30 October 2010 marked the second anniversary of the Australian Employment Covenant (AEC), launched by then-Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and mining executive Andrew Forrest with the bold goal of creating 50,000 jobs for Indigenous Australians in two years. It is now timely to review the AEC’s progress, and to ask whether the taxpayer funds invested in the scheme have been money well spent.

This Topical Issue summarises CAEPR Working Paper No. 274, ‘Corporate Initiatives In Indigenous Employment: The Australian Employment Covenant Two Years On‘ by Kirrily Jordan and Dante Mavec. A version of this paper appeared on Crikey, 1 November 2010.

Keywords: Indigenous employment, Australian Employment Covenant