Council takes affirmative action

KERRI Dorman is one South Sea Islander who never found her background got in the way of her career with the council.

But she's welcomed a new policy adopted by Rockhampton Regional Council that sets a quota for Islanders and Indigenous Australians in the workforce.

As part of a drive to eliminate discrimination and encourage diversity, the council has set a target to ensure at least 3% of its workforce is drawn from indigenous and islander communities.

Mayor Brad Carter said the policy would ensure there were no barriers to hinder the attraction, recruitment and career development of current and prospective staff from the communities.

“The policy reinforces what's been happening in practice, but when I asked how many indigenous employees we had, no-one could tell me. We don't know because records aren't kept, so now we have set a target we are in a process of surveying the workforce to see how we measure up,” he said.

Kerri, an administrator in the council's communities department, said her dad Joe Leo, president of the Rockhampton South Sea Islander Association, had worked for the council for 38 years.

“I've had a varied and interesting career and I would recommend it to anyone. But I think the policy is great because it will encourage younger people who are often very shy and don't do well at interviews. I think the new system will improve their chances at that stage.”

Fellow South Sea Islander Florence Harbin has been a council administration assistant for two years, joining on the first, and so far only, islander traineeship. She said she hoped the policy would create chances for others to follow.

And Lloyd Willie, administrator for the South Sea Islander community in Rockhampton, is another who believes the policy will be good.

“I think the council is on the right track, for sure,” he said. “We are building a cultural resource centre in North Rockhampton and it will be used to train youngsters for work. I think these are really positive developments for our community.”

In addition to the 3% quota for staff, the policy sets out a number of goals: to provide opportunities for indigenous and islander people at all levels of occupation with the council; to use recruitment and selection procedures that are culturally appropriate; to support staff in meeting cultural obligations to attend significant ceremonies; to develop career pathways and to make all staff aware of cultural and contemporary issues affecting Indigenous and Islander colleagues.