Contemporary Australia: Women

40 and better educational and, above all, health outcomes. Some commentators, still inspired by the romantic views of the 1970s, have accused the government of bringing back the old assimilation policy. What they ignore is that some Aboriginal people have been living in modern communities for more than 100 years, though for others it may be only 30 years. In these communities, people are crammed into substandard housing, and that is a major contributing factor in so much ill health and antisocial behaviour, as so clearly spelled out in the Little children are sacred report. There is a long way to go before the gap in Indigenous life expectancy is closed. In the past few years, bold thinkers such as Pearson, Penfold and Forrest have changed the way that Indigenous affairs is approached; not with sympathy and welfare, but with rigorous development that gives people the choice between poverty and the accepted Australian standard of living. In the future, Aboriginal children will look at this phase in our history and wonder why it took so long. The original version of this essay was printed in the September 2009 issue of Vogue Australia . founder and head of Fortescue Metals Group, watched Aboriginal men who had been his childhood friends die young from alcohol consumption, unemployment, poverty and despair, he came up with a vision called the Australian Employment Covenant. He approached business friends to find 50 000 jobs for Aboriginal people. The improvements in Aboriginal employment since 2009 are remarkable, especially the progress made through the Australian Employment Covenant: almost 62 000 jobs have been committed by 326 employers, and 6726 vacancies are forecast to come online in the next 12 months; 8027 Indigenous people have gained jobs with employers who signed the covenant, and their retention rate is 68 per cent. With government support and the goodwill of corporate leaders, the staff at the Covenant office in Perth is finding ways to overcome the red tape and bureaucratic tangles that have held back Aboriginal development. These bold initiatives show that success can be achieved. But the federal government is also investing in 26 of the largest Aboriginal communities by increasing the housing stock and restricting the flow of alcohol into these vulnerable groups preyed on by sly groggers and drug dealers, along with other measures. With this investment it is hoped that there will be accelerated development, including business and employment opportunities,