00:00I grew up in a small country town bailing up having lost two friends to drugs and
00:06suicide in my teenage years I was in a bit of a death spiral when I was in my
00:10early 20s and two things happened over the course of the next five years that
00:14really I can look back on and attest to my life's outcomes turning around one
00:18was the unplanned birth of my son at age 21 it really shook me to my core about
00:24recognizing that I had to provide for this beautiful boy I came across an
00:28opportunity to do an electrical apprenticeship I really wasn't feeling
00:32confident that I could achieve an electrical apprenticeship trade but this
00:36one man believed in me that was my uncle and this is really instilled in me today
00:40in wanting to pay that forward someone's belief in one person can change someone's
00:45life I'm really passionate about demonstrating what's possible in the
00:50construction industry across my businesses we'll call it cool cut and
00:54construction and Balja and Bilya they each individually offer opportunities for
01:00mob to get into the construction and electrical industry I'm really proud to
01:04recognize that the impact that we've had with myself and my teams is that we have
01:08achieved 70 Aboriginal upskilling positions over the last 10 years we've
01:13also awarded over 11 million dollars to Aboriginal subcontractors ones in which
01:17we have seen grow from in some cases one person contracting through to now having
01:24their own teams and their own Aboriginal upskilling programs in addition we've
01:28also sponsored over $35,000 to individual Aboriginal sports people as well as
01:33Aboriginal managed sports clubs
01:38when an Aboriginal person joins a firm business and they feel like they're the
01:43only Aboriginal person there there can be challenges with that by building a
01:48beautiful bunch of mob across the businesses they immediately feel that
01:53they are part of a team the effects of what I see is a culturally safe
01:59organization supporting mob it has a profound effect on the individuals life
02:04there is countless cases that we see day in day out it's been an incredible
02:09journey over the last 10 years and I'm most proud of seeing my people flourish in
02:13their careers
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