FAQ's
What is reconciliation?
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples continue to be affected by the traumas and impacts of the past 250 years and suffer lasting, negative intergenerational impacts. We know as a nation we have progress to make when it comes to ensuring equal opportunity and quality of life.
Reconciliation is key in helping us to close the gap. At its heart, reconciliation is about strengthening relationships between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and the broader Australian community, for the benefit of all Australians. It means Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people will have the same length and quality of life, as well as chances, opportunities, choices as non-Indigenous people.
And it starts with recognising and respecting the First Peoples of this land, acknowledging the past injustices and the ongoing inequalities experienced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and committing to working towards a more equal and respectful future.
Why is reconciliation important to Transport?
Aboriginal people are the custodians of the lands where we all live and work in Transport and they have navigated the country for thousands of years. These natural travelling routes became their Songlines. Many of our modern transport routes – our railways, roads, and waterways – follow the sacred paths trodden by Aboriginal ancestors.
At Transport we want to be a workplace where everyone is welcome and we are committed to working on reconciliation in our organisation. In 2019, we launched our Reconciliation Action Plan – a roadmap for genuine reconciliation which focuses on procurement, employment, community engagement, cultural learning, and arts, cultural heritage and place making. We prioritised things that will be most impactful in driving reconciliation and positive outcomes for Aboriginal people.
What is a Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP) and why are we developing a new one?
A Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP) is the framework organisations use to realise their vision for Reconciliation.
Reconciliation Australia have developed four levels of RAP named Reflect, Innovate, Stretch and Elevate.
Our current RAP is an Innovate RAP and it has helped to set our focus and approach and develop innovative pilot strategies. It will take us to January 2022, with Reconciliation Australia commending the progress we have made so far and endorsing our transition to a new Stretch RAP from 2022-2024.
Our Stretch RAP will align with the National Agreement on Closing the Gap for the NSW Jurisdictional Implementation Plan and build on the progress we’ve made to date. It will further embed our RAP focus areas to become business as usual and focus on long-term strategies and continuous improvements for Aboriginal employment and community engagement opportunities. Our targets will be defined and set in wide consultation with our people in Transport and external Aboriginal groups and communities.
Why are we consulting for our new RAP?
The input from our people and stakeholders will be incredibly valuable as we develop and implement our Stretch RAP so we are now calling for feedback to inform this new RAP via the survey below from 24 November to 12 December 2021. We will also run a series of targeted workshops from 24 November until early 2022. The insights we gather through our consultation will help guide the next phases of reconciliation for Transport and we will continue to have on-going consultation with our people and communities to ensure we are on the right path.
By strengthening our diversity and opportunities we will become a better organisation that can achieve our vision of helping to make NSW a better place to live, work and visit for everyone.
We are one Transport, working on our journey to reconciliation together.
Who are we engaging with and how will the feedback be used?
Who is being consulted?
The development of our Reconciliation Action Plan will involve a number of consultations with stakeholders over the coming months.
How will my feedback be used?
All feedback will be reviewed by the Reconciliation Action Plan team who will be looking for common themes, aspirations and practical actions that will have positive impacts in the short and long term. Information gathered will feed into the various iterations of the draft Reconciliation Action Plan.
Final review and endorsement internally will follow before submitting the final document to Reconciliation Australia for endorsement in early 2022.
We will keep you informed along the way!
What progress have we made?
Transport’s Innovate RAP 2019-2021 was developed to make a positive difference to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in three significant areas – respecting and celebrating culture, building and strengthening relationships, and creating opportunities for employment and career development.
The plan includes actions to drive employment, empowerment and economic development, and enhance and develop greater cultural understanding under five priority areas:
Our success stories on this site display what we have achieved under these priority areas.
Our achievements include launching the Aboriginal Maritime Safety Plan 2020-2022, developed with - and for - Aboriginal communities to ensure safety in the waterways that are such an important place for Aboriginal people to connect, and in the twelve months to 30 June 2021, we invested $105 million into Aboriginal construction projects and employed 400 Aboriginal people on these projects, and increasing internal opportunities through our mentoring initiatives – to date we’ve had 42 mentees complete our Aboriginal Career Development and Mentoring Program. We've installed Acknowledgement of Country signs on main roads and we introduced Aboriginal names for some of our key Transport assets and facilities.
These are just some of the dozens of actions and initiatives from the last few years!
To learn more about our RAP progress, please refer to the 'Useful documents' and the 'Our Progress' tab.