The 2nd National Local Government Indigenous Employment Roundtable was held in Alice Springs on 3-4 December 2012.
This information can be viewed on the ACELG website
Convened by Local Government Managers Australia (LGMA), a consortium partner of the Australian Centre of Excellence for Local Government (ACELG), the Roundtable drew together close to 90 delegates from across Australia, with a good mix of practitioners from councils and officials from government departments, the private sector and academia. Set in Alice Springs amongst the foothills of the McDonnell Ranges, and with a large proportion of Northern Territory delegates, the Roundtable brought out many significant but rarely discussed issues.
This 2nd Roundtable built on the success of the 1st Roundtable from 2011, more details of which are available here. As such, it saw the release of the much anticipated Closing the Gap Through Place-Based Employment: National Local Government Indigenous Employment Position Paper. See here for the media release. The key elements and actions of the Position Paper were referred to throughout the two days.
See below for more information on the presentations, and to download some of the presentations and videos.
The aims of the Roundtable were:
- To learn from and build on approaches and strategies of successful Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander employment initiatives, and to raise the sector’s awareness;
- To share knowledge and information:
- To improve access, opportunity, and recruitment and retention rates of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander employees in the local government sector within rural, remote, regional, urban and metropolitan locations;
- To learn from and build on approaches and strategies of successful Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander employment initiatives, and to raise the sector’s awareness;
- To launch and promote:
- The National Indigenous Employment in Local Government Position Paper which outlines an approach to increasing the workforce participation of Indigenous people in Local Government, promoting the sector to them as a place-based employer with national reach offering diverse career paths and opportunities;
- Cross-sectoral partnerships and funding arrangements for sustainable and replicable Indigenous Employment in Local Government Demonstration Projects;
- To explore the benefits to the sector of Reconciliation Action Plans and social procurement, including community/social enterprise, and other ways councils can improve, assist and facilitate Indigenous economic development, empowerment and employment opportunity; and
- To explore potential inter- and intra-governmental, and cross-sectoral partnerships involving local government.
Summary of the Key Outcomes:
Many of the delegates said the Roundtable inspired them and gave them confidence in what they were doing, knowing others were dealing with similar challenges. They recognised the need for simplicity and flexibility with program design, noting that it’s a learning and iterative process.
Some of the identified learnings and key outcomes focussed on the following themes:
- Mentoring - The need for appropriate and effective mentoring and training/coaching programs that are adaptable, with emphasis on work readiness.
- Reconciliation Action Plans - The importance of a whole-of-council and a whole-of-community approach and commitment to Reconciliation Action Plans
- Peer to Peer Twinning - The idea of building remote capacity through twinning communities, providing regional and remote communities with access to technical expertise and knowledge drawn from metro councils, while recognising there will be significant learning benefits for both participating parties.
- Sharing and Networking - The importance of networking, relationship building and information sharing, recognising there are accessible resources and goodwill to share experiences and learnings that will benefit the development of “next practice”.
Roundtable presentations (and videos) available for download: