Michael Johnson (Ryan, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I want to speak in the parliament today about jobs and opportunities for Indigenous Australians. Today’s Indigenous unemployment rate is some 14 per cent. This is terrible, it is disgraceful, it is a shame upon all of us who have the opportunity and the capacity to make an impact—and we must do this: those of us who are in situations where we can tackle this blight upon our country must do so. The rest of the country faces unemployment rates of some 4½ per cent, but I suspect this will go up, too, with the Rudd Labor government in charge of the Treasury bench. We will have to focus our attention on that in the months and years ahead. But today the Indigenous population of our country needs our help. It needs the help of governments and it needs the help of Australian businesses and others who are able to provide opportunities. We have to think about new ideas for and new ways of attacking unemployment in the Indigenous community.

Unemployment, of course, is the source of so many negatives in life: negative access to health care, to services and to education opportunities, and we all know that unemployment at any level and at every level hits confidence and self-esteem. To many of those who are unemployed—and I am sure many of us have met people who have been unemployed—their lives have little sense of usefulness, there is a sense of being of no value and there is a lack of motivation. It is something that we must address.

Yesterday I had the opportunity of meeting one of Australia’s most significant businessmen, someone who employs many, many hundreds of people, a businessman who wants to make a genuine and a long-term impact on the Australian Indigenous population. I had the opportunity and distinct pleasure of meeting the CEO of FMG, Mr Andrew Forrest. I had a 45-minute meeting with him because he comes from Western Australia and runs a business that employs hundreds of Indigenous Australians and I come from Queensland, a state that also has a very significant unemployment issue with its Indigenous population. We had a very productive meeting and he asked for my thoughts about his initiative, the Australian Employment Covenant, which I think is a very positive initiative, a very significant move in the paradigm of how we can tackle the issues of Indigenous unemployment.

Mr Forrest runs a global company, a company that exports iron ore to China. What we need to do here is to take a leaf out of his book in the way that he thinks, in terms of globalising our workforce, globalising the Indigenous population of Australia. What I mean by that is giving them access, giving them the opportunities that the rest of the country has access to.

The Australian Employment Covenant plans to provide some 50,000 jobs to Indigenous Australians. It is going to involve mentorship and training of Indigenous people: giving them access to those who have skills and giving them access to business leaders, who will be very much a part of their training, and their mentors. Australian businesses are going to be called upon to play their part. Australian governments at state and federal level are being asked to play their part, and I am delighted that the Prime Minister and members of the opposition are very warmly endorsing this way of thinking.

Australians are ready to tackle this massive challenge. We have to do this. Expressing sentiments in the parliament is one thing—and it is on the record that I subscribed to the national apology to the Australian Indigenous people that the parliament gave earlier this year. I supported that move. I thought it was overdue. I do believe that the Howard government should have done this, and the people of Ryan are well aware of that.

On this issue of Indigenous Australian unemployment, I want to refer the parliament to the comments of two other significant Australians. The first is Mr Noel Pearson, who is a director of the Cape York Institute for Policy and Leadership. This is what Mr Noel Pearson, an Australian who really does think very much about these kinds of issues, said when Mr Forrest approached him on this idea:

“… it was a complete hit to the solar plexus when Andrew proposed not a few thousand real jobs in a timeframe, but 50,000 guaranteed real jobs.”

I should say that I went to school with Mr Noel Pearson, so we do share these views very strongly. I also want to quote another significant Australian, a former ALP national president, Mr Mundine, who is also very supportive of this idea:

“You can educate people as much as you like, but if they’ve no jobs to go into, as a young Aboriginal 10-year-old told me, ‘Why do we need to be educated, if there is there’s nothing for us, there’s no future?’ This is going to fill that gap.”

This is something that is very significant, and I want to commend all Australians and Mr Forrest for coming up with this Australian Employment Covenant.