Home page
> Minister > Archive > Speech
‹ Previous page

Ministerial speeches and media releases - Archive

Presentation of Equality Awards

The Hon. Peter Reith, MP
Minister for Industrial Relations
Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for the Public Service

Ladies and gentlemen, it is my great pleasure to welcome you to the presentation of the Equality Awards, the Australian Public Service award for innovative practice in equal employment opportunity.

Commitment

I am very happy to be presenting these third annual Equality Awards. As you know, this Government continues to be committed to the principles of employment equity. Prior to the Federal Election the Liberal/National Coalition recognised that "equal employment opportunity policies can play an important role in the elimination of inefficient, unfair, discriminatory work practices which inhibit fair and equitable promotion and advancement". Since that time, this commitment to employment equity and recognition of the importance and benefits of a diverse workforce have been reaffirmed, including in the Workplace Relations Bill currently before the Parliament.

Two of the principle objects of the Workplace Relations Bill are:

Providing a framework of rights and responsibilities for employers and employees, and their organisations, which supports fair and effective agreement-making and ensures that they abide by awards and agreements applying to them; and
Respecting and valuing the diversity of the work force by helping to prevent and eliminate discrimination on the basis of race, colour, sex, sexual preference, age, physical or mental disability, marital status, family responsibilities, pregnancy, religion, political opinion, national extraction or social origin.

Reform

While changes have occurred during the past decade in the diversity of the staff of the APS, not enough has been achieved. We want more than to use the talents of a diverse workforce only in specific service areas where people from different cultural backgrounds can more effectively deliver services to people of similar backgrounds. This has been useful and has gone some way to recognising talents but this is a limited view of what is possible.

I would like to see an Australian Public Service which uses the talents of all its people in all its areas of operation. What we want to achieve is the diversity of ideas, innovation and creativity that using the diversity of the Australian people can bring, to help renew the APS.

This means moving beyond the process of the current system. It means allowing and encouraging agencies to develop policies which best suit their environments. It doesn't mean allowing equity to slip from the agenda but rather giving it a new lease of life and cementing it into the practical, day-to-day operations of agencies.

We want an APS which is flexible enough to accommodate the needs of workers with family responsibilities and which will allow us to use their skills everywhere.

A reinvigorated and restated commitment to employment equity expressed in terms of diversity, family responsibilities and workplace flexibility will assist in creating a public service which is efficient, effective, flexible and responsive.

The Awards

Finally, the 1996 annual Equality Awards for Innovative Practice in Equal Employment Opportunity in the Australian Public Service has provided a platform for innovation.

The range of entries from across the Service recognise and promote good EEO practice in the workplace and today we acknowledge the efforts and achievements of those agencies.