PwC and PwC’s Indigenous Consulting make progress towards reconciliation.

AUSTRALIA – PwC Australia (PwC) and PwC’s Indigenous Consulting (PIC) are continuing to make progress towards reconciliation with a number of key initiatives being achieved over the first three years of the firms four-year joint Elevate Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP) 2019-2023.

Actions around the three key areas of increasing economic participation of First Nations people, deepening awareness of culture and expanding community partnerships are reported on in the firm’s Progress Report 2021 released today.

CEO of PwC Australia, Tom Seymour said “Reconciliation is core to Australia’s national identity and offers enormous potential for the future of our country. We’re committed to supporting real and lasting change in the lives of First Nations people and we will continue to focus on employment opportunities for First Nations people. We’re proud of the progress we’ve made, but we recognise there is much more to do.”

Some key highlights are:

• PwC, PIC, Revolent Group and Salesforce have established an Indigenous Tech Academy which aims to increase the representation of Indigenous Australians in the technology industry. The Indigenous Tech Academy provides school leavers with 12-months of paid training, mentoring and support and helps them through a program to build work-ready technology skills. The 12-month program commenced with its first set of students in February 2022. Upon successful completion, participants will be offered full-time roles within PwC Australia and PIC. The virtual nature of the Indigenous Tech Academy ensures youth from all around the country can apply.
• PwC and PIC together with the Constellation Project, a coalition which aims to end homelessness in a generation, have developed a proof of concept for a First Nations elder village to provide culturally appropriate aged care that allows First Nations people to maintain connection to country and community as they age. The team is currently working with the Narrunga Nations and Point Pearce communities to conduct project feasibility for building an elder village on country. Our shared vision is to establish an elder village that will: provide sustainable, affordable and culturally safe living options for Elders, and create control, self-determination, economic and social innovation opportunities for the Narungga Community.
• PwC, PIC and Salesforce have partnered with the Australian Indigenous Mentoring Experience (AIME) to develop a virtual university called IMAGI-NATION {University}. The program, which seeks to alleviate educational inequality amongst indigenous youth, provides educational opportunities and mentoring support to students across Australia, and the globe. In its first year almost 500 students from 52 countries were involved. PwC, PIC and Salesforce worked in partnership with AIME to design and establish the technology platform required to bring this vision to life, digitising 16 years of AIME’s learnings in just three months - which secured a gold Good Design Award for social impact in October 2021.
• In association with 33Creative and the MURRA Indigenous Business Program at Melbourne Business School, PwC has collaborated again to award the MURRA Boost Initiative to support and help scale up the Indigenous economy and Indigenous Business Month. The purpose of this award is to support the growth of First Nations businesses and advance socio-economic opportunities for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, communities and businesses. Award recipients receive $30,000 in-kind support from a specialist PwC team to help strengthen their business practices and build capacity for future growth. In 2021, the PwC MURRA Boost initiative winner was vehicle hire company, Cedrent Enterprises. More than 22 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander-led businesses are thriving as a result of PwC accelerator business programs including the MURRA Boost and the firm’s procurement strategies.

PwC's Indigenous Consulting (PIC) CEO, Wiradjuri man, Gavin Brown, said "While we are proud of what we have been able to accomplish over our 8 plus years – 1,200+ projects across more than 700 communities – PIC and PwC continue to challenge ourselves to consider how we can make a greater impact. As we mature with our RAP journey, we know that these standards are ever-increasing and we want to do our utmost to continue to push ourselves.”

PwC and PIC’s Elevate RAP sets out an ambitious agenda building on years of action, and demonstrates the firm's long standing commitment to reconciliation.

PwC began to stretch its ambitions toward reconciliation nine years ago. As part of its 2013 action plan, the firm shared a vision to support self-determination through empowering Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander-led models and solutions. From that vision PIC was born.

PIC is a separate member firm in the PwC global network which maintains an Indigenous majority owned, managed, and 50% staffed operation. This multi-award winning Indigenous led firm is a first in the professional services sector and has undertaken 1,200+ projects across more than 700 communities in its 8 years in operation.

PwC Australia’s Reconciliation Action Plan Progress Report 2021 is available to read here: