Vince Connelly (Stirling, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Yesterday, I had the great pleasure of speaking with my good friend Karyn Hinder, who's the founder of Working Spirit. I congratulated Karen on receiving a Prime Minister's Veterans' Employment Award for excellence in supporting veterans' employment. Since founding Working Spirit in 2016, Karen has been working tirelessly, drawing from her own experience in the ADF to help veterans find employment and readjust to mainstream life. Each week, she sends job opportunities to around 700 veterans, 30 of whom she engages with and puts in touch with employers—some of them small businesses, others high-profile companies—looking for experienced workers. In fact, companies from right around the country are engaging with Working Spirit because they hope to get veterans on board their own teams.

While I was speaking to Karen, she mentioned how she was working closely with engineering firm Monadelphous, who have recently taken on new employees through Working Spirit. Monadelphous, along with Karyn and other veterans, visited HMAS Stirling in Western Australia for an extensive tour of the base to showcase the roles that ADF personnel fill and the skill sets that they can bring as veterans within businesses. It's organisations like Working Spirit who are helping veterans to reconnect with civilian work opportunities in this next stage of their lives and also helping employers to access the wonderful skills, knowledge and attitudes that veterans bring to workplaces.