Page 14 - Week 01 - Tuesday, 15 February 2011
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They have better attendance records, are less likely to have accidents or make compensation claims and are more likely to stay in the same workplace for longer periods of time. Engaging employees with disabilities can also lead to better workplace morale and team development and enhanced corporate reputation and public image.
It is our job as community leaders to break down stereotypes and misconceptions that people with disabilities face in our community and to actively demonstrate to other employers that people with disabilities have a very valuable contribution to make; all they need is the chance to make it.
In addition to a legal mechanism, we now need a cultural commitment to implement these initiatives and utilise the laws. We need to see “identified positions” right across the public service in a range of different roles that truly reflect the diversity and capacity of people with disabilities.
The bill also facilitates the employment of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Again, this is an initiative that is to be strongly encouraged. Right across Australia, there is an enormous gulf between the outcomes for Indigenous people and non-Indigenous people. Sometimes in the ACT I think we forget just how horrendous these outcomes are, because we are a wealthy community with a relatively low Indigenous population and so are not regularly confronted with the issues that Indigenous people face. However, when faced with statistics like the number of Indigenous children and young people in contact with the juvenile justice system in the ACT and the fact that half of the current detainees in Bimberi are Indigenous, it is clear that we do need to do something to address the cycle of disadvantage facing Indigenous people in our community.
Indigenous people in major cities across Australia have more than double the non-Indigenous rate of unemployment. The government has an active and direct responsibility to address the issue. The problem simply will not solve itself and general economic prosperity clearly is not sufficient to address the problem. We know that employment outcomes have a significant impact on the rest of people’s lives. Giving Indigenous people a job has the real capacity to break the cycle of poverty and disadvantage and exponentially improve not only the employed person’s quality of life but their whole family’s.
It is always difficult to balance the ideological ideal of having people win positions purely on merit with measures such as this. The fact is that, to address many historic prejudices, reverse discrimination is required to make up for the disadvantage these people face. Currently, it is not a level playing field. These people have not had the same opportunity to demonstrate their merit and to be fairly assessed on it. This does not give them an unfair advantage and is not required because they could not do it without it. All things being equal, they have consistently demonstrated that they can do it and they do have a significant contribution to make. In the absence of the historic discrimination and prejudice that many groups in our community face, I have no doubt that many will perform at least as well as any other group in the community.
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