The federal government is “leading by example” by setting employment targets for Indigenous Australians in the public service in an attempt to close the gap in employment, the Indigenous affairs minister, Nigel Scullion, has said.
Scullion and the employment minister, Michaelia Cash, launched the Indigenous employment strategy in Parliament House on Wednesday.
Earlier this year, the government set a target of Indigenous employees making up 3% of the overall public service workforce by 2018. The last census found that 2.4% of Australia’s population identified as having Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander heritage.
On Wednesday the government announced different agency-level targets for individual departments and commonwealth bodies.
“Government are attempting to lead by example. We’ve committed to a 3% employment target in commonwealth public service by 2018,” Scullion said on Wednesday. “That’s 9,270 Indigenous jobs.”
Progress towards the new targets will be published on the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet’s website, and will be included in the prime minister’s annual close-the-gap statement in parliament.
Cash said the announcement of the strategy made Wednesday a “momentous day”.
“It is an important step forward in the journey towards creating employment parity for Indigenous Australians,” she said.
The Indigenous employment strategy includes goals on increasing representation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in senior roles within the public sector, and improving awareness of Indigenous culture so that the public service is a “culturally-safe” workplace, Cash said.
Of the more than 309,000 Commonwealth public servants, only 2% – or nearly 6,800 – are Indigenous.
Several departments, including finance, the industry and science, and communications, have less than 1% representation of Indigenous Australians. At 0.3%, the Treasury is the worst-performing department.
By contrast, the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, which houses the Indigenous affairs portfolio, has representation of about 15.6%, making it the best performing department. Scullion announced that the Indigenous employment strategy would see the department lift its target to 17%.
A review into Indigenous employment conducted last year by the mining magnate Andrew Forrest found that the number of working Indigenous adults would need to double to reach parity with non-Indigenous Australians. That would be an extra 188,000 jobs.
Scullion admitted the number was “terrifying”, noting that the gap had widened by 7% in the past seven years.
“For too long it’s been considered too hard, across governments, I must say,” he said in the Senate on Wednesday afternoon. “Forty-six per cent of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people of working age are in work. Only 46%. Thirty per cent less than the non-Indigenous rate.”
