economic areas and, quite frankly, it is a stain on our nation that we still have such levels of disadvantage faced in this country by our First Australians. Economic development and employment are crucial in addressing many of these areas of disadvantage. We know good jobs can change lives. That is true for people right across our whole community, whether you live in the Adelaide central region or in the APY lands. Historically, Aboriginal people have often had significant and unfair difficulty in accessing good and sustainable jobs.

Promoting and supporting Aboriginal education and employment is one of the strongest ways in which we as a government, as individuals and as a community, can demonstrate our commitment to improving outcomes for Aboriginal South Australians. The state government is working in a number of ways to support Aboriginal employment, including a new procurement strategy that will identify opportunities for increasing Aboriginal participation in government procurement and boost the capacity of Aboriginal businesses. This will mean that Aboriginal businesses that are in a position to supply goods or services to the government will be assisted to build their capacity, so they can better access opportunities to act as suppliers or subcontractors to government.

Last week, I attended an event with the Governor of South Australia to recognise 15 new ambassadors under the Governor's Aboriginal Employment Industry Clusters Program. This initiative was established in 2010 as a joint initiative between the state government department and the commonwealth Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet. The program, I am advised, is now solely led by the South Australian Department of State Development. In 2014, His Excellency the Governor, Hieu Van Le, accepted the chief ambassador role for this program, and I take this opportunity to thank him for his strong interest in this program and initiatives affecting South Australians.

This program is employer led and aims to increase employment opportunities for Aboriginal people. The industry-led program works to build the capacity of employers to increase and sustain the employment of Aboriginal people. It also works with Aboriginal people to build their abilities to gain and maintain employment. Importantly, this program connects Aboriginal jobseekers with specific employment opportunities, and the program is delivering some excellent results.

The finance cluster, led by Mr Kim Cheater, partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers, works with companies such as Deloitte, Ernst & Young and the Institute of Chartered Accountants. I am also pleased that this program continues to grow and is providing real employment opportunities for Aboriginal South Australians. Most recently, I am advised that seven Aboriginal university students have taken up paid cadetships with cluster employers over the last six months.

Transitioning young Aboriginal people from school and further education, whether it be by university or the vocational education and training sector, is a key priority for this program. The program has established strong partnerships across the public, Catholic and independent school sector. That is in recognition of the fact that, in order to achieve long-term, systematic change, we need collaboration to work together—government, industry, business leaders and educators and the community sector—to increase the number of Aboriginal students completing their schooling and having the chance to secure meaningful jobs and careers.

We are seeing good work done in relation to the education area, particularly in Aboriginal student retention rates in our public schools. For year 10 to 12 students, we have improved our apparent retention rates more than 18 per cent, from 73 per cent of students going through to finish their schooling to now having 91.9 per cent of students completing year 12. The gap between Aboriginal students and all students is also decreasing. In 2006, there was a difference of around 33 per cent between those Aboriginal and Torres Strait students compared with all other students, and in the last 10 years that gap has narrowed to now only around 11 per cent.

The next challenge is to work together to take those improved educational outcomes for Aboriginal students and unlock the jobs that we know are being created. I was pleased to join the Governor last week in announcing the 15 new ambassadors and to acknowledge the contribution of the chairs and former chairs of the program. We are committed to providing ongoing support for the Governor's Aboriginal Employment Clusters Program. For 2016, the 15 new ambassadors will:

raise the profile of cluster activity and achievements;

increase their role as change agents within their industries by identifying barriers to employment and the retention of Aboriginal people in these areas;

increase the program's activity in priority regions;

promote non-traditional industries to Aboriginal people through the recently developed Aboriginal employment promotional videos;

support and promoting aboriginalemploymentsa.com.au to employers and Aboriginal jobseekers;

increase the cultural competence of the industry clusters through the rollout of training for the recently developed cultural respect program for supervisors and managers of Aboriginal people;

working with cluster chairs and members to update and establish the rollout action plans for each cluster;

through the Aboriginal student engagement transition initiative promote cluster industries to Aboriginal high school students;

strengthen already developed relationships with all three universities to ensure that Aboriginal students are exposed to our employment clusters; and

maintain a database of Aboriginal university students to facilitate cadetships between cluster members, employees and students.

I thank all the ambassadors. The ambassadors present at the event last week were: Mr Mark Butcher, Chairman SA/NT, Minter Ellison; Ms Carol Hampton, Manager, Land and Property, City of Marion; Mr Lew Owens, Chairman, SA Water; Mr Simon Hockridge, General Manager Human Services, Adelaide Venue Management; Mr Andrew Downs, Group Managing Director, SAGE Automation; Mr Warren McCann, Principal, Public Sector Solutions; Ms Khatija Thomas, former commissioner for Aboriginal engagement; Mr Kim Cheater, partner, PwC; Reverend Peter Sandeman, CEO, Anglicare; Mr David Syme, Manager of People and Culture, SA Power Networks; Ms Erma Ranieri, Commissioner for Public Sector Employment; Mr Frank Lampard, current Commissioner for Aboriginal Engagement; Mr David Cruikshanks-Boyd, Regional Director, Parsons Brinkerhoff; Mr Adam Bannister, Managing Partner, Minter Ellison; and Mr Simon Brewer, the Mayor of Campbelltown City Council.

I thank those 15 new ambassadors for the program and look forward to the results it will have on increasing employment opportunities for Aboriginal South Australians.