Our proud First Nations engagement

Corporate Protection has a highly developed indigenous program and we have been part of Reconciliation Australia’s Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP) family since 2018.

Our current 2021 – 2024 Stretch RAP outlines several public commitments to promote reconciliation within our company and the wider community. We are proudly one of only 23 Qld based private sector organisations that have a Stretch RAP, endorsed by Reconciliation Australia, and we are the only Medical, Emergency Services, Security & Training company that has one.

Corporate Protection adopts a number of strategies to maximise indigenous participation in employment and procurement.

All Corporate Protection recruitment advertisements include the following:

• Corporate Protection acknowledges the Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples of this nation. We acknowledge the traditional custodians of the lands on which our company is located and where we conduct our business. We pay our respects to ancestors and Elders, past and present. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are encouraged to apply.

We engage with external Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and/or consultants to advise on recruitment, employment and retention strategies, including professional development.

Our indigenous Ambassador, Lorraine Hatton, OAM, has conducted multiple visits to sites on behalf of CPA to meet with First Nations Peoples and generate employment opportunities and introductions with local landowners. Lorraine was nominated for the QLD Australian of the Year Representative in 2019 and is also the current Australian Army indigenous Elder.

CPA maintains a particular emphasis on training and retaining our Indigenous staff through a positive and culturally aware environment and employment relationship. For example, all First Nations employees have access to paid leave during NADOC week to attend NAIDOC official events. This is further supported by our established Indigenous specific HR policy and framework.

CPA have also entered into an agreement with the University of the Sunshine Coast to fund two bursaries each year supporting undergraduate Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students at the University of the Sunshine Coast.

As a measure of our success in pursuing our Indigenous participation strategies, all new employees are surveyed and in 9 months of 2023 to date we have welcomed 10 new employees identifying as of ATSI origin, representing 6.96% of recruits this year.

We will continue to monitor this metric and proudly report on our success and true reconciliation.