No barriers at NAIDOC corporate breakfasts

A Northern Territory parliamentarian who campaigned on the ‘end sit-down money’ platform has told a NAIDOC Week gathering in Hervey Bay that the future of this country needed to include working Indigenous Australians.

Adam Giles, Dr Jackie Huggins, USQ Fraser Coast Provost Prof Ken Stott and NAIDOC Corporate Breakfast project manager Casey Millward with comedian Sean Choolburra

Adam Giles said the Federal Government was reluctant to obligate people to work.

‘There should be no more sit down money; we want our people to work,’ Mr Giles said.

He suggested tax incentives for businesses to develop in regional and remote areas to take the jobs to the people, rather than the people to the metropolitan areas to find work.

He was critical of the Federal Government’s Intervention program, saying the biggest failures in the Northern Territory were an actual increase in unemployment and the loss of millions of housing project dollars in consultant’s fees.

Mr Giles was a guest speaker at the Hervey Bay NAIDOC Corporate Breakfast, hosted by the University of Southern Queensland Fraser Coast.

It was the first of three corporate breakfasts funded by the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations. The other events will be held in Gympie and Bundaberg later in the month.

Cultural ambassador and comedian Sean Choolburra was master of ceremonies at the breakfast which was attended by about 100 people.

The other guest speaker was former Deputy Director of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies Unit at the University of Queensland, Dr Jackie Huggins, who spoke about her personal journey as the first in her family to gain a university degree.

NAIDOC Corporate Breakfast project manager Casey Millward, from USQ Fraser Coast, said the breakfast was a great success, highlighting ideas and strategies on how to overcome some of the barriers faced by Indigenous people.

‘We are encouraging local business members to take on Indigenous staff,’ Mrs Millward said.

‘We are also encouraging local Indigenous people to take up education and employment opportunities.’

Contact Details:
Katrina Corcoran, USQ Media, +61 7 4194 3167