Outcome 8: Strong economic participation and development of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and communities

Target 8: By 2031, increase the proportion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people aged 25–64 who are employed to 62 per cent.

Minister responsible

Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations, Minister for Indigenous Australians

Productivity Commission national progress against the target

The most recent data for this target is from 2016. This target remains a focus for data development under the Data Development Plan.

The path forward

Economic participation through employment in secure jobs is an enabler for a range of positive individual and societal outcomes, including physical and mental health and wellbeing, social connectedness, and increased economic independence. Achievement of Outcome 8 relies upon actions that increase educational attainment and health outcomes, as well as practical actions to increase employment opportunities for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Employment is also one of the priority areas for the Commonwealth’s gender impact assessment in the 2023–24 Budget, to include considerations of the needs of First Nations women.

Developing partnership arrangements with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people on economic participation is a priority for the Commonwealth. The Commonwealth is also committed to ensuring that all employment programs are fit-for-purpose, culturally appropriate, and effective. The Commonwealth will continue to improve services to help individuals become job ready and connect them to the right employment opportunities for their personal aspirations.

Priority actions

Potential partnership on economic participation

The recent Jobs and Skills Summit (the Summit) included the commitment to examine options for a Closing the Gap Policy Partnership on economic participation as a key outcome. The Summit brought together unions, employers, civil society and governments to address Australia’s economic challenges, and discussions featured a focus on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander employment.

The Commonwealth is working with the Coalition of Peaks and the community-controlled sector experts they represent, to develop governance, membership and initial policy priorities for a potential partnership on economic participation. The Commonwealth is committed to ensuring the community‑controlled sector is empowered to achieve better economic participation outcomes for First Nations peoples, including through identifying opportunities to strengthen the relevant sectors.

Incorporating First Nations perspectives on employment

The Commonwealth is engaging with key Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander stakeholders during the development of the Employment White Paper, with a focus on incorporating Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community-led perspectives on employment. The White Paper will be completed by September 2023.

Real jobs and real wages in remote Australia (New Jobs Program Trial)

The Commonwealth is committed to a new pathway for employment in remote communities and will replace the Community Development Program (CDP) with a new program with real jobs, proper wages and decent conditions – developed in partnership with First Nations peoples.

The Commonwealth is moving deliberately and in a staged way towards a new program. To support the real jobs agenda, a New Jobs Program Trial was announced as part of the 2022–23 October Budget. The New Jobs Program Trial will provide grant funding at the minimum wage rate, plus superannuation and other conditions, to subsidise wages for up to 200 CDP participants to work in community jobs.

A next step towards the Commonwealth’s real jobs agenda is to vary and extend most current CDP provider agreements to October 2024, based on providers’ ability and willingness to trial innovative approaches, capture learnings and further strengthen community-led approaches. Providers will be given flexibility and expected to engage directly with remote communities to develop and trial new approaches to supporting participants into real jobs that are driven by local community priorities.

Developing the Australian workforce

The Commonwealth has established a Select Committee of the House of Representatives (the Committee) to examine implementation of the new Workforce Australia employment service, to ensure improved outcomes and services are delivered in a way that is fair, leaves no-one behind, respects individuals’ diverse needs, and supports job seekers into secure work. The Committee will deliver an interim report in February 2023, and a final report by September 2023.

Workforce Australia commenced on 4 July 2022, replacing jobactive, and includes specific measures to support Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander participants into work. Workforce Australia (including Transition to Work and both online and provider services) is the main employment service accessed by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. At 30 November 2022, Workforce Australia was assisting over 87,000 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander participants. The CDP was supporting an additional 34,000 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people (at 30 November 2022).

The Workforce Specialists initiative will have funding of $12.5 million available each financial year to support the delivery of projects to meet the workforce needs of identified industries and occupations, connecting them to eligible individuals in Workforce Australia Services, Workforce Australia Online and Workforce Australia – Transition to Work. The co-design of projects will place a strong focus on supporting First Nations peoples into work for example by linking project milestones to placing First Nations participants into secure jobs.

The Commonwealth has also extended Disability Employment Services until 30 June 2025 to build an improved model for disability employment.

The Commonwealth is growing and strengthening the First Nations health workforce by implementing Workforce Plan actions and providing annual progress reports.

Connecting skills and employment

Organisations are developing projects that connect Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to jobs, career advancement opportunities, and to new training and job‑readiness activities through the Indigenous Skills and Employment Program (ISEP). Detailed activity proposals will be submitted by organisations in mid-April 2023 for funding consideration that have been designed in partnership with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities and stakeholders, reflecting regional priorities and local community needs.

Protecting First Nations Intellectual Property

A Productivity Commission inquiry into the market for First Nations arts and crafts was publicly released in December 2022 and included consideration of the prevalence of fraud and inauthentic art. Drawing from the findings of this inquiry, the Commonwealth will work with First Nations to establish standalone legislation to protect First Nations peoples traditional knowledge and cultural expressions, as well as reviewing the operation of the Indigenous Art Code.

Summary of new actions

*A full appendix of new and existing measures being undertaken by the Commonwealth to support Closing the Gap efforts is on the NIAA website, at Closing the Gap implementation measures.