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The Australian Public Service and the Modern Discourse. Since the development of Western government in Australia, policymakers have struggled with how to interact with Indigenous Australians. The first discourses that framed policy concerned separation, and later segregation, between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. Over time, these discourses have evolved into the modern discourse of equality, where Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians are to be considered equal members of a greater Australian society. Since the development of the modern discourse in the late 1960s and early 1970s, the employment of Indigenous Australians in the Australian Public Service (APS) has been an important part of federal policy. As the public employer of the Commonwealth, the APS represents to many people the country's commitment to achieving its goals for Indigenous Australians. Diversity, employment, and service delivery are all key goals, and each is greatly influenced by the modern discourse. Challenges to Realizing the Goals of the Modern Discourse. One of the most pressing challenges to the Commonwealth's goals is historical employment disadvantage among Indigenous Australians. Indigenous unemployment is at least around 40 percent (SCRGSP 2005, p. 11.11), meaning that many Indigenous people lack the qualifications and job experience necessary in order to find employment. One cause for this disadvantage is historical racism against Indigenous Australians. Many employers refuse to hire Indigenous people because of stereotypes, such as Indigenous Australians' refusal to go to work regularly (Pillans 2003a; Pillans 2003b). Old-fashioned racist ideas can also play a part in the inability for Indigenous Australians to find jobs, but racism also influences how employees perform at work. Nearly one in five surveyed Indigenous employees reported that negative stereotypes about Indigenous Australians hindered their work performance, for instance (APSC 2006b, p. 46). While it is impossible to determine how racism affects recruitment and retention, racism is a significant problem for the delivery of services by the APS. A third challenge to the APS is the provision of appropriate and adequate workplace support and development opportunities for Indigenous employees. While many Indigenous employees do not know of any support or development opportunities for Indigenous Australians, the vast majority of employees who do use them find them helpful in their work (APSC 2006b, pp. 38-39). A more pressing issue is the prevalence of tokenism in the workplace. Considering the large proportion of Indigenous employees who work in service delivery, tokenism poses· a significant threat to how well the APS can deliver its mandated services. Job desirability is a final issue that faces the APS. Many Indigenous Australians want jobs that work with Indigenous Australian issues (APSC2006b, pp. 16-17). While this can draw employees into agencies that deal with many Indigenous issues, it can hinder the efforts of other agencies to diversify and provide Indigenous people with jobs. Efforts to Meet the Challenges and Realize the Goals of the Modern Discourse. One category of interventions is meant to improve the diversity of the APS and the employment of Indigenous Australians. Agencies, for example, can identify positions in which skills that many Indigenous Australians have would contribute to the delivery of services. This gives them an advantage in meeting job selection criteria, and it opens opportunities for employment in a number of agencies. However, the use of identified positions is largely limited to agencies that deal with Indigenous issues (APSC 2003b, p. 122). Similarly, apprenticeships and programs for tertiary students allow Indigenous Australians to gain work experience, but they are often limited to certain agencies. This creates large concentrations of Indigenous employees in the APS, not diversity across the Public Service. Agencies may also designate positions as open only to Indigenous Australians. While special measures like these may be able to increase Indigenous employment across the APS, the jobs may be undesirable to many Indigenous employees. Moreover, few such positions exist ("Evaluation of the Use and Effectiveness of Identified Positions and Special Measures for the Employment of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People in the APS" 2006, p. 7). In addition, affirmative action practices have the potential to increase tokenism in the APS. While increasing the number of Indigenous employees may not necessarily lessen the problem, improving employees' skills and job qualifications may help employees to realize that Indigenous employees are equal members of the workplace. Finally, expanding the mainstream employee development opportunities that are available to Indigenous employees may help them to improve their job performance, thereby improving APS service delivery. Considering that most Indigenous employees find mainstream programs more helpful than Indigenous-specific development programs in their jobs (APSC 2006b, p. 46), improving access to these programs may be more beneficial that increasing Indigenous-specific programs. Conclusions. Many of the issues that face the APS in achieving its Indigenous employment goals result from conflicts among the goals themselves. One possible solution would be to reconcile the three major goals, establishing how programs to achieve them will engage with each other. In addition, Indigenous employees should have the necessary qualifications for their jobs, and their coworkers should respect their qualifications and work performance. Reconciling the tensions among the goals would be a step forward in creating a more equitable and effective Public Service.