Hopes for 100,000 jobs on new indigenous site

The site, which is partnered with Andrew Forrest's Australian Employment Covenant, is expected to refresh the covenant's scheme to find 50,000 indigenous jobs after the program slipped off target this year. Initial hopes for the site are to advertise 100,000 jobs in its first year of operation.

''It's not so much discrimination, it's the competitiveness,'' the chamber's chairman, Warren Mundine, said of indigenous employment. ''Indigenous people are not as competitive as non-indigenous people. In interviews they're not promoting themselves. They're not selling themselves. It's not to say they can't do these jobs as well as anyone else - it's just the salesmanship.''

The Department of Premier and Cabinet is already advertising on the site, www.indigenous-jobsaustralia.com.au, including an ad for a program manager in the Department of Juvenile Justice with an annual salary of more than $103,000. The Commonwealth Bank, Qantas and John Holland have also indicated they will advertise through the site.

April Keys spent two years looking for work before she became involved with the Tribal Warrior, an indigenous-crewed tour boat she saw advertised on a job website.

Before that, and without a fixed address, she had been close to getting sales jobs but felt intimidated in interviews and found the questions focused on her family and whether she had a criminal record. She was treated as stupid because she had not finished school.

''I almost got a job as a post office driver,'' she said. ''Right at the very end, after the whole process, they said there was other people with more experience.''

Ms Keys has been crewing the Tribal Warrior for a year and hopes to be its first female captain. She said her search for work would have been much easier had she known the jobs advertised, like those on the AICC website, were targeted at indigenous applicants.

''It's comfortable. I'm more relaxed working there [with other indigenous people],'' she said.

Source: www.smh.com.au/national/hopes-for-100000-jobs-on-new-indigenous-site-20090828-f2iw.html