Wesfarmers today launched its inaugural Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP).

Managing Director, Richard Goyder, said the RAP was a commitment by Wesfarmers aimed at ensuring that the company’s businesses were places where Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples felt welcome and valued, as employees, customers and citizens.

“I believe that Wesfarmers, and corporate Australia generally, have a role to play in combating the disadvantage experienced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in Australia,” he said

The RAP includes a series of specific measurable actions to be undertaken across the Wesfarmers Group and at a Corporate Office level, targeting employment and community engagement.

“With more than 207,000 employees across Australia, we can have the biggest impact on reducing disadvantage by working towards the removal of any barriers to employment that exist for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.”

“Each of our businesses will be looking at how many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are currently employed, and identifying opportunities to increase the level of Indigenous participation.”
The RAP builds on existing initiatives across the Group, but represents the first coordinated approach the company has taken on this issue.

Wesfarmers is supporting its employment goals through contributions to education-related initiatives, such as the Clontarf Foundation and through symbolic acts of recognition It will also celebrate the outstanding contribution of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to the arts, through the Indigenous Fellowship recently established by Wesfarmers Arts and the National Gallery of Australia.

“This is a long term commitment by Wesfarmers. No doubt we will make mistakes along the way. But we’ll learn from these and share our lessons across the Group and with other companies to assist corporate Australia to play its part in addressing this challenge which is so vital to the future of the Australian community.”

Wesfarmers joins the growing number of organisations across Australia that have adopted RAPs. Reconciliation Australia created RAPs to encourage and support motivated Australians to turn good
intentions into meaningful action that is likely to get results.

RA’s Co-Chair and the 2009 Australian of the Year Mick Dodson thanked and congratulated Wesfarmers on its RAP, describing the plan as “clear, succinct and accountable, demonstrating Wesfarmers as an organisation of the utmost integrity.

“This is an iconic Australian company entering a new phase by publicly taking steps that contribute to closing the gaps,” said Professor Dodson. “Your RAP is serious and realistic. It acknowledges that you, like all of us, have much to learn and, in this way, it strikes me as particularly genuine in its determination to get this stuff right for the long term.”

The full text of the Wesfarmers Reconciliation Action Plan is available at www.wesfarmers.com.au/news.html.

For further information contact:
Keith Kessell
A/Executive General Manager, Corporate Affairs
(+61 9327 4267 or 0439 515 973

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