Twiggy Forrest 'smashes' target of $1bn in contracts to Indigenous companies
Andrew "Twiggy" Forrest, chairman of the mining giant Fortescue Metals Group, has declared he has surpassed his goal of $1bn in contracts to Indigenous companies and is calling on the government to keep its promise to train newly hired Aboriginal workers.

In 2011 Fortescue Metals announced a commitment to award $1bn of contracts to businesses at least 25% owned by Aboriginal Australians by the end of 2013 through its Billion Opportunities program. The companies must prove they are competitive and have a track record of hiring Indigenous Australians.

At a company event on Tuesday with guests including the MP Ken Wyatt, the Indigenous academic Marcia Langton and the Indigenous leader Noel Pearson, Forrest announced that the program had "smashed" its target six months ahead of schedule, and with most companies being above 50% Aboriginal ownership.

Forrest told Guardian Australia it was a "cracking result".

"It was a really lovely feeling in that room," he said. "The depth of what the Indigenous people have achieved and the change in direction they're taking is really historic."

He wrote in Tuesday's Daily Telegraph: "Anyone who has thought seriously about the disparity between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Australians must acknowledge the welfare approach has failed. And has failed dismally."

Forrest said he would continue his work to create job opportunities and close the gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians, and called for governments to come through with their part of the Australian employment covenant, which aims to create 50,000 sustainable Indigenous jobs.

"Our pledge was very clearly that we create 50,000 opportunities for Aboriginal people to take in the workforce and in return the government was to provide the job-specific employer-directed training for Indigenous people to be able to thrive in those jobs, and that's the part which hasn't happened," he said.

"Only the government can provide the training. The private sector can certainly do its bit and is bending over backwards in the absence of that government commitment."

A recent batch of contracts between Aboriginal businesses and Fortescue or its contractor Leighton, worth around $500m, took the total to more than $1bn, Fortescue confirmed to Guardian Australia.

Pearson said the milestone reached was "a paradigm shift".

"At the end of the day Indigenous Australians have to take a fair place in their own country, that means a fair place in the economy," he said.

"The doors of opportunity don't always open from the outside. It sometimes requires someone from the inside to open the doors, and I'm just astounded by FMG.

"Indigenous Australians all across the country are taking a share of their own country."

Indigenous Construction Resources Group (ICRG) is one of the companies doing business with Fortescue, providing road and equipment maintenance, construction and other services in Forrest's Pilbara mines.

Its chief executive, Clinton Wolf, told Guardian Australia that 67 of ICRG's 100 employees were Indigenous. "One of the most rewarding experiences I had was going out on site at Christmas and seeing all our Indigenous workers with smiles on their faces because for the first time in a long time there were Christmas presents under the tree, all the bills were paid and the wife and/or the husband was happy," Wolf said.

He said ICRG had strict key performance indicators in its contract with Fortescue including some regarding Indigenous employee numbers, and it could be penalised if they were not met. He echoed Forrest's calls for other business and Indigenous leaders to enact their own programs to increase Indigenous employment.

"I know everyone laughed at Andrew when he set a target of 50,000 [jobs for Indigenous Australians] but, let's face it, the man has proven to set high goals and achieve them," he said.

"I'd strongly encourage other companies to look at using similar methodology because if that is achieved, that 50,000 number Andrew was talking about is achievable."

Fortescue Metals Group, based in the Pilbara region of Western Australia, is the world's fourth largest iron-ore producer.

In March this year Forrest and his wife, Nicola, joined the Giving Pledge philanthropic group founded by Bill and Melinda Gates and Warren Buffett. The Forrests' pledge amounts to more than $2.5bn.

The couple are also the founders of closing-the-gap movement Generation One.

I was basically cuddled up next to the Greens :cool:

Too many lefties on these forums it seems :lol:

Roar_Brisbane, how can anyone vote Rudd that highly all things considered?

Who's responsible for Australia's 'debt crisis'?

Steve Keen5 Aug, 6:52 AM63
PoliticsFederal BudgetEconomy

Another election is on in Australia, and the topic du jour – the political topic du century it seems – is that, horror of horrors, the government’s budget next year will be in deficit to the tune of $30 billion! It’s a scandal! Our debt is ballooning! And it’s all Labor’s fault! Why, all you have to do is look at the responsible Howard period – falling debt – and compare it to the irresponsible Labor period – rising debt – and you know who to vote for, don’t you?

Figure 1: From the responsible Howard to the irresponsible Rudd?


Or maybe not. Here is exactly the same data, but now plotted with Australia’s private debt level. In case you can’t see it, government debt is the little squiggly red line at the bottom of Figure 2.

Figure 2: Howard rode a private debt bubble and Rudd didn't


Politics is so easy when you can play the game without context. Without context, it’s a no-brainer: the Liberals are better at managing Australia’s finances than Labor. With context, it’s a sideshow: you might as well vote for a meerkat or a leopard to run the country: luck – and quick tricks rather than wisdom – have been far more important than economic wisdom in crafting the apparent economic legacies of our leaders.

Howard was lucky to take over from Keating at a time when private borrowing had recovered from the 1990s recession and was growing gangbusters; Rudd was unfortunate to take over from Howard at almost the instant that the private debt party came to an end (see Figure 3).

Figure 3: Who you gonna call? Neither of them...


Drill down further still and the question of which party is better at managing the economy starts to sound like asking which witchdoctor would be better at managing the first manned flight to Mars. Howard was lucky to take over from Keating when the recovery in business borrowing had peaked. He then kept the credit gravy train running by conjuring a revival in household borrowing in 2001 by first re-introducing and then doubling the First Home Vendors Grant.

Then luck intervened as the business sector moved into full Ponzi mode (remember the leveraged buyout craze, with its last hurrah being the aborted buyout of Qantas?), more than making up for a decline in household debt growth from 2004 on (see Figure 4).

Luck is the last word you’d use to describe Rudd’s timing – unless prefaced by the word “bad”. Household borrowing had been heading south for four years by the time he took office; virtually on the day he did, business borrowing tanked as well.

Figure 4: Business debt decline begins precisely when Rudd takes office


You might almost imagine that the business sector went on a borrowing strike because of Rudd’s election – until you notice that business borrowing peaked in the US slightly before either Rudd or Obama were elected. Both allegedly left-of-centre politicians had the misfortune to assume the reins of power just as the biggest private debt bubble in history began to burst (see Figure 5).

Figure 5: And it's coincidence rather than causation


Rudd did conjure up one witchdoctor’s spell that made our economic performance appear less dire than America’s. Throwing the trusty First Home Vendors’ Boost talisman into the fire, the decline in household debt growth was arrested and Australia avoided outright deleveraging (see Figure 6).

Figure 6: Household borrowing kept Australia bubbling along during the GFC


So what does this tell us about whether Rudd or Abbott would be a better economic manager? That the question is irrelevant.

Steve Keen is author of Debunking Economics and the blog Debtwatch and developer of the Minsky software program.

The business Spectator is left-wing biased...........

Thats just sad.

Mine was something like:

Abbott 2.5
Rudd 0.5
Milne 0

My personal favourite was how much do you trust them and they were all placed in the 0 section.

(snip)

More socially conservative than the ALP.

Ouch.

(snip)

More socially conservative than the ALP.

Ouch.

Andrew Forrest is a champ. He deserves more recognition for the work he's done.

You guys are all basically Hitler compared to me ;)

I was too far right economically for the Greens and Labor (but still too left for the LNP), and too socially liberal for Labor and the Libs. My bubble didn't intersect with anybody :lol:

None of the leaders received pass marks from me either, with Milne still managing a distant third despite Rudd and Abbott's very low scores.

Too far down the bottom there batfink?