The ACT government needs to promote the diversity of employment opportunities available to attract more indigenous Australians to the local public service, according to the director of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs, Robyn Forester.
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Ms Forester believes better communication with the community will go a long way to boosting the number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander employees before the government’s 2015 deadline for ensuring at least 2per cent of staff are indigenous Australians.
A report released by the ACT’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Elected Body earlier this year found that less than 1per cent of the staff in some government directorates were indigenous people.
Ms Forester said the commonwealth public service was the territory government’s biggest competitor in terms of attracting more indigenous Australians to jobs.
She said the ACT Government needed to better promote the scope of work and career progression available to indigenous people.
“The average person out on the street, when they think of government employment they think the office. They forget about all those other services,” she said.
“They don’t necessarily think about the other opportunities out there like the liaison officer roles, particularly through education; the jobs that are available in the hospital; what TAMS has as far as parks and municipal services, even ACTION bus driving.
“In reality we probably don’t promote that enough. This is where we need to be able to say, ‘this is what we’ve got to offer’.”
Ms Forester, who is an Aboriginal Islander and undertook directorship of the new office mid-last year, said she used herself as an example after 24 years working in the federal public service.
“I’ve lived in Canberra for 29 years and this is my first step into the ACT Government. I had never considered the ACT Government as a potential employer of choice,” she said.
“Now that I’m here I can see the opportunities that we have. It’s being able to say to people, ‘this is what you can do in the ACT that you can’t do in the Commonwealth.”
Separating the Office of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs after 13 years within the Office of Multicultural and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs reflected the ACT Government’s commitment to ensuring indigenous Australians had a voice and influenced policy and service delivery, she said.