Case studies

Building cultural safety, capability and advancing First Nations employee careers

The challenge of building cultural capability across Queensland’s largest workforce, and addressing under representation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander employees in leadership and decision-making roles, is being addressed through a unique service.

Designed using a human-centred approach, the award-winning Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander career pathways service is achieving great success—and supports over 300 employees, across 30 Queensland Government agencies.

The service works at an individual level, directly supporting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander employees by facilitating access to cross-agency learning and capability development, job and mobility opportunities, mentoring and networking events.

The career pathways service also works at a system level to break down silos, create culturally safe workplaces and build a culturally capable public sector.

Working closely with supervisors of First Nations participants and agency representatives, and by providing cultural capability resources, mentors, and development opportunities sector-wide cultural capability and cultural safety is improving.

The Queensland First Nations Ambassadors for Change group are key advisors, ensuring the career pathways service continues to evolve.

The service is expanding expand each year with more intakes and new, culturally safe programs and resources developed to meet needs of service users.

The Public Sector Commission in partnership with the Department of Treaty, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Partnerships, Communities and the Arts continue to deliver the service.

Impact of changes to Births, Deaths and Marriages Act on LGBTIQ+ communities

Legal recognition of diverse gender identities is a crucial step in validating the experiences and identities of LGBTIQ+ people.

Historically, many individuals have faced significant barriers when their gender identity did not align with the gender assigned at birth, resulting in negative impacts on their access to essential services and often their mental health.

The Department of Justice and Attorney-General worked with many stakeholders, and through numerous challenges to develop the new Births, Deaths and Marriages Registration Act 2023.

The new legislation plays a vital role in recognising and protecting the rights of LGBTIQ+ people. It allows for the legal recognition of gender identities beyond traditional male and female binary options and simplifies the process for changing gender markers on official documents.

Modernising the law and ensuring effective implementation required contributions from across the Queensland public sector including: Queensland Police Service, Queensland Corrective Services, Queensland Health, the Queensland Children’s Hospital Gender Service, as well as the Human Rights Unit and the Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages in the Department of Justice and Attorney-General.

The amendments represent an important advancement in LGBTIQ+ rights in Queensland—making a difference to individual lives and signalling a broader commitment to equality and human rights.

Keeping children safe and families supported

Child safety officers (CSOs) play a critical role in keeping children and young people safe.

Every day, they strive to make meaningful changes in the lives of vulnerable children and young people.

Their role is complex and incredibly rewarding as they work on the frontline of the child protection system—supporting families during some of their toughest times.

CSOs often say it’s a privilege to support children and young people, knowing they can change their life trajectories for the better.

They support families from all walks of life, in all corners of Queensland.

Responsible for providing statutory child protection services CSO roles include assessment, intervention, casework and case management in accordance with legislation and practice guidelines.

CSOs support foster and kinship carers and parents in caring for children in safe, stable and loving homes, ensuring they stay connected to their communities, culture and country.

CSOs are there every day doing work that really matters and where it’s needed most. From organising extra tutoring or glasses and braces for children in care, to facilitating medical intervention—no two days are ever the same.

Creating disability inclusive workplaces

Creating inclusive workplaces—where people with disability are supported, feel safe in sharing their diversity information and where disability is not a barrier to success—are areas that need focus across Queensland public sector workplaces.

The Queensland public sector employee diversity target for people with disability is 12%. Based on the sector’s HR data, only about 3.5% of employees disclosed they have a disability (March 2024). Employees are however more comfortable sharing their disability in the Working for Queensland survey—where in 2023, 11% responded they have a disability.

The Department of Resources (DoR) is leading the way in tackling this issue with two proactive initiatives to facilitate open and ongoing conversations with their employees, creating greater awareness and more disability inclusive workplace practices.

Led by their All-Abilities Action Group and disability executive champion, the first initiative yielding results was borne from an interactive all abilities session held with 250 staff who identified as having a disability, disability advocates and parents of children with a disability.

At the session employees shared their experiences at work and data insights were gathered via live polls. As a direct response, DoR committed to creating a bespoke Neurodiversity Ally Program. The program supports neurodivergent employees and carers of neurodivergent people as well as providing DoR officers with training and awareness on disability allyship.

The department has also worked with their All-Abilities Action Group, Parents and Carers Network, First Nations employees and Neurodiversity allies to design an Inclusion Passport pilot.

The process to develop a personal Inclusion Passport guides employees and managers through a rich conversation about an employee’s unique needs, reasonable adjustments and flexible work in a more holistic, supportive and understanding way.

The passport captures and facilitates support on discrete needs such as cultural or caring commitments and tailored support for neurodivergent employees and those with sensory, communicative, social or processing differences. The passport captures trusted information so is stored in a secure online system and the employee decides who they share it with.

Protecting Australian industries, our environment and way of life

Red Imported Fire Ants are one of the world’s most invasive pests. They are extremely destructive—destroying crops, damaging machinery, equipment, and critical infrastructure, and rendering land, parks, and backyards unusable.

Eradication is the only option to maintain the Australian way of life and our livelihoods.

The Queensland Department of Agriculture and Fisheries (DAF) is leading the charge to defeat this pest in Australia, through the National Fire Ant Eradication Program (NFAEP).

NFAEP is world-leading, having eradicated eight incursions already across three states. It is the most successful fire ant program in the world and no other country has managed to contain fire ants as successfully as Australia has.

The program’s eradication strategy is data driven, using intelligence and insights from the department’s data analysts. The eradication strategy consists of containment, treatment, and surveillance activities across vast areas of southeast Queensland. This involves machine learning and artificial intelligence capability, scientists, analysts, drone and aerial operators, detection dogs, and hardworking and committed field-based teams.

Community and industry engagement is another key focus area of delivery, with a new national communications strategy targeting stakeholders being delivered.

With biosecurity regulation compliance efforts scaling up, the program approach is to support industry compliance and the community on their general biosecurity obligations to protect their home, their family, and the Australian way of life.

The department is also investing in the development of innovative treatment and surveillance techniques, such as using drones and remote sensing.

The program has achieved a lot—but there is more work to be done to.

With support from all levels of the government, collaboration across industry and community, eradication is possible.

The program is supported by all states, territories, and the Commonwealth Government, and has a shared mission for Australia to be free from red imported fire ants by 2032.

Improving representation through inclusive recruitment practices

Queensland public sector organisations are working harder than ever before to ensure their workforce better reflects the communities we serve. However, more work remains.

From addressing unconscious biases, embedding inclusive recruitment practices and improving the experiences of all employees, the journey to improving representation in the public sector is complex and multifaceted.

The Department of Environment, Science and Innovation is committed to improving recruitment practice to increase representation of employees from our diversity target groups, with a focus on people with disability.

Recognising the challenges people with disability face in employment, in 2021 the department released a sector-first Diverse Ability Recruitment Policy and Procedure. This was paired with the department’s Respectful Workplaces Program and a broadening of the department’s partnership with Disability Employment Services to include Job Access, the Australian Disability Network, and Jigsaw. This combination of policy, procedure and partnership gives the department greater access to job ready candidates, who are supported to transition successfully into the workplace.

The Public Sector Act 2022 (the Act) provided a further catalyst to improve awareness, recruitment practice and hiring manger capability, with the department:

• developing tools and resources to support hiring managers and delegates to broaden their recruitment approach
• establishing a talent pool of employees trained in recruitment and selection, including those with a diversity of backgrounds and lived experience, to give panel chairs access to panel members who can bring a new perspective to recruitment and selection processes
• delivering a state-wide recruitment roadshow of 43 face-to-face and online sessions to operationalise changes under the Act, including advice to encourage applications from all groups, prioritise equity for fairer outcomes, ensure diverse panel composition, and practical and inclusive ways to assess candidates
• establishing an employee-led diversity and inclusion resource group with executive sponsorship to drive initiatives focused on improving employee experiences
• establishing a neurodiversity peer support group that helps neurodivergent employees have a safe place to share their thoughts and, coupled with training, helps employees and managers recognise the strengths of neurodivergent employees and better understand and respond to the challenges they face at work.