Bennelong Society Conference 2005:
Remote Aboriginal Communities: Where are the Jobs?

Dinner Address and Presentation of the Bennelong Medal

Hon. Kevin Andrews, MP

I would like to thank Gary Johns, Peter Howson and the Bennelong Society for inviting me to be here with you tonight.

I am particularly honoured to be presenting the Bennelong medal to Mr Warren Mundine later this evening.

But before I do that, I have been invited to speak to you about one of my favourite subjects: getting people jobs.

Reforming the welfare system is one of my preoccupations. Not least because the scourge of welfare dependency is without doubt a lead contributor to creating and even institutionalising disadvantage.

No where is entrenched disadvantage felt more acutely in an otherwise successful nation than among the disproportionate number of Indigenous communities.

Let me try to illustrate the extent of this problem:

Most people would be aware the Indigenous unemployment rate is around three to four times higher than that experienced by the general population.

Many are not aware that the that around half of the Indigenous population aged fifteen and over derive their main source of income from government pensions and allowances, according to 2002 data.[1]

An additional ten per cent derived their main income from Community Development Employment Projects, CDEP.[2]

In other words, around six in every ten Indigenous Australians aged 15 and over rely on payments sourced by the government to get by from day to day.

A fact that may surprise you is that only seven per cent of Indigenous Australians in very remote areas are actually counted as unemployed.[3] How can this be when other statistics show us that the incomes of Indigenous Australians in very remote areas are by far the lowest[4] and that home ownership is almost non-existent?[5]

The telling economic statistics of intergenerational reliance on welfare do not stack up against such a low unemployment rate.

It becomes clearer though, when we reveal that there are large numbers of Indigenous Australians receiving Parenting or Disability Support pensions that are not counted in the labour force.

It is clearer still when you understand that seventy per cent of the Indigenous labour force in very remote areas are counted as employed because they participate in CDEP.[6]

When you add to this the fact that over 7,000 people who are counted as unemployed are also exempted from actively participating because of their remoteness, then you get a better picture of what the statistics really tell us about living in remote communities.

As this audience well knows, this country made a number of devastating decisions premised on the sham conviction that Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders were lesser economic beings, incapable of coping with the rigours of private sector employment or ever attaining entrepreneurial flare.

It arose out of the best of intentions from about the 1966 Northern Territory Stockmen's equal pay case onwards.

It also grew out of the notion of separateness and righteous indignation from the New Left that fed into the 'homelands' or 'out-station' movement.

These policies were compounded by offering income benefits at a time when it was considered the proper response to poverty.

When government tried to address idleness arising from open ended welfare, it introduced low paid community sector programmes like the CDEP, which were not effective in connecting able bodied jobseekers to the labour market.

The cumulative impact of these approaches to people living in these remote communities has also meant violence, crime, health problems and sickening substance misuse that often accompany joblessness and welfare dependence.

This 'lesser economic being' approach had not been the view before the sixties.

In living memory, Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders were participating in the labour market on cattle stations, at mining sites, in cities, in towns and even in missions. Many owned their own homes and some ran businesses.

Idleness, let alone welfare dependency, is not an integral part of Indigenous cultures.

The responses following the achievements of political equality and the end of twentieth century assimilation led to a discredited forty year-old social experiment that is only now being unravelled.

Nevertheless there is a discernible realignment on Indigenous affairs among a growing number of observers, from some unlikely quarters. Take for instance, Rosemary Neill, a left wing journalist and author of How Politics is Killing Black Australia, who examines the plight in many remote communities as a toxic collision between Western affluence and idealism:

All the while, remote communities have been regarded with near-reverence, mostly by people who would never dream of living in them. For many progressives, such communities are the true repositories of indigenous culture, spirituality and identification with ancestral lands ....

A notion of cultural autonomy that discounts the importance of real jobs and formal education simply divorces indigenous communities from mainstream power structures, even as they are flooded with the worst aspects of Western culture, from junk food to drugs.

I would not endorse everything Neill proposes but she is tragically accurate with these sentiments.

Within one or two generations, open ended welfare payments have transformed many communities which knew the meaning of working for everything they got, into a generation who have been trapped by the narrowing circles of dependence and declining opportunity.

And in some cases, many Indigenous peoples made first contact not with missionaries or pastoralists but with public servants offering income benefits and public housing.

I am not only responsible for workplace relations reform but also welfare to work reforms which are aimed at driving participation in the labour force and at reducing welfare dependency.

Members of the Australian Council of Social Services often provide me with a lot of unsolicited advice about the risks of reforms to the most vulnerable in the community.

Unfortunately, the argument that a growing cohort of the working poor will emerge or expand by undertaking labour market or welfare reform is not one I commend to anyone serious about addressing disadvantage.

If the social fabric of some of the world's longest living cultures---the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities---are groaning from the heavy hand of intergenerational welfare, than well meaning people must understand the risk of not reforming the system is greater than the status quo.

• We know that growing up in a household where no parent is working can affect a child's chances in life;
• We know that even part time and casual work can lead to better work; and
• We know that a commonsense approach to welfare reform is about a balance between assistance, incentives and penalties can outcomes for people.

If New Zealand can create single digit unemployment rates for Maoris within five years, why can't Australians do the same for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians?

It is true the two countries' histories are very divergent, constitutionally, culturally, demographically. But we are also different because New Zealanders embraced reforms to Indigenous welfare and economic development some ten or fifteen years before we have.

Too many Indigenous individuals and families, over and beyond the effects of dispossession, are poor because they do not have access to the suite of opportunities that accompany employment, including self employment.

They include more disposable income, the ability to accumulate personal assets, home ownership, superannuation, skills, role modelling, self esteem, not to mention access to better job offers as they arise.

The Australian Government wants more people winning jobs in their community. If these opportunities do not appear as quickly as first hoped, then we want people working together to improve the community, not destroying it.

This is the thinking behind the 'Future Directions' reforms of CDEP announced earlier this year.

We have responded quickly with a range of measures that place a stronger emphasis on results, especially employment outcomes, business development and meeting the needs of Indigenous communities. CDEP organisations are now required to work with Job Network, local industries and training providers.

CDEPs are being transformed from dead end projects into outcome orientated ventures whose goals are real jobs with real incomes and viable community enterprises that take advantage of local opportunities. They will move away from being subsidised jobs and enterprises over time.

However these reforms will not amount to much unless we can mature the labour market in remote areas.

Let me briefly relate to you a tremendous achievement from another hemisphere.

Syncrude is a company that mines silica in the remote northern plains of Alberta in western Canada. The executives who founded that company explained that some 20 years ago, they were determined to achieve high involvement of Aboriginal people as employees. The company found that they had to start with the primary schools in the neighbouring Aboriginal communities. They worked and worked with the local communities around education. Some 20 years ago, the Aboriginal workforce at the mine had a turnover of 35 per cent. It is now less than 6 per cent. Syncrude is now the largest employer of Aboriginal people in Canada. Over 600 Aboriginal people are employed either directly at the mine, or as contractors in outsourced businesses. In order to hold a management position in Syncrude, it is necessary to have a degree and ten years experience. Many Aboriginal Canadians are winning management positions in this company. In a very real way, the company grew as the local Indigenous community grew.

This is fantastic, but why can't we do this in Australia?

As a matter of fact we are. We can look at the Hamersley and Argyle mines in Western Australia for example. They have been improving the long-term employment of Indigenous Australians for some time now.

Too often I hear people express with resignation---there are just no jobs out there.

I reply with some frustration that there are jobs that are required to provide services to communities. And it ignores labour shortages often just around the corner. Most importantly though, it closes peoples eyes to the opportunities around them.

Around sixty per cent of minerals operations in Australia have neighbouring Indigenous communities.[7] In June this year, the Australian Government forged an agreement with the Minerals Council of Australia to promote Indigenous employment and enterprise development in the minerals sector. Mining companies are operating in remote areas, and they are desperate for a local source of trained ready-to-work Indigenous employees. Indigenous Australians are eager to earn the good incomes that come with work in these mining operations.

It is imperative that we do a better job of linking these two groups. More mining companies need to develop appropriate working arrangements that respect local customs. Job-seekers need to have an appreciation of the skills and aptitudes required by employers. For its part, we in Government have committed to making it simpler for industry to work with us by offering training and employment programmes to assist Indigenous job-seekers acquire the skills they need to work in these mining operations.

Of course, the mining sector is not the only answer to Indigenous disadvantage.

The Australian Government is already targeting a range of industries with a presence in remote Australia such as Property and Business Services, Building and Construction and Health and Community Services in order to fill skills shortages. The Australian Government is also supporting the development of the lucrative Indigenous Arts industry as well as supporting ventures in other areas such as tourism and bush tucker.

However, to exploit the job opportunities that might flow from these industries, employers, communities and all spheres of governments will need to take a good hard look at different ways of dealing with the challenge of building labour markets in remote areas.

The Construction industry has traditionally employed people for fixed terms around particular projects in remote Australia. Improved relationships with CDEP organisations could assist construction companies to have an ongoing call on skilled teams who are able to service large areas of remote Australia.

In the Health and Community Services sector, the availability of predominantly part-time work is potentially very attractive to someone with parenting responsibilities or a reduced capacity for work due to a disability.

There are also opportunities for us to turn CDEP positions into contracted providers of essential and community services in remote communities. If we can establish a better way of directing funds to community councils for the provision of essential and community services, positions once funded by CDEP might in the future become off-CDEP jobs with contracted service providers.

The Australian Government has developed an Employer Demand Strategy which provides $50 million over four years to help improve employer awareness of the benefits of hiring people such as Indigenous Australians to fill their skill shortages.

Another strategy being used is exemplified in remote north Queensland. Communities in the Cape have been working with the Australian and Queensland governments to develop a Cape York Indigenous Employment Strategy. Its theme is local jobs for local people.

So far, 4,500 full-time equivalent jobs have been identified in the region in fields such as mining, cattle stations, tourism, health, education, police and council services. The next stage of the strategy involves skilling locals to win local jobs and developing new jobs in natural resource management, micro-enterprises and industries such as tourism, cattle and fishing.

The approach is simple. Where there is a job, make sure there is a local person ready and skilled to fill the job when it becomes vacant. Where there is an opportunity, build up the business skills of locals to turn those opportunities into jobs and profits.

It will take time but, we are identifying existing and potential jobs and the skills required for these jobs and we are developing better ways of delivering training and education to people in remote areas.

But we also need to think outside of the box and accept that it will sometimes be difficult to bring the training to the individual who needs it.

Through initiatives such as the Indigenous Youth Mobility Programme, the Australian Government is developing innovative ways of skilling up Indigenous Australians from remote communities.

The Indigenous Youth Mobility Programme will support people to move to where training is provided whilst assisting them to maintain contact with their community.

I am not under the illusion that this local jobs for local people approach will cure welfare dependency overnight. But the first steps are in establishing a local labour market.

There are other steps required, naturally. The whole agenda of Indigenous economic development including corporate governance, home ownership, resource exploitation, business and community self employment development has not been touched on tonight.

Last week, I met with the Larrakia Development Corporation in Darwin to discuss their ambitious plans to leverage off their communal assets. These members of the Larrakia nation are truly entrepreneurial.

In them, I saw a Larrakia capitalism that should be admired, just as Australians admire the industry of Italian, Lebanese or Jewish Australians for giving their culturally specific flavour to commercial and community enterprise.

Allowing Indigenous communities in urban, regional and remote areas the freedom to create their own culturally specific capitalism is part of the answer to jobs.

I wish I had the time to elaborate on this theme. Considering an extensive agenda has been chosen by the Bennelong Society, other opportunities will arise.

Nevertheless, this does not take away from me and the Australian Government the responsibility of dealing with these issues of supply and demand for Indigenous Australians in remote areas and as always, the most important reforms are the hardest.

The case for reforming Australia's welfare system from one of purely entitlements and inability to one of capacity, opportunity, incentives and responsibilities has been a long-time coming. If I were to nominate one group of leaders who have agitated policy makers into action, it would have found among Australian Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders.

This trailblazing leadership has forcefully put the moral case for reform.

Future generations of Australians will be indebted for not only lifting the participation rates among Indigenous people but also disadvantaged non Indigenous Australians, such as sole parents and the long term unemployed.

Australia has some fundamental unfinished business which lies at the very heart of our sense of nationhood. Overwhelmingly we are, and have been, a decent society.

However when it comes to Indigenous Australians, the treatment represents the most blemished chapter in the history of this country, as the Prime Minister has said on occasions.

Reconciliation relates to the most basic issue on which any country is built: the terms on which we share opportunity and live together.

If people are looked out of sharing the prosperity of this nation, then welfare reform and economic independence are a matters of reconciliation, practical or otherwise.

In this context, I commend the Bennelong Society for generating debate on the economic opportunities available to Indigenous Australians living in remote Australia.

Another individual who has been generating debate on economic independence in Indigenous communities is this year's Bennelong Medal recipient Mr Warren Mundine.

I have to be very selective when I commend members of the Australian Labor Party.

If I do it too often, I may find myself out of a job at the next election. But seriously though, Warren has been a brave advocate for change.

What makes Warren different though is that he puts forward practical solutions rather than simply heckling from the sidelines. His proposal to change the way community owned land is controlled was aimed quite squarely at improving the wealth and well-being of his people.

His representation of the new National Indigenous Council surprised many.

However, this one time football coach rose through the ranks of the Dubbo City Council, and then through the ranks of the ALP to display a tremendous ability to motivate people into action.

At a time Indigenous Australians are looking for inspirational leadership, I am honoured to present to you a truly inspirational man, the 2005 Bennelong Medal winner, Mr Warren Mundine.

Once again, thank you to the Bennelong Society.

Notes

[1] Source: ABS National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Survey (NATSISS), 2002 (Cat. no. 4714.0)

[2] Source: ABS 2002 NATSISS

[3] Source: ABS 2002 NATSISS (unpublished); table 3A.5.5

[4] Source: ABS 2002 NATSISS (unpublished); table 3A.6.1

[5] Source: ABS 2002 NATSISS (unpublished); table 3A.7.3 and 3A.7.5

[6] Source: ABS 2002 NATSISS (unpublished); table

[7] Source: Minerals Council of Australian research