SNAPSHOT

Lights, camera, action

As part of youth week, we and other supporters challenged young Australians to produce a short film promoting the benefits of the tax and superannuation systems.

The winners were:

• Braden Trotter from Queensland won the junior category (7 to 12 years) with
  Come on Australia – a send-up of traditional government advertising.
• George Makrynakis from Victoria won the senior division (18 to 25 years) with
  The Secret Piggybank – a take on superannuation.
• Emma Elias from New South Wales won the junior people’s choice category with a mock movie trailer for the feature film Superannuation.
• Jeremy Gorniak from Tasmania won the senior people’s choice category for his balance of humour and education in the satirical propaganda film for the nation of Notaxistan.

Commissioner Michael D’Ascenzo said the competition delivered a new and fun way for young Australians to connect with the ATO. He commented,

The ATO has started to speak directly with young Australians. We want a lifetime relationship where all people understand tax and superannuation as important community assets.

SNAPSHOT

An award winning partnership Contributing to the community

To provide employment opportunities for disadvantaged youths we established our pathways program in 2008.

Our program now partners with several non-profit community service providers. One of these, Whitelion, aims to create opportunities for young people at risk of entering into the justice system, or becoming disengaged from the community.

With Whitelion we received a joint Rotary community service award for the most successful and sustainable partnership between a community and a corporate organisation.

Participants in the program are given the chance to work in a stable environment, where they receive mentoring and valuable job skills. They benefit from the confidence of knowing they can achieve in a professional work environment and contribute to the community.

Our Community Programs Manager, Donna Cameron, and Whitelion Employment Program Manager, Jeff Hamilton, with the Rotary award.

TRANSCRIPT

The Community Programs Project

Jeff Hamilton, Employment Program Manager, Whitelion:
So Whitelion’s been going for 11 years, and we work with young people who are in the youth justice and out of home care systems, or at risk of becoming involved in those systems. We work with them in a variety of ways. We’ve got five different programs here in Victoria, but we’re also nationally based, so we’re in South Australia, in New South Wales, and Tasmania.

Sally Hearn, Manager, Intermediate Labour Market, Australian Multicultural Education Services (AMES):
Well, AMES is the largest provider of settlement and language services for newly arrived migrants and refugees to Australia, and as well as that we also have an employment division.

Murray Wilson, Cadetship Program Corporate Manager DOXA Youth Foundation:
DOXA has been around since about 1972. Its work falls into three main areas, so DOXA looks after disadvantaged young people. So young people that have been enrolled in University courses from disadvantaged backgrounds have a sponsor company, and the ATO is one of the sponsor companies that gives them eight weeks worth of work experience per year, and an industry mentor as well.

Leigh Purnell, Convenor of Corporate Leaders Network:
I set up the Corporate Leaders Network about two years ago, and we started with 12 organisations, and in the last two years we’ve grown it to 85 and growing. And it’s principally an organisation where corporates come together to try and help people who have refugee background or skilled migrant background. The lead company is BHP Billiton, and other organisations – well, the Australian Tax Office is one.

Jeff Hamilton:
In particular the Pathways To Work program that you guys run is fantastic, and it supports the young person’s capacity where they’re at. It’s very sensitive to the different types of needs that the young person has, and it’s also sensitive to the needs of the Whitelion’s program – a very collaborative process.

Rachel Shankland, Senior Employment Worker, Whitelion:
I have a number of young people that I engage with that are currently employed with the ATO – they’ve come to us through the Community Pathways, so they’re in out of home care, or experienced some level of disadvantage.

Mark Watt, CEO & co-founder of Whitelion:
Oh, it’s a great partnership, performing very well, seen a lot of success with young people. A lot of young people’s lives are being changed, and a lot of young people are really moving on in their career, and career is something a lot of these kids didn’t think they’d ever have. So it’s been fantastic to see the changes in their life, in the way the ATO works with them, the communication between the two organisations is first rate.

Murray Wilson:

You know when the young people actually click with an organisation because they’re starting to see possibilities for themselves within that organisation. So, and that’s a lot of what I hear about the ATO.

Sally Hearn:
They actually enjoyed the fact that someone could see the value they could offer to the workplace as well.

Leigh Purnell:
Also I think the ATO is very important in its very proactive role that it’s taking in work experience programs, and very much committed to sort of community activities, and people who are new entrants to this country.

Rachel Shankland:
A number of them haven’t engaged in formal employment previously, or if it has it’s been quite casual, so this has been their first opportunity to dress up and go to a proper interview, but still have that supportive interview where it’s not competitive in nature. So, and the whole time that they’ve been interviewed, it’s about the ATO wanting to know about them, and giving them the confidence that they’re actually offering the ATO something. So they’ve always… every young person I’ve worked with has walked out of that interview walking on cloud nine, and they’ve actually felt validated and that they’ve got something to offer someone. And they’ve never had that opportunity before.

Raymond Walters, Senior Indigenous Employment Worker:
There’s a great sense of pride, a great sense of achievement, and not only for the young person, but for the community and their family members as well. I guess that’s what’s really important for me and my work, and working with great organisations such as the ATO, and the people that work there who are really supportive of that big vision for our people to have success in mainstream Australia.

Sally Hearn:
They’re outstanding actually. Most employers, we just ring up and they give us perhaps one placement a year, two if we’re lucky but, and actually rely on them to take our students, and we’ve established regular connections within ATO.

Jeff Hamilton:
The ATO have been, and continue to be, our best support in regards to employing our young people – not just the volume of young people that the ATO employ, but also the engagement that the ATO office has with Whitelion staff.

Mark Watt:
The relationship with the ATO is a partnership, so we work together very closely, work with their staff and our staff working together. It started off small, and it’s grown since we started. So we, you know, work things through together, we needed to give kids real jobs, and of course the ATO had the program, and it just dovetailed and fitted in very well together.

Jeff Hamilton:
I cannot speak more highly of the ATO.

Sally Hearn:
They were extremely supportive to AMES and the AMES teaching team, but as well as that they were very supportive to our students.

Jeff Hamilton:
We find the ATO’s understanding of social welfare issues very, of a very high standard.

[End of audio].