Australien — Navy and Defence Reconciliation Action Plan 2010–2014 Launched

The Min­is­ter for Vet­er­ans’ Affairs and Min­is­ter for Defence Per­son­nel, Alan Grif­fin, has announced that the Defence Indige­nous Devel­op­ment Pro­gram — Navy and the Defence Rec­on­cil­i­a­tion Action Plan 2010–2014 were offi­cial­ly launched at HMAS Cairns today. Mr Grif­fin was rep­re­sent­ed by Queens­land Sen­a­tor Jan McLu­cas at the cer­e­mo­ny.

Sen­a­tor McLu­cas said, “The launch of the Defence Indige­nous Devel­op­ment Pro­gram – Navy and the Defence Rec­on­cil­i­a­tion Action Plan 2010–2014 coin­cides with Nation­al Rec­on­cil­i­a­tion Week, and is anoth­er step for­ward in Defence’s ongo­ing con­tri­bu­tion to the Aus­tralian Government’s ‘Clos­ing the Gap’ initiative”. 

Mr Grif­fin said, “The Defence Indige­nous Devel­op­ment Pro­gram — Navy is an impor­tant ini­tia­tive that will pre­pare young Indige­nous adults from Far North Queens­land with lit­er­a­cy and numer­a­cy train­ing, life skills and the con­fi­dence to embark on a career in the Roy­al Aus­tralian Navy”. 

Sen­a­tor McLu­cas said, “Thir­ty-four par­tic­i­pants, aged between 17 and 25, have today com­plet­ed a 10-week prepa­ra­tion course at the Djar­ru­gun Col­lege Wilder­ness Cen­tre in Gor­don­va­le. The course was designed to help them achieve at least a ‘C’ grade pass in Eng­lish, math­e­mat­ics and sci­ence – manda­to­ry require­ments for entry into the Aus­tralian Defence Force”. 

“They will now start the next phase of the pro­gram – a five-month live-in course – which will include a navy ‘boot camp’ and induc­tion train­ing, a voy­age in STS Young Endeav­our from Townsville to Cairns, a sea ride onboard a naval war­ship from Syd­ney to Townsville, and atten­dance at the Trop­i­cal North Queens­land Insti­tute of TAFE to train in boat han­dling, first aid, Bronze Medal­lion (life­sav­ing) and team­work,” she said. 

Mr Grif­fin said, “While on the course, the par­tic­i­pants will receive Abstudy and are pro­vid­ed with free accom­mo­da­tion, meals and uniforms”. 

“Par­tic­i­pants will also be pro­vid­ed with advice and guid­ance on the Navy recruit­ment process and those who grad­u­ate in Octo­ber will be encour­aged to apply for entry into the Aus­tralian Defence Force. 

“While not all par­tic­i­pants will progress onto join­ing the Navy or the oth­er ser­vices, the pro­gram will nev­er­the­less equip them with skills and expe­ri­ences to help them gain employ­ment in the wider com­mu­ni­ty,” Mr Grif­fin said. 

Both Mr Grif­fin and Sen­a­tor McLu­cas wished the par­tic­i­pants well for their future endeavours. 

The Defence Indige­nous Devel­op­ment Pro­gram – Navy is a joint ini­tia­tive between the Depart­ment of Defence and the Depart­ment of Edu­ca­tion, Employ­ment and Work­place Rela­tions. It also forms part of the Aus­tralian Defence Force’s Indige­nous Employ­ment Strategy. 

Mr Grif­fin said, “The Defence Rec­on­cil­i­a­tion Action Plan 2010–2014 was also launched at today’s cer­e­mo­ny. It was devel­oped fol­low­ing broad con­sul­ta­tion across Defence and Rec­on­cil­i­a­tion Aus­tralia and pro­vides action plans to imple­ment employ­ment oppor­tu­ni­ties and reten­tion ini­tia­tives for Indige­nous Aus­tralians who choose Defence as their employer”. 

Press release
Min­is­te­r­i­al Sup­port and Pub­lic Affairs,
Depart­ment of Defence,
Can­ber­ra, Australia