Attorney-General secretary admits department needs to do better on First Nations employment targets

The Canberra Times

Attorney-General's Department Secretary Katherine Jones tells Senate estimates she is not satisfied with department's efforts to attract First Nations staff.

Transcript

00:00 Well, you see, that's often the case, isn't it? When there are resource pressures,

00:05 when there are other things on the table, it's the Reconciliation Action Plan, the advancement

00:10 of First Nations staff to SES levels. They're the things that get cut, aren't they, Secretary?

00:16 Senator, I think I would state here I'm not satisfied and the Executive Board of the

00:24 Department are not satisfied where we're at in terms of achieving our targets. We had an

00:30 engagement in our... We had a discussion in our Executive Board several months ago to think

00:37 through all the levers that are available to us to address that. I think... And I can get

00:50 Ms Dawson to talk to some of the processes that we're engaging in to establish a new

00:55 Reconciliation Action Plan. We want to get the balance right of doing it appropriately and

01:01 thoroughly but not overburdening the First Nations staff that we have in the department

01:05 who are engaging on it. But my frank response to you is I'm not satisfied with where we are

01:13 in terms of achieving our employment targets and we need to do better.

01:18 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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