RAP-ping up the second year of our Reconciliation Action Plan
19 Feb 2021
It’s been two years since we released our latest Elevate Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP). Despite the challenges of a global pandemic, we’re proud to have continued making progress against the actions in our RAP.
Highlights from the last year (2020-21)
Supporting First Nations businesses:
- Launched the CGU Kayku Kumpa mentoring program to support the growth and development of First Nations small business owners.
- Held the second annual CGU Kayku Kumpa Awards during Indigenous Business Month – awarding five First Nations small business owners a $5,000 professional development grant.
Addressing Indigenous incarceration:
We continued our work with Just Reinvest NSW on community-led initiatives in Mount Druitt in Western Sydney to explore whether a justice reinvestment approach could be effective in this community. Justice reinvestment aims to redirect funding away from prisons and into communities that have high rates of contact with the criminal justice system. Highlights of our partnership so far include:
- A new ‘learner driver’ program which will be launched next month. In partnership with Australian Red Cross and Just Reinvest NSW, the initiative will help people access driving lessons and get their licences. Having a license opens up economic opportunities and reduces the chance of driving related fines that can lead to incarceration.
- Working with the Just Reinvest NSW Youth Ambassadors to find more opportunities to collaborate with communities and find impactful ways to disrupt known pathways to prison.
Providing employment and learning opportunities:
- Welcomed 22 CareerTrackers interns to our team.
- Hired 60 First Nations employees. One of things that we’ve learned through this process is the importance of tailoring our recruitment, onboarding and training process for First Nations candidates. This will require a continued focus including support for our hiring managers.
Celebrating First Nations culture
- NRMA Insurance partnered with Local Aboriginal Land Councils and Boomalli Aboriginal Artists Co-operative to create nine billboard artworks on the major highways around New South Wales to help increase awareness about the traditional lands of First Nations people.
- The first NRMA Insurance First Nations billboard in Queensland is due to go live in February 2021.
- As part of creating the billboards we also engaged with local First Nations communities to determine the appropriate language and wording for each site.
Announcing the winner of our 2021 Andy Cornish Scholarship
Congratulations to our CareerTrackers intern Brodie Harris who won the IAG Andy Cornish Indigenous Scholarship.
Each year, one of our outstanding CareerTrackers interns is chosen for the scholarship which contributes to their ongoing studies and professional development.
Brodie began her first internship at IAG in the NRMA Blacktown branch in January 2019 and is now on her fourth rotation with the company. She is also studying a Bachelor of Social Work at Western Sydney University.
The award was introduced in 2017, in honour of the contribution IAG's former Chief Executive of Personal Insurance Andy Cornish made towards driving the development of our first RAP to empower Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, businesses and communities.
CareerTrackers is an example of one of the ways IAG is helping to advance current and future Indigenous leaders – a key focus of our Indigenous Engagement Strategy.
Meet one of our CareerTracker interns
I’m Emily Boland, a proud Aboriginal woman, Mardigan and Kooma, of South-West Queensland. I am currently studying Business at the Queensland University of Technology, majoring in Public Relations. Here I heard about the CareerTrackers internship program as an opportunity to gain valuable corporate experience while studying.
I started at IAG in June 2018 for my first CareerTrackers internship. Overall, I have completed six internships throughout my summer and winter university breaks, across different teams at IAG including Customer Relations, Commercial and Specialty, and Corporate Affairs.
Following my internship in the Commercial and Specialty team, I was offered a part-time role supporting the Business Planning and Embedment team.
I’ve been fortunate to take a break from my part-time role to complete my most recent summer internship over 2020-21 in the Public Policy and Industry Affairs team, where I was exposed to the Corporate Affairs space and was able to apply my university learnings.
During my nearly three years in the program some highlights have been going to Sydney for a professional development, meeting with IAG executives and attending the Annual CareerTrackers Gala and Leadership Development Institute each year.
One of the biggest benefits of the program is that you gain experience in some of the most renowned companies in Australia and are celebrated for your unique talents and value-add in these spaces.
For many interns, it can be the first time in a corporate setting (it was for me) so having the ability to build a supportive network of colleagues, fellow interns, and program alumni that will support and uplift Indigenous professionals is so important.
If you’re thinking about an internship, go for it! You are going to meet so many amazing, likeminded people and will not only be able to get a “foot-in-the-door” for your career but be supported in the many opportunities that come your way.
About our RAP
Our current RAP includes actions aimed at providing employment, education and professional development opportunities to First Nations people, as well as supporting Indigenous businesses and increasing cultural awareness among IAG employees and partners.
We’re proud that we’ve received the highest level of endorsement from Reconciliation Australia for our RAP and it’s recognised as an ‘Elevate’ RAP.
To achieve Elevate status, organisations must have a proven track record of embedding effective RAP initiatives throughout the organisation, while taking a leadership position to advance national reconciliation.
You can find our RAP here.