Inclusive workplace

[Introductory music]

[Dina laughs]

Oscar: Yeah, I'm too nervous.
[Laughing continues]

Narrator: One diverse team. Comfortable with difference. What does that really look like?

Michael: I've been giving this quite a bit of thought throughout my entire life, to be honest.
To me, those concepts are all interrelated.

Dina: The first thing that comes to my mind is acceptance.

Michael [Biosecurity Officer – Biosecurity Queensland, Cairns]: It's about recognising that a range of people have backgrounds, really diverse backgrounds, but also interesting backgrounds as well.

Oscar: Your work is valued for its own sake rather than for, viewed through a lens based on who I am or circumstances about myself that I can't change.

Louise: I think it's important that we reflect the community. As an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander person, that means a lot to me.

Sias [Biosecurity Officer – Biosecurity Queensland, Cairns]: We are part of the community though. So we live that life as well. Bringing together all walks of life and experience.

Louise: We need to be able to work collectively, collaboratively.

Michael: It also actually in a way forces us and pushes us to actually think outside our own boxes to actually communicate differently with different people.

Sias: And where we're problem solving and working on things you're like, ‘Oh, I wouldn't have thought about that.’ You just bring it together and it enhances the whole team’s value.

Dina: I am already so accepted and that nobody sees my English as, you know, a difference.

Michael: Mmm.

Louise: And when you feel like you're in the right place and you belong, that, it makes it easier to get up every morning.

Sias: Drive with a smile on the way to work, and you drive with a smile back. I feel loved, I feel cared–for and I feel whenever I talk, it matters.

Michael: Coming to this organisation, which has an absolutely brilliant culture. I think the lesson in that is that you have to work hard to maintain it.

Oscar: I just mentioned that in the male bathrooms, you know, there weren't any sanitary bins and they said, ‘Oh, you know, I never thought about that before’. And then, you know, within a week or two, there were sanitary bins and that was ah amazing to see, cause I've never seen sanitary bins in the male's bathroom before. It's just a very small thing.

Narrator: Our team is more diverse than ever before. It’s about where our people are from and what they bring. It’s about how we work together.

Louise: We're at a stage in our history where we're creating change that our mothers and our fathers and our grandmothers and our grandfathers fought for. I feel very um proud to be able to do that work. Not just representing who I am as a person and my own um family and my own mob, but other First Nations people in Queensland.

Michael: You know, all this is going to lead to one day when all this is actually not needed. In a way where, I know we don't actually have to make a conscious effort to be, you know, to be diversified and inclusive. We just do it. Yeah.

Louise: I feel a bit more comfortable, you know, after you've had a bit of human interaction.
[Louise laughs]

Narrator: Be part of our one diverse team. Find purpose you feel, impact you see, and a legacy you bring to life.

[With thanks to Dina. Michael. Sias. Michael. Oscar. Lou... and to everyone in our team. Thank you for bringing you to the department.]

[Music fades]