PM: Today we want to talk about one of the big challenges which Australia faces for the future.
We need a clear cut plan for dealing with those challenges. And the challenge that I'm talking about is how do we close the gap between Indigenous Australia and non-Indigenous Australia.
Following the national apology, I said the Government would be opening up a plan, a long term plan, to close the gap in infant mortality, in education, in health. But also, critically, employment.
And employment is what we're here to talk about today. How do we transition Indigenous Australians from welfare into work - into real jobs.
And the leaders that I have with me today I know are passionate about this enterprise.
Andrew Forrest has put forward a bold proposal on behalf of corporate Australia. And it's this: that corporate Australia in the years ahead with team together to create some 50,000 jobs for Indigenous Australians.
If you look across the numbers, we have a large number of Indigenous Australians who are either not in work, or have never worked. And we believe that the best way forward for those Indigenous Australians is to make them training ready, job ready, and to give them a job for the future.
And that's where corporate Australia comes in. We want a strong and close partnership between corporate Australia, between the Government of Australia, and the Indigenous leadership of Australia. That way, we have a real prospect of making this work.
Government only programmes, I fear, are doomed to failure. That's why we need a strong partnership between Indigenous leadership, our major companies, as well as the Government itself supporting this plan on the way through.
What's the Government's role in this? Well, firstly I'd like to say today that we endorse and support Andrew Forrest's bold initiative, this Australian Employment Covenant. This is an important programme, as it involves a commitment from corporate Australia to build 50,000 real jobs for Indigenous Australia.
The Government's role is to support that by partnering with those corporates who want to sign on to this, by providing enough training programs to make those Indigenous Australians training ready.
And so the process would be like this. Government, participating with training programmes to make Indigenous Australians training ready. Secondly, participating companies then taking on those young Indigenous Australians into work - into paid work - where they would then be mentored. And, over time, absorbed into the long term workforce of corporate Australia.
And of course, the key thing there is to make sure that those young Indigenous Australians enter the payroll from the beginning. And that's an important commitment from the corporates who participate in this programme.
As Prime Minister of Australia, I congratulate Andrew Forrest for his initiative, and I would also congratulate the Indigenous leadership of Australia for their preparedness to support this initiative. It will be an initiative which works on the basis on everyone being prepared to sign on, to become part of it. Companies willing to sign on, as well as individual Indigenous communities and leadership groups signing on as well.
If we do that together, we've got a way ahead for dealing with this long term challenge for Australia to build a fairer and more inclusive country.
Andrew, why don't you come here and tell us your part of the story.
FORREST: Thank you, Prime Minister.
Ladies and Gentleman, as I sit with every employer in Australia, the only thing which stands between the success of what the Prime Minister has outlined is us, it's the employers of Australia.
Two things which have occurred which are completely breakthrough. One is that the Government, through the massive machinery of Government but in a very innovative and flexible and energetic way, are prepared to deliver the training which Aboriginal people need.
This training has to be in short courses. The devil of training is boredom. A three to four month short course, which is crammed with the industry details specific to that Aboriginal's future job, is what has always been required and what the Government is promising to deliver.
From Australia's perspective, every employer in Australia can look at this. If you employ one person already, please make the second one an Aboriginal person.
Bottom line here is that if you mentor an Aboriginal person into the workplace, in all my experience in the 15 years which I've been doing this, which I've been trialling this, that Aboriginal person makes an excellent contribution to your firm.
So my direct appeal is for every employer in Australia, when the Government delivers and when the Aboriginal leaders and the Aboriginals themselves deliver work mentor ready Aboriginal people to you to employ, we ask you to step out to your major role, your major part, in breaking, at last, the Aboriginal social and monetary poverty cycle, and employ those Aboriginals.
There are parts (inaudible) will. To the major players which I've spoken to in the corporate sector and the private sector, in the public sector, the will is there. I now appeal to the goodwill, to the great heart, of all Australians to step up and employ Aboriginal people when they are work mentor ready.
The Government has promised to deliver these training programs, we as the corporate sector, the agricultural sector, the general employment sector, I feel now, at this point in time, have the heart, have the will, and certainly have the ability, to break the Aboriginal social and poverty cycle with real jobs on full time pay, permanent places in our employment society.
So I thank you and I very much welcome to responses from my Aboriginal brothers here.
PEARSON: Good morning, and thank you very much Prime Minister and Andrew for the opportunity to express my great excitement about this initiative.
I've been talking up hill and down dale for many years about the scourge of welfare, and the desperate need for our people to engage in the opportunities of Australia's incredible economy.
And we've made a lot of progress on that. There's a lot of preparedness on the part of our community to get our young people off welfare and participating and taking their share in the country.
The one piece of this jigsaw that I haven't been able to do is provide the work opportunity answer. Whether you're in Aurukun or you're in Hopedale, you're out in the sticks, we can do the welfare reform to push our people into real work. But the bit that I could not ever muscle together was the work opportunity part of the jigsaw.
And so it was with 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've hung around corporate Australia for a number of years. I've heard a lot of goodwill from people. But I've never been actually sure about whether those doors are open-able from the outside and whether when you tested the door, Aboriginal people could enter. And Andrew assures me, and I'm sure he is correct about this, that these doors are there for the opening. And I think that Andrew is taking the leadership to open the door for Aboriginal Australia to enter the staircase of opportunity for our people is a huge fillip.
And I want to say, I want to endorse the Prime Minster's remarks that his goal, which is absolutely the correct goal, of closing the gap. That is absolutely the correct policy goal. And, you get the employment part of the jigsaw together, and you've cut a large part of the challenge out in closing the gap.
You get 50,000 Aboriginal mothers and fathers in the workplace, you've made the most decisive gain in terms of closing the gap.
So I just want to say that I'm really very, very pleased at this announcement of the Australian Employment Covenant.
PM: Thanks very much Noel. Warren, do you want to add?
MUNDINE: What I've got to say is very simple. If we're going to break through Indigenous poverty, if we're going to break down the dependence on welfare, then we're going to need jobs, we're going to need jobs across the Australian economy, because otherwise we're just not going to move forward.
So when I ran into Andrew in Perth earlier this year and he talked about his idea, he talked about how he wanted to do this, it was music to my ears.
This, as Noel said, this was the missing piece in the jigsaw. You can educate people as much as you like, but if they've got no jobs to go into, as a young Aboriginal ten year old kid told me, ‘why do we need to be educated if there is nothing for us and there is no future?'
This is going to fill that gap. It's an ambitious scheme, 50,000 jobs is a big push. Andrew wants to do this in two years. I think he's right; you've got to put the challenge out there, you've got to take it on. Otherwise, we're not going to break through this poverty. We're not going to break through this welfare dependency. And we're not going to make our community sustainable, safe, and build a future for our kids.
I'm very pleased with the Prime Minister for coming on board. Having a conversation yesterday with him, and then today, and hearing his commitment to this program, is actually going to drive it forward and make it achievable. I've got to congratulate the Prime Minister, I've got to congratulate Andrew, and I've got to congratulate Noel and everyone who is coming on board with this. And I've like to thank you for that.
EDDINGTON: Thanks Prime Minister.
I mean, we know that there are a number of Australian companies today that have excellent Indigenous employees in their ranks. We also know that there are many young Indigenous members of our community who are fit and able to work who aren't in work. And, the many companies who genuinely wish to create opportunities for Indigenous Australians, so that we can close the gap that Noel and Warren have spoken so powerfully about.
It's an opportunity for those companies to be part of a practical, workable scheme to bring the young men and women of the Indigenous community into the workforce, and to ensure that future generations aren't blighted in the way in which past Indigenous Australians have been blighted.
It's a real opportunity, it's a practical opportunity, and with the leadership that the Prime Minister, that Andrew, Noel and Warren have shown, we have a chance. It's up to us as the employers of Australia to grasp it.
PM: Thank you.
So, just to wrap up, and take your questions.
This is a bold initiative from corporate Australia. I congratulate Andrew Forrest for putting it out there. We in Government are prepared to support his initiative. This'll be tough, it'll be hard.
And we also thank the leaders of Indigenous Australia for being prepared to be part of this great national effort to move as many Indigenous Australians as possible from welfare into real jobs. It's a real pathway for the future.
To conclude, where Sir Rod left off, many Australian companies are already doing good things out there. Fortescue is one of them, and I've seen other actions by other mining companies and others in the corporate sector including the accounting firms and the banks.
What we're talking about here is taking that level of commitment to a new, higher level. And that's why I would support the call by Andrew Forrest to corporate Australia to get in behind this programme.
We set ourselves a period of the next 100 days to turn this ambition into a detailed plan. (Inaudible).
But we look forward to then being in a position towards the end of the year to unveiling the totality of this plan for the year ahead.
Happy to take your questions.
JOURNALIST: (Inaudible)
PM: Well this is a very tough ambition which Andrew has set for Australian companies. We'll do our bit as Government, which is, as companies sign on to this Australian Employment Covenant, then what we would be prepared to do is to work with those companies to provide the necessary number of training places, tailored to the needs of those firms and those industries. That's what's important here.
What I do know is that unless you set targets, and unless you set goals, and we have one as a Government, it's called closing the gap, you turn around in five, ten, 15 years, and you've made no progress. It's far better to set some ambitious goals, even if from time to time you fall short. I commend Andrew for his ambition.
FORREST: If I could perhaps add to that.
It is an extremely tough ask. But in all the Australian employers that I've met, are they ready for that challenge, do they have the heart for that challenge, do they have the ability to meet this challenge? The answer is absolutely yes. This is simply a forum for them to express that great heart which I believe is in every Australian employer.
JOURNALIST: (Inaudible)
FORREST: I won't give you absolute specifics. But please don't be surprised that I've canvassed corporate Australia, that I've canvassed particularly the leaders, and in many cases the owners of these companies. And what I've found myself pushing against is an open door.
From the highest in the land, to the employers of two or three people only, the questions to me have been ‘how can I help?'. And I'm gratified by that and I believe this is now an idea of Australian employers, not of mine, but of Australian employers, whose time has.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, what sort of flow on effects do you expect to see if this is successful? What are the benefits long term?
PM: Well, Noel Pearson hit the nail right on the head before when Noel said that this is very much the missing piece to the jigsaw. Government working on infrastructure challenges for Indigenous Australia, like in health, like in housing, like in education, making sure we've got proper governance in Indigenous communities.
But unless we are providing jobs, and Government can't provide jobs, that's where corporate Australia steps in, then we're falling short.
This is very much the missing piece to the jigsaw, where corporate Australia, if it steps up to the plate, can make a huge difference.
So my ambition, together with Andrew, is to do what we can to turn this vision into a reality, while recognising that it's a very ambitious goal which he has set for Australian companies.
JOURNALIST: How much money are you willing to (inaudible)
PM: Well, we've said that if corporates step forward with their plan, then we'll get behind those corporates with the necessary number of training places in the necessary locations with the necessary flexibility to make sure it actually works.
You know, we've got to make sure that we've got a system which is flexible enough to reach across the different challenges which companies face, and the different challenges which individuals in Indigenous communities face. This will be a big challenge, of course, for us all. But I commend again Andrew's leadership in putting forward this bold plan forward.
JOURNALIST: (Inaudible) blank cheque?
PM: What we've said is that if companies come forward, we'll support those companies.
This is very much a partnership. It's a partnership between Indigenous Australia, a partnership with corporate Australia, and a partnership also with the Government of Australia. With corporate Australia in the lead, and that, I believe is absolutely right when you're talking about real jobs and sustainable jobs for the future.
I think we'd better go. Thanks everyone.