The design and delivery of the Remote Jobs and Economic Development (RJED) program is being informed by consultation with remote community members, job seekers, peak bodies, First Nations people, Community Development Program (CDP) providers and participants and other key stakeholders.
The second phase of the consultation process took place from April until July 2024 to test the design of the new program. What we heard will help determine the final recommendations to the Government. The consultation schedule is:
- April-July 2024:
- Launch of the discussion paper, online survey and supporting resources
- Remote community and other stakeholder consultation
- Launch of the draft Grant Opportunity Guidelines for public feedback.
- Second half 2024:
- Publish phase two consultation final report.
We heard from you
To help design and implement the new RJED program, the Australian Government is working in partnership with First Nations peoples and has sought feedback about how the program should work from individuals, communities and organisations with an interest in remote employment.
The NIAA held its second phase of consultation between April to July 2024. We asked people to have their say on how the RJED program should work in practice via a discussion paper and online survey, and through attending virtual or face-to-face consultation sessions.
The discussion paper and survey closed for feedback on 30 June 2024 and we received more than 80 responses. As part of our community consultations, we engaged with around 200 remote communities across CDP regions and heard from more than 3,100 people. To supplement remote community consultation, a series of roundtables took place in capital cities and regional centres throughout June and early July.
A summary of what we heard and an exact list of locations we visited for consultations, and when, will be included in the phase two consultation report. This will be released in the second half of this year.
Consultations were held at national, jurisdictional, regional, local and individual levels.
The NIAA consulted with:
- remote community members and leaders
- organisations
- jobseekers
- community controlled organisations
- employment and business peak bodies
- employment service providers
- First Nation peak bodies
- Unions and alliances
- land councils
- youth representatives
- research organisations
- Australian Government departments and agencies
- Local Government, and State and Territory Governments.
We also sought feedback on the draft Grant Opportunity Guidelines (GOGs) for the RJED program until 31 July 2024.
Grant Opportunity Guidelines
The draft Grant Opportunity Guidelines (GOGs) for the RJED program were released for public consultation in July 2024 as the next step in working in partnership to design the program.
GOGs are the documents which provide potential grantees with all information required to understand the purpose of a grant opportunity and how to make an application.
The draft GOGs for the RJED program set out proposed elements of the new program like eligibility criteria, assessment and the overall grant selection process, and build on information already shared in the discussion paper.
They were developed considering the views of the First Nations Reference Group, consultation input provided to date and learnings from job trials.
You can read a summary of the options and issues FNRG considered in the program design to inform the draft GOGs.
This factsheet can help you better understand the specific elements we consulted on in the draft GOGs.
The feedback we received will inform the final GOGs for the first grant round of the RJED program, expected to open in September 2024.
NOTE: These are not the final, approved GOGs and should not be relied on to apply for grant funding in any future grant rounds. The final GOGs will be made available on GrantConnect when the first grant round opens.
Consultation resources
To help people understand how the program will impact and benefit individual job seekers, communities, employers and its interaction with remote employment services, we put together a map to help illustrate how the program might work.
You can also see this map from the individual user journey perspectives of a job seeker, an employer, a local community and remote employment services.
There are a range of factsheets available to help understand the program, including:
- A timeline showing the transition of RJED and how we are working with First Nations people to design the program
- A compare and contrast of how the RJED program compares to previous employment programs
- A list of the type of jobs that communities might want and need
- An explainer about the specific elements of the Grant Opportunity Guidelines we consulted on.
This consultation was supported by a communication strategy, using a variety of resources, tools and channels to raise awareness and provide opportunity for people to feed back.
Previous consultation
The NIAA held its first phase of community consultations between February and June 2023. We listened and learned from more than 2,250 people and visited over 100 communities. Key messages from communities were that a new program should:
- be planned and led by communities
- recognise roles carried out in the communities
- take a new approach for young people
- support local jobs for local people
- include a form of reciprocity
- be flexible to invest in local priorities
- assist people unable to work right now.
You can read more in the full Replacing the Community Development Program consultation report, the consultation summary on a page or watch the video that follows.
On 31 August 2022 former Minister Burney hosted the Remote Employment Roundtable (ahead of the Jobs and Skills Summit on 1–2 September 2022), as a first step towards a new program.
You can read former Minister Burney's media release regarding the roundtable.