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May 2nd, 2012 
FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda Aboriginal leaders have urged the federal government to back mining magnate Andrew Forrest’s call to boost indigenous employment by setting up training centres linked to jobs.
Mr Forrest said 330 companies had pledged 61,000 jobs for indigenous Australians since 2008 under his Australian Employment Covenant (AEC) and 10,000 jobs had been created.
But the federal government had not met its obligation to provide specific training directed by employers so indigenous people could take up the promised jobs, he said.
“My strong recommendation to the government is that not one more dollar be spent on indigenous training – including job service agencies and indigenous employment programs – unless attached to a real job commitment by a participating employer,” Mr Forrest told the National Press Club on Wednesday.
“Employers report that for every one job that is filled, two go unfilled due to a lack of available, job-ready indigenous applicants.”
Indigenous Economic Development Minister Julie Collins said she agreed with Mr Forrest that training should be relevant and have a direct link to a place of employment wherever possible.
The government’s Indigenous Employment Program (IEP) did just that, Senator Collins said.
Mr Forrest wants the government to set up 25 training centres, like the one he has created in the Pilbara region of Western Australia to train workers for his Fortescue Metals Group mining operations.
Former magistrate Sue Gordon, who chaired the Howard government’s Northern Territory intervention taskforce and now an unpaid adviser to the AEC, backed Mr Forrest’s plan.
The government was refusing to support the idea because it wasn’t their idea, Dr Gordon said.
“We’ve got these pledges and we can’t get a government to commit to the real training,” she told reporters in Canberra.
“There’s this great bag of money there, and if they would just listen to people who are actually making it happen.”
Aboriginal scholar Marcia Langton said Mr Forrest was not asking for more money to set up the centres but wanted the government to stop wasting money on ineffective schemes.
Senator Collins said the centres were one of many training models and the government could not commit any further funds until a proper evaluation was completed.
“The evaluation will consider outcomes for indigenous Australians and the value for money represented by the different models,” she said in a statement.
Australian Indigenous Chamber of Commerce chairman Warren Mundine said it was easy for people to say billionaires should pay to train indigenous people, but taxpayers were also footing the bill.
“As taxpayers we’re spending billions. As a taxpaying person don’t you want to see results?” he told reporters in Canberra.
“It is massively frustrating.
“The evidence is there, we’ve got 40 years of evidence about what works and what doesn’t work, but government after government make the same mistakes.”
Mr Forrest has received more than $7 million from the federal government’s Indigenous Employment Programs for Fortescue’s training centre in the Pilbara.
It achieves a 70 per cent retention rate of indigenous employees, while the government’s indigenous employment program has a retention rate of 73.2 per cent after six months.
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