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Twiggy and GenerationOne must be made accountable
by Stephen Hagan 3 August 2013
I
ndigenous leaders have been scathing of The Australian National Audit Office independent performance report Indigenous Employment: The Australian Government’s Contribution to the Australian Employment Covenant that found Twiggy Forrest’s GenerationOne organisation did not achieve its bench mark goals of its broader plan of creating 50,000 jobs for unemployed Indigenous people. Sam Watson, Brisbane Elder and respected First Nations advocate, said the government were too quick to endorse billionaire mining philanthropist Andrew ‘Twiggy’ Forrest’s grand plan to create unprecedented employment outcomes for his people and now “they should make him and all his cronies accountable for the millions of dollars they’ve squandered in chasing unrealistic goals.” “I’m currently in Alice Springs and I’m appalled at the palpable poverty endured daily by our mob that just jumps out at you when you see them gathered in groups in the Todd River bed and in the streets,” Sam said. “Just imagine what Indigenous leaders in Alice Springs could do to alleviate that huge level of social marginalization of their people if they were handed over the millions of dollars that Twiggy and GenOne got. “But because some mining entrepreneur comes up with a crazy scheme to solve our problems the government falls over themselves to fund his dream of a better life for our mob. “Yet when black fellas comes
Brisbane Elder and respected First Nations advocate, Sam Watson. Image: Rhonda Hagan
up with much smaller and realistic goals to achieve positive employment outcomes … the government frowns on them as if they’re just after bucks to line their own pockets,” Sam told the First Nations Telegraph from Alice Springs where he was attending a National LinkUp forum in his capacity as Queensland State Linkup Chairman. The Australian Employment Covenant was launched on 30 October 2008 by the then Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and the Covenant founder, Mr Andrew Forrest with the aspiration of securing 50,000 sustainable jobs to be filled by Indigenous Australians Rudd supported Twiggy Forrest and the Covenant as he believed they had the potential to make a significant contribution to its Closing the Gap target and to
complement other employment initiatives. In March 2013, the AEC reported that more than 330 employers had made public commitments of over 60 000 jobs for Indigenous Australians and that this had led to 14 000 job placements. The ‘covenant jobs’ come from a crosssection of the economy, including industries such as the mining, retail, hospitality, transport and construction sectors. Also in March 2013, the Australian Government reported that it had allocated $150 million worth of support to Covenant employers through the IEP. The Australian Government’s commitments had a short and longterm focus. In the short-term, the Government agreed to contribute financially to the establishment of the AEC and provide direct funding Page 1
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to the AEC of up to $20.9 million for the first three years of the Covenant. Over the longer-term, the Australian Government had an ongoing role to support the Covenant to achieve its target of 50,000 sustainable jobs. The Government planned to fulfil its commitments to pre-employment training and employment placement support through existing programs such as the IEP, JSA and the CDEP Program. The Australian Government expected to contribute up to $200 million worth of funding to the Covenant through the IEP and JSA alone in the form of funding for pre-employment training and employment placement support, some of which was provided directly to Covenant employers. The independent auditor’s report found that, while the partnership has achieved some of its aims in relation to employment outcomes and generating job commitments from business and industry, it did not facilitate the expected level of ongoing collaboration. In order to fulfil its commitments for training and employment support, DEEWR relied on the AEC to provide information from employers about detailed job requirements, including skills and qualifications, against which the department could tailor training solutions. The independent auditor’s found DEEWR’s information requirements did not fully align with the information the AEC provided about job requirements and this resulted in fewer packages of support being developed than expected. They found that there was also limited awareness within the DEEWR service provider network of opportunities associated with the Covenant. At the end of four years, the department had engaged on training needs with approximately 70 Covenant employers, or less Page 2
Professor Gracelyn Smallwood. Image: Rhonda Hagan
than a quarter of employers who had committed jobs under the Covenant. The independent auditor’s concluded their report, which was presented to Parliament on 26 June this year but was only accessible to the Indigenous community in recent days, stated that in the case of the Australian Employment Covenant, the initiative was innovative, and the experience highlights that benefits can be achieved through this kind of partnership. The experience also underlines the importance of active engagement with existing service delivery mechanisms, adjusting arrangements where necessary and, having the means of assessing both the contributions to the partnership and overall value of the initiative. “That’s a nice way of saying Twiggy’s grand plan was a failure,” said respected First Nations advocate Professor Gracelyn Smallwood from Townsville. “This big plan of Twiggy and supported by his hand picked black ‘yes’ people was never going to succeed. “When government programs
are endorsed by hand picked blackfellas you know it’s going to be top heavy and devoid of grass roots peoples’ input. “That’s why it failed and if the government’s silly enough to pour good money after bad into GenOne they should not be surprised when the next audit report shows exactly the same disastrous outcomes.” Sam Watson went a little further with his criticism of Twiggy Forrest and his GenOne organization stating there should be an immediate criminal investigation into where all the tax payer’s millions the government gave GenOne has gone to. “If a black organization wasted all that money, didn’t provide accurate data to the government department as per their contract, then they would have an immediate forensic audit,” Sam said. “Now the same rules must be applied to Twiggy Forrest, Warren Mundine and all the other executives who have been involved in GenOne.” Read full Independent Auditor’s report here: http://goo.gl/I89ggV