Addressing Undervaluation of Cultural Skills

Joint Media Release 27 January 2026

The UTS Centre for Indigenous People and Work (CIPW) and the Australian Education Union have joined forces to address the historical and contemporary challenges faced by ‘Indigenous employment’.

This groundbreaking partnership, supported by Maurice Blackburn Lawyers, aims to develop a Leading Practice Bargaining Framework to support the AEU’s anti-racism campaign. The collaboration builds on these organisations’ long-standing leadership in Indigenous employment reform.

The framework will embed anti-racism measures within industrial and professional conditions, recognising that safe, respectful and inclusive workplaces are fundamental employment rights.

The research will include:

• Analysis of state and territory awards and agreements affecting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander teachers, leaders and education support roles, including Aboriginal Education Workers and Aboriginal Community Engagement Officers;
• Application of CIPW’s research on gender-based and cultural skills undervaluation and pay equity;
• Recommended clauses for bargaining informed by Gari Yala and the AEU’s Making our Words and Actions meet; and
• Alignment with the Race Discrimination Commissioner’s proposed National Anti-Racism Framework.

This collaboration builds on the AEU and the UTS Jumbunna Institute’s earlier joint work Making our words and actions meet: Understanding the experiences of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander educators in the workforce. That report benchmarked the experiences of Aboriginal member and Torres Strait Islander member experience within education facilities and identified practical industrial and organisational reforms, including proposed enterprise bargaining clauses.

The partnership comes at a critical moment following the Fair Work Commission Expert Panel’s provisional decision in early 2025, which recognised gender-based undervaluation across several priority awards, including the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Workers and Practitioners and Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Services Award 2020.

Importantly, the Commission acknowledged the intersection between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultural skills and gender-based skills, drawing on evidence from the Jumbunna Institute’s landmark research, A Hidden History of Aboriginal Women’s Work in the Community Controlled Health Sector.

The decision confirms that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women’s work often sits at the intersection of cultural and gendered labour, with cultural knowledge, community responsibilities and relational work being systematically undervalued within industrial frameworks. This finding provides an important foundation for broader reform across other sectors, including education.

Quotes attributable to AEU Federal President Correna Haythorpe:

“Aboriginal teachers and education staff and Torres Strait Islander teachers and education staff bring essential cultural knowledge, leadership and care to our schools, early childhood services and TAFE institutes, yet this work has long been undervalued and overlooked in industrial systems.”

“By placing anti-racism and cultural recognition squarely within bargaining frameworks, we are asserting that respect, safety and equity are core employment conditions, not optional extras.”

Quotes attributable to Professor Nareen Young, Director of the UTS Centre for Indigenous People and Work:

“The historic decision of the Fair Work Commission at the undervaluation of intersection of gender and cultural skills provides a framework to begin to address the undervaluation of Indigenous people’s work and skills in the modern economy and we are proud to collaborate to lead this work.”

“As well, placing anti-racism measures strongly in the bargaining framework places them in the employment jurisdiction, where they belong, at long last. We are proud to work alongside employment community partners for recognition of our people’s contribution to Australian workplaces and the economy and to strengthen anti-racism provisions in workplaces that our data tells us are sorely needed.”

Quotes attributable to Imogen Szumer, Senior Associate, Maurice Blackburn Lawyers

“Workplace anti-racism measures cannot be limited to employer policies and individual discrimination law claims after the harm has been done. Enforceable, collectively bargained rights and protections will drive real accountability and change.

“We are proud to support this critical work being led the Australian Education Union and the Centre for Indigenous People and Work.”