The NSW Health Aboriginal Workforce Composition Policy (PD2023_046) is intended to provide local health districts, specialty health networks and other NSW health organisations the direction to grow and develop their Aboriginal workforce. It sets out the Aboriginal workforce development priorities, targets and key performance indicators (KPIs) for NSW Health for the 2021 - 2026 period.
It provides direction for NSW Health to deliver against six key priority areas, meet minimum Aboriginal workforce representation targets, and to report against KPIs.
The six key priority areas are:
More information, including reporting collection and in-depth information can be found on Aboriginal workforce composition.
2021 Census data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) states there were 278,000 Aboriginal people living in NSW, representing 34.2% of the Aboriginal population of Australia and 3.4% of the NSW population
In 2019, NSW Health asked the Sax Institute to conduct a rapid review on Lateral Violence. Peter Lewis and Richard Frankland on behalf of the Sax institute delivered the Evidence Check Lateral Violence: Report.
A summary of the three core questions and their findings is below.
When oppression is experienced, in this context through colonial processes, it can be internalised within the group of affected peoples (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in this case) and appear as harmful behaviours between group members.
The behaviours of lateral violence can look like: gossip, exclusion and bullying, to undermine, hurt or cause social, emotional or cultural harm to another person, usually as an attempt to regain 'lost power' in the colonial system, such an example might be someone going out in community telling stories about an individual and denying their Aboriginality. Visit the Australian Human Rights Commission to learn more.
Psychological and physical symptoms of bullying and harassment are consistent in cases of lateral violence, which extend to causing harmful effects in the workplace on performance. The cultural impacts of lateral violence are harder for non-Aboriginal people to unpick, but are indicative of the significant harm felt by the person being targeted. The cultural impacts on individual's may include: identity confusion, identity disassociation, or exclusion.
Deep impacts on individuals may be expressed through self-medicating with drugs or alcohol, or in violent or argumentative behaviours either at home, in the community or in the workplace.
Raise awareness.
In short, NSW Health must: