PM’s Employer of the Year Awards – Northern Territory

I want to congratulate the state and territory winners of the 2001 Prime Minister’s Employer of the Year Awards. All of the winners have shown tremendous commitment to employing people with disabilities and are reaping the rewards.

In the Northern Territory, the winner is the Nhulunbuy Community Library.

The Library services the Gove Peninsula public and Nhulunbuy High School and is situated in the High School grounds. Nhulunbuy is situated on the east coast of Arnhem Land on the Northern Territory side of the Gulf of Carpentaria, about 600 km east of Darwin.

The town commenced in 1971 with a special town lease on Aboriginal land to service the Nabalco bauxite mine. It has a population of approximately 3500 people.

Nhulunbuy Library provides a full range of library services to the local community and students of the High School. These include lending services, access to electronic resources and the internet (the only public internet access in the town), newspapers and magazines, a book exchange and the East Arnhem Collection of resources about the local region.

Nhulunbuy Community Library employs one person with a disability on its staff of three full-time and five casual staff. The employee’s role includes a range of library tasks including shelving books, cleaning videos and CDs, creating displays and maintaining the children’s room.

Ongoing training and support is also provided for the employee so that they can participate in the Certificate of Library Studies through the Northern Territory University.

The Prime Minister’s Employer of the Year Awards, which recognise small and large businesses in each state and territory that employ people with disabilities, have been running for 11 years. The number and quality of nominations has been increasing each year.

The Prime Minister’s Employer of the Year Awards is a great opportunity to showcase Australian businesses that are leading the way, and to encourage others to follow suit in creating a fair and just work environment for everyone.

The Prime Minister, Mr John Howard will announce the National Winners of the Employer of the Year Awards at Parliament House on Monday, 26 August.