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Alan Tudge was the first employee from BCG

to participate in a Jawun secondment in 2001,

working for Noel Pearson’s Cape York Institute,

an experience he described as ‘life-changing’.

Fourteen years later, he is the federal member for

the seat of Aston and Assistant Minister to the

Prime Minister. He described the enduring legacy of

his Jawun secondment on his career in the

public

sector

: ‘My experience from Cape York during the

early years of the Cape York Institute, where I was

deputy director, is indispensable for me when

I work to develop policy not only for Indigenous

people but for the wider community.’ Alan also

writes on Indigenous affairs in

The Australian

,

seeking to raise public awareness of Indigenous

issues, and bring attention to the challenges, the

gains and the inspiring leaders in the sector.

Alan said the ripple effect from the secondment

program is far-reaching and can be indirect:

I am proud to have played a small role in the

establishment of Teach for Australia, which recruits

outstanding graduates and trains them to be

teachers in schools where students’ needs are

greatest. TFA mostly works with non-Indigenous

schools in the southern states, but it grew from

Jawun secondees’ work with Noel Pearson.

43

Ben Rimmer is another former BCG secondee

whose experience in Cape York in 2002, as a

development adviser to Cape York Partnership,

informed his later roles in various government

portfolios. Now CEO of the City of Melbourne,

Ben said the skills, experience and capability

that exist within the public and private sectors

is informed by hundreds of secondees who have

worked in Indigenous organisations through a

Jawun secondment. He continues to draw from

his learnings in the Cape:

Working in an Indigenous business in a remote

community is a very different experience than

most people in government are used to. As

public service leaders, we always have the

challenge and responsibility of changing the

way the public service delivers in order to meet

the changing expectations of the day. Some of

the most valuable things I learned in Cape York

were actually about communication and about

impact, and that is something that has informed

the way I’ve approached my work, particularly in

developing public policy. The ability to look at

an issue and think about it in a systematic way—

to ask, for example, ‘What is different

about economic development in the Cape?’—

and pick the right vehicle for the right issue

is incredibly important.

While not all secondees go on to become policy

makers, many in the public service contribute to

the ripple effect through their roles. The Australian

Public Service Commission evaluation conducted in

2014 found that when APS secondees returned to

work they drew on ‘insights from the secondment

to inform agency-specific program management

and policy development’. One APS secondee in the

evaluation reflected: ‘The secondment expanded

my knowledge of Indigenous communities to

enable better delivery of the ABSTUDY program.’

In the

private sector

, executives are uniquely

placed to influence their organisations around

inclusion practices and Indigenous affairs, as

well as influencing their executive networks.

Noel Pearson has referred to these circles as ‘the

sectors of power and opportunity’ and maintains

that Indigenous development goals ‘will never

be realised without expanding our networks into

these sectors’.

44

More than 100 executives attend

an Executive Visit each year. The majority of them

gain a deeper awareness of Indigenous Australia

and are profoundly affected by their experiences,

and go on to influence, inspire and energise the

rest of their organisation around

building inclusive

cultures

and contributing to

sustainability

.

Michael Rose, Chief Executive Partner at Allens,

has been involved with Jawun since the firm

became a secondment partner in 2007. Through

regional engagement with Jawun he later became

interested in Empowered Communities and was

invited to sit on its Advisory Board. In recent years,

as Chairman of the Indigenous Engagement Task

Force of the Business Council of Australia, Michael

has been instrumental in engaging senior business

leaders in supporting Indigenous employment

and economic development among Indigenous

Australians. He sees the opportunities people

have to experience life through an Indigenous lens

on a Jawun secondment or Executive Visit as a

deeply personal way to engage them in addressing

Indigenous disadvantage in Australia:

56 JAWUN 

2015 LEARNINGS AND INSIGHTS