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April 29th, 2012 
FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda Billionaire mining magnate Andrew Forrest has celebrated his Australian Employment Covenant (AEC) finding 10,000 jobs for Aboriginal people by taking a swipe at the federal government’s record on indigenous employment.
New figures from employers who signed with the AEC founded by Mr Forrest show that 10,501 indigenous Australians were now off welfare and working, the AEC said in a statement.
The “50,000 jobs campaign” was an employer-led initiative launched by Mr Forrest in 2008.
Its retention rate of indigenous employees was 71 per cent after six months, the AEC said.
It said that compared to a retention rate of only 45 per cent after three months for Indigenous workers with the federal government’s own agency Job Services Australia.
Mr Forrest said under the AEC system, indigenous people were trained to meet the needs of employers who had committed to providing jobs.
The government’s system provided training but did not help job seekers become job-ready because employers were not closely involved, he said.
The AEC’s chief executive Rhonda Parker said she had heard of one South Australian town in which 11 young women trained for hairdressing apprenticeships despite the nearest hairdresser being hundreds of kilometres away.
Mr Forrest said government agencies received commissions to place Aborigines in employment with the same people sometimes placed in three jobs in a year.
“If you’ve lost over half the people you placed in three months, what system is that?” Mr Forrest told reporters during a media tour of Fortescue Metals’ Western Australian mine sites as well as its South Hedland Vocational Training and Employment Centre.
“Of course the people who get used and abused in that is the Aboriginal people who become correctly cynical when they’re not holding work down because they’re not real jobs.
“The only person who matters – the employer – must be asked what do you want to make an indigenous person valuable on their first day at work? Until that question gets asked and answered, then acted upon, the disparity will stay in Australia.”
The AEC scheme has been criticised and proved controversial for various reasons, partly because it was unclear how legally enforceable were the “pledges” by 330 employers to over 61,000 jobs for Aborigines.
However Ms Parker says the federal government must meet its obligations under the covenant and ensure the Indigenous job-seekers were trained to be ready to fill the 50,000 jobs, which was not happening.
“Training has been essential to what the AEC employers are doing, putting a guaranteed job in front of an indigenous person, their aspirations have changed to a pathway not just into a job but to a career.”
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