- The Department has a much higher representation of Aboriginal staff compared to the rest of the Western Australian public sector or their numbers in the community.
- There had been a substantial improvement in representation over the past decade. However, improvement has stalled in recent years. Since 2009 the increase in Aboriginal staff has not kept pace with the increase in other staff levels resulting in a decline in the overall proportion of Aboriginal staff representation.
- The Department has been successful in attracting Aboriginal staff to advertised positions, and the recruitment process did not appear to disadvantage Aboriginal applicants.
- Aboriginal staff are unevenly distributed across the Department. They are overrepresented in the community and youth justice division, and under-represented in adult prisons and in Head Office.
- The Department has not made any progress in improving Aboriginal staff representation in the past five years. Indeed the decline in Aboriginal staff representation over the past five years is largely due to the high separation rate of staff in non-custodial positions.
- The Department has room for improvement in recruiting Aboriginal staff to non-frontline roles, particularly in Head Office, which has suffered a proportional decrease of 67 per cent over the last five years.
- The Department has implemented a Reconciliation Action Plan that is commendable and, if successful, has potential to improve recruitment and retention of Aboriginal staff.