MONDAY 5 DECEMBER 2005
Report reveals Indigenous jobs slashed in public service
The number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people employed in the Australian Public Service has declined for the third successive year, a report from the Public Service Commissioner has revealed.
The State of Service Report, tabled in Parliament last week, found that more than 100 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander staff were retrenched in 2004-05 following the abolition of ATSIC and ATSIS.
Indigenous employees were also hit hardest by the abolition of ATSIS. Although they made up 44.3 percent of the ATSIS workforce, 50.3 percent of those who left the public service after the agency’s abolition were Indigenous.
The report found that the numbers of ongoing Indigenous employees fell by 6 percent in the past year and the total number of Indigenous employees has declined over the past ten years.
The proportion of employees recruited who are Indigenous has also dropped sharply during the life of the Howard Government – from 4.3 percent in 1995–96 to 2.3 percent in 2004–05.
The proportion of Indigenous employees leaving the public service increased. 15.3 percent of Indigenous employees left the public service last year compared to 8.5 percent of non-Indigenous employees. The total number of Indigenous people leaving the public service rose from 356 to 437 last year.
Australians for Native Title and Reconciliation National Director, Dr David Cooper, said that the declining numbers of Indigenous people in the public service was a symptom of the Government’s widespread failure in Indigenous policy.
“Aboriginal public servants are voting with their feet when it comes to the Government’s new arrangements. Experienced and talented Aboriginal public servants want no part of what the Government is doing to their communities,” Dr Cooper said.
“At the same time the Government is pushing delivery of Aboriginal programs into mainstream departments, Aboriginal public servants are being pushed out of those same departments.”
Dr Cooper said the talent drain of experienced public servants was matched by the government’s failure to support existing staff and to recruit new Indigenous employees.
“It’s incredible that at a time of such widespread Aboriginal unemployment the Government hasn’t done more to try to retain and recruit Aboriginal staff. Nearly half of all Federal Government agencies still have no specific strategies to recruit Indigenous Australians.”
“81% of Indigenous employees felt their agency needed to do more to support them, compared with 28% of non-Indigenous employees. It’s little wonder Indigenous staff are leaving at a disproportionate rate.”
“The Government’s approach is robbing Indigenous people of potential careers and denying them the chance to participate in the development and implementation of policies that impact on their communities. The Federal Government should be setting an example to other employers, but yet again it’s turned a blind eye to the needs of Indigenous people,” he said.
“The figures provide further evidence as to why the Government’s ‘practical reconciliation’ policies have failed and raise serious questions regarding the workability of its “new arrangements”
Dr Cooper urged the Government to lift its efforts in Indigenous employment.
“Giving meaningful job opportunities to Indigenous people in the public service is one of the most direct and tangible things this Government could do to improve the lives of Indigenous people,” Dr Cooper said.
A full copy of the Federal Public Service Commissioner’s report relating to Indigenous employment can be found at: http://www.apsc.gov.au/stateoftheservice/0405/c9g.htm.
Media contact: Gary Highland on 0418 476 940.
