The significant and valued contribution made by Indigenous Australian employees, businesses and partners to Australia's minerals industry will help create a stronger National Roadmap on Indigenous Skills, Jobs and Wealth Creation.
I am honoured to be appointed an Industry Champion and will work to support greater recognition by Australian businesses of the untapped potential of the Indigenous workforce and business sector.
Mining, Traditional Owners and First Nations communities have worked together for decades to support community aspirations for tailored local employment, training and business opportunities.
Opportunities for young people, for people in remote communities and to work on country are key community priorities.
As a result, Indigenous Australians make up a higher proportion of the minerals workforce than any other sector.
Between 2011 and 2016 mining became the largest employer of Indigenous men in remote areas. Nationally, about 10 per cent of all mining apprentices and trainees are Indigenous Australians.
There is also a strong relationship between mining and Indigenous business sector growth. First Nations business excellence has made the Indigenous mining, equipment and technology and equipment sector an integral part of the mining value chain.
These outcomes don't just benefit communities. Mining also benefits from a committed and diverse workforce and being able to access key skills and accessing diverse goods and services, while working with Traditional Owners and Indigenous organisations to provide tailored employment, training and business pathways.
Mining will share with other sectors its lessons and successes over decades of collaboration such as developing tailored work readiness, apprenticeship and traineeship, cadetship and recruitment pathways.
The minerals industry is also working to strengthen First Nations partnerships, better support the economic aspirations of Indigenous Australians and attract more First Nations professionals, including executives and engineers, to the mining workforce.
MCA member companies such as the Gulkula bauxite mine and the Winchelsea Mining manganese projects are leading the emergence of First Nations-owned mining projects.
Actions taken by Australian mining to boost First Nations skills, jobs and wealth creation include:
- Release of the new Minerals Industry Statement on First Nations Partnerships, setting a new benchmark for how industry aims to engage with Traditional Owners and communities
- Contributing to important research to improve the effective of Indigenous Preferential Procurement Programs by coordinating industry data and perspectives
- Undertaking early research on new exploration investment partnerships
- Delivering the Mining Skills Organisation Pilot, which is reshaping the national training system for the needs of the future minerals workforce
- Continuing partnerships with the Clontarf Foundation, Stars Foundation and the Indigenous Australian Engineering School.
