The federal government says Australia is not only no nearer to closing the Indigenous employment gap, it has widened over the last five years.
(Transcript from World News Australia Radio)
Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister, Alan Tudge, says since 2008 the Indigenous employment gap has grown by almost three per cent.
The figures come as the government enters the final stages of a review into Indigenous training and employment programs.
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The Indigenous Jobs and Training Review is led by mining magnate Andrew Forrest, supported by Indigenous academic Professor Marcia Langton.
The Review's website says the Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister, Alan Tudge, is "guiding and shaping the Review process".
Due to report in April, Mr Tudge says the review is particularly timely with recent federal government analysis of Australian Bureau of Statistics employment figures showing the Indigenous employment gap has widened by 2.8 per cent since 2008.
Mr Tudge says this is despite a 2008 promise by the then Labor government to halve the Indigenous employment gap within a decade.
"What we suspect is that over the last five years we've had much slower overall economic growth and that Indigenous people have been the first people not to get the advantages of economic growth. We hit 2008 and the employment gap has widened slightly over those last four or five years and that's disturbing for many Australians because we know that employment is at the heart of reconciliation. People who have jobs tend to have better health, they tend to have better housing, they tend to have better overall wellbeing. So this is a very serious matter that we need to get on top of."
The latest ABS figures show the unemployment rate amongst Aboriginal people sits at around 16 per cent, compared with the national average of just under six per cent.
Mr Tudge says the review was necessary because many existing job training programs have failed to lead to employment.
He says, in response the federal government has committed around 45 million dollars for further training centres that he says will guarantee a job at the end.
"It's not training with the possibility that you might get a job at the end, and possibly not, but rather training where there is a guaranteed job at the end. Because too often particularly in Indigenous communities you find people just doing training after training after training. And I've met people with ten certificates to their name and still no job at the end of it, so we've got to break that cycle and have much more demand-driven training, rather than supply-driven training."
Over 300 submissions were made to the Indigenous Jobs and Training Review before submissions closed in January.
The Compass Group provides support services to major companies operating in the oil and gas, mining and construction industries and to the defence sector.
Around eight per cent of its resource sector workforce is Indigenous.
The group has won a NAIDOC Award, among other awards, for its Indigenous employment strategy which it has had in place since 1992.
The Compass Group's submission called for the corporate sector to commit to establishing what it calls a Cross Sectorial CEO Taskforce to increase Indigenous employment rates.
George Mifsud is the Group's executive director of human resources.
"What we're suggesting is having champions, if you like. Getting together CEOs from organisations who are participating in this space along with some CEOs of organisations who want to participate in the space. And then coming together as a task force and sharing ideas, learning from each other, making commitments. Possibly even pulling resources at times so these CEOs can become champions for this change that we're looking for in helping close the gap."
Bill Mitchell is Professor of Economics at Charles Darwin University.
He says in the last two years, Australia has seen virtually zero employment growth, meaning those already disadvantaged in the job market will continue to be so.
Professor Mitchell is currently researching the employment needs of six remote Aboriginal communities.
He says for most people in these communities, lack of opportunity is the reason why they haven't got a job.
"They range from desert communities to maritime communities out on East Arnhem Land and out on Groote Eylandt and Tiwi Islands. The overwhelming results so far tell me that people certainly want to work, but there is just a lack of opportunity for them to work. It's not easy obviously to transit into other labour markets in these areas. The presence of private sector employment is very weak, and unlikely to improve really because of the locational disadvantages for a private firm. The reality is that we have a low-skilled population, remote and really need the government to create work in those areas that look after the communities that provide upskilling to the communities and transition for their younger populations."
In their submission to the review, children's charity The Smith Family says early support - especially for Indigenous children in jobless families - is an essential step for closing the gap.
The charity supports students from pre-school to secondary school and includes parents, many of whom are unemployed, in its various programs as a way of breaking the unemployment cycle.
Suzanne Demosthenous is The Smith Family's National Indigenous Policy Manager.
"We offer a range of programs. Last year we supported more than 5,000 Aboriginal and Torres Strait students to receive a learning for life scholarship and a range of other initiatives that allow us to ensure where possible that we would recommend an integrated education, training and pre-employment service system."
The Forrest Review has received more than 300 submissions, conducted forums across the country, and met with more than 40 business leaders.
Andrew Forrest will report the recommendations of the review to the Government in April.
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