Baxter Healthcare has marked the start of Reconciliation Week (May 27 – June 3) with its second Reflect: Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP).
The company said its new Reflect RAP reinforces its ongoing commitment to reconciliation for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and aligns with Baxter’s 'ACT: Activating Change Today' program.
Baxter said its Reflect RAP outlines its objectives and activities to promote reconciliation and advance the company's partnerships and activities with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.
Baxter launched its inaugural RAP in 2022. It said it has formed strong partnerships and implemented formal programs to educate and inform employees, from cultural training workshops and employee on-country experience programs to promoting important awareness weeks, including National Reconciliation Week and NAIDOC Week.
Baxter has partnered with Western Sydney University to support Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander education and health programs.
Beginning in 2021, the Baxter Healthcare Scholarship for Indigenous Nursing and Midwifery sponsors two final-year Indigenous Western Sydney University students, awarding individual, one-time scholarships of $9,000 per student.
The general manager of Baxter Australia and New Zealand, Brendan Cummins, said, “Our reconciliation efforts have had a direct and positive effect on many of our local employees in Australia.
“Acknowledgement of Country in formal meetings has evolved into bespoke, carefully researched, and heartfelt acknowledgements of specific Aboriginal communities that tended and cared for the lands for thousands of years, on which our facilities now sit.
"These conscious efforts to truly understand and appreciate the incredible histories of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, are critical to ensuring we authentically implement all the actions and initiatives set out in the Reflect framework before advancing to the Innovate RAP stage.”
Reconciliation Australia CEO Karen Mundine added, “Reconciliation Australia congratulates Baxter Healthcare on continuing its reconciliation journey by formally endorsing Baxter Healthcare’s second Reflect Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP).
“This Reflect RAP continues the journey and primes the workplace for future RAPs and reconciliation initiatives.
“Through this plan, Baxter Healthcare continues to play an important role in a network of more than 3,000 corporate, government, and not-for-profit organisations that have made a formal commitment to reconciliation through the RAP program.”
