National Aboriginal Construction Partners wins $10m Defence contract

An indigenous construction company has won a $10 million contract with the Department for Defence.

Indigenous construction worker Jacob Buckley. Picture: Glenn Hunt

An indigenous construction company has won a $10 million contract with the Department of Defence to build dormitories and other structures across northern Australia.

National Aboriginal Construction Partners Projects — formed three years ago to support and develop indigenous communities through sustainable construction — has won its first major contract partnering with construction company Badge across seven sites in Queensland, NSW and the Northern Territory.

Badge managing director Jim Whiting says the project brings together Western Australia’s Marra Worra Worra and NPC National to build better communities and offer construction scholarships, traineeships and apprenticeships.

“We see this as laying an important foundation for indigenous youth to build a career path and a better future in the construction industry,” Whiting says.

“We’re developing indigenous professional capabilities within the construction industry, not just people who can build.”

When he was 15, indigenous worker Jacob Buckley, now 23, began a school-based traineeship at a Sunshine Coast company later bought by Badge.

“The idea is for this to be a profitable business and the profits will be shared in Aboriginal communities,” Buckley says. He has since begun a degree in construction management and studies part time, supported by the company.

COUNCIL CONFLICT

A study on how local government staff view workplace issues, including hours worked, has found human resources leaders see corporatisation as creating flexibility while jobseekers view it as mercenary cost cutting.

The Jetty Research study commissioned by CouncilJobs found 71 per cent of HR managers thought moving from full-time to part-time employment constituted flexible working, but only 29 per cent of council jobseekers felt the same. Researcher James Parker says the survey found councils were likelier to hire finance and corporate professionals from outside the organisation.

“Directors and culture and arts positions were more frequently hired externally in metro regions compared to remote areas, 44 per cent to 25 per cent, while regional and metro areas were most likely to hire outdoor and field staff externally — 31 per cent regional, 33 per cent metro and 6 per cent remote,” Parker says.

Escalating salary expectations through external hiring are considered a drawback in NSW and the ACT, compared with Victoria and South Australia.

VAGUE ON INSURANCE

While life insurance is built into a worker’s compulsory superannuation account, an iSelect study of 1000 people has found very few have an idea of how much they are covered for and if it is adequate.

Without work and compulsory superannuation, the Galaxy survey found many Australians would be left without adequate or any cover.

The iSelect research found only a third of respondents were aware of having some sort of life insurance, including in superannuation, and half said their only life cover was because of their super.

“Many people assume that life insurance only refers to life cover, which provides a lump-sum payment in the event of death, but life insurance is also about protecting your family’s lifestyle in a range of unfortunate circumstances,” iSelect’s Laura Crowden says.

She says income protection is generally tax-deductible and provides up to 75 per cent of regular income if people cannot work because of illness or injury.