How this accountant is using his professional skills to improve outcomes for Indigenous Australians

> CPA Australia’s Future Thinkers series tells the remarkable stories of members shifting the dial in business, the community and society. * Steve Rossingh's career has taken him from New South Wales to Western Australia to the Northern Territory. * He is one of only around 50 known Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians with a professional accounting designation. * Rossingh now uses his accounting experience and skills to consult with Aboriginal people across the Northern Territory and create positive change.Steve Rossingh has always had an affinity with numbers. When the director of the Northern Territory Treaty Commission was growing up in Sydney, and later in Perth, he believed that the most logical vehicle for his love of maths was a career in accounting. But he could never have predicted how far that path would take him. Rossingh is a Kamilaroi man from northern New South Wales and one of only around 50 known Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians with a professional accounting designation. His decision to study accounting opened doors that ultimately allowed him to contribute to improved outcomes for Indigenous Australians both in and out of the profession, and advocate for once-in-a-generation change.“I’ve had a very non-traditional career pathway for someone who calls themselves an accountant — I left school and got a job with the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) as an entry-level clerk and back then the ATO had a very good sponsored study scheme so I did my accounting degree part-time over six years,” Rossingh said. "I was very proud of that achievement because the rate of completion for people who do part-time degrees is so low. Then, I got a job as the business services manager at the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC) in Kununurra, Western Australia. “However, my passion was service delivery and after around six months I was able to move into the deputy regional manager role – responsible, among other things, for the disbursement, management and acquittal of grants aimed to improve social, cultural and economic outcomes."Rossingh considers his next position, as director of corporate services at the Northern Land Council (NLC), his first big break. The job, based in the Northern Territory, allowed him to apply his accounting skills in a way that was directly related to business processes, operations and strategy. “I wasn’t just responsible for the accounting function — but also HR, IT and monitoring the organisation’s corporate business interests,” he says. Rossingh’s work at the NLC, an organisation historically rooted in the struggle for Aboriginal land rights and self-determination, also showed him how fiscal and commercial acumen could set the stage for powerful social justice outcomes. “All the NLC’s business interests have a charitable objective,” he says. “But learning the discipline to separate the economic and social was a really important lesson.”After five years as the first general manager of Cridlands Lawyers, during which time he completed the CPA Program, he joined the NT Government in an executive director of corporate services role. “The CPA program and MBA taught me the basics of leadership and gave me a broad business perspective. It also helped me make good, evidence-based decisions,” he said.However, after a year, he was offered the role as the senior executive director of sport, venues and Indigenous development in the newly formed Department of Natural Resources, Environment, the Arts and Sport, where Rossingh had around 150 staff members.Rossingh then spent time as executive manager of corporate services at a large not-for-profit and as the chief financial officer at the North Australian Aboriginal Justice Agency, where he undertook a volunteer role as an Indigenous independent director at the Central Australian Aboriginal Congress health service in Alice Springs. Following a stint as the chief of staff for the minister for primary industry and resources – Ken Vowles, a Warumungu man from the NT – in the newly-elected government, Rossingh was appointed the senior advisor for Aboriginal affairs to the territory's chief minister. “There we went about the ground work of establishing the NT Treaty Commission following the historic signing of the Barunga Agreement in June 2018,” he said. “This culminated in the process of the NT Government appointing Professor Mick Dodson AM as NT Treaty Commissioner. The chief minister asked me if I’d like to work with the commissioner as his director and I jumped at the chance.”For Rossingh, this role reflected his life-long commitment to “Aboriginal-driven initiatives that are going to help our people prosper”. “It’s a dream job for someone to be part of a history and legacy-leaving initiative,” said Rossingh. "We are out there consulting with Aboriginal people across the NT, taking it slowly and steadily to ensure we get it right so that when we recommend a framework, it is not only robust and sustainable, but reflects what people have told us.” Rossingh said that although the job is not without its logistical challenges, he is motivated by the once-in-a-lifetime chance to do work that will shape Australia’s future and right historical wrongs.Start your own inspiring story by becoming a CPA. The CPA Program teaches not only accounting, but also the skills to help you reach the next level – leadership, strategy and business. Start your CPA journey today.

CPA Australia’s Future Thinkers series tells the remarkable stories of members shifting the dial in business, the community and society.

• Steve Rossingh's career has taken him from New South Wales to Western Australia to the Northern Territory.

• He is one of only around 50 known Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians with a professional accounting designation.

• Rossingh now uses his accounting experience and skills to consult with Aboriginal people across the Northern Territory and create positive change.

Steve Rossingh has always had an affinity with numbers. When the director of the Northern Territory Treaty Commission was growing up in Sydney, and later in Perth, he believed that the most logical vehicle for his love of maths was a career in accounting.

But he could never have predicted how far that path would take him.

Rossingh is a Kamilaroi man from northern New South Wales and one of only around 50 known Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians with a professional accounting designation.

His decision to study accounting opened doors that ultimately allowed him to contribute to improved outcomes for Indigenous Australians both in and out of the profession, and advocate for once-in-a-generation change.

“I’ve had a very non-traditional career pathway for someone who calls themselves an accountant — I left school and got a job with the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) as an entry-level clerk and back then the ATO had a very good sponsored study scheme so I did my accounting degree part-time over six years,” Rossingh said.

"I was very proud of that achievement because the rate of completion for people who do part-time degrees is so low. Then, I got a job as the business services manager at the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC) in Kununurra, Western Australia.

“However, my passion was service delivery and after around six months I was able to move into the deputy regional manager role – responsible, among other things, for the disbursement, management and acquittal of grants aimed to improve social, cultural and economic outcomes."

Rossingh considers his next position, as director of corporate services at the Northern Land Council (NLC), his first big break.

The job, based in the Northern Territory, allowed him to apply his accounting skills in a way that was directly related to business processes, operations and strategy.

“I wasn’t just responsible for the accounting function — but also HR, IT and monitoring the organisation’s corporate business interests,” he says.

Rossingh’s work at the NLC, an organisation historically rooted in the struggle for Aboriginal land rights and self-determination, also showed him how fiscal and commercial acumen could set the stage for powerful social justice outcomes.

“All the NLC’s business interests have a charitable objective,” he says. “But learning the discipline to separate the economic and social was a really important lesson.”

After five years as the first general manager of Cridlands Lawyers, during which time he completed the CPA Program, he joined the NT Government in an executive director of corporate services role.

“The CPA program and MBA taught me the basics of leadership and gave me a broad business perspective. It also helped me make good, evidence-based decisions,” he said.

However, after a year, he was offered the role as the senior executive director of sport, venues and Indigenous development in the newly formed Department of Natural Resources, Environment, the Arts and Sport, where Rossingh had around 150 staff members.

Rossingh then spent time as executive manager of corporate services at a large not-for-profit and as the chief financial officer at the North Australian Aboriginal Justice Agency, where he undertook a volunteer role as an Indigenous independent director at the Central Australian Aboriginal Congress health service in Alice Springs.

Following a stint as the chief of staff for the minister for primary industry and resources – Ken Vowles, a Warumungu man from the NT – in the newly-elected government, Rossingh was appointed the senior advisor for Aboriginal affairs to the territory's chief minister.

“There we went about the ground work of establishing the NT Treaty Commission following the historic signing of the Barunga Agreement in June 2018,” he said.

“This culminated in the process of the NT Government appointing Professor Mick Dodson AM as NT Treaty Commissioner. The chief minister asked me if I’d like to work with the commissioner as his director and I jumped at the chance.”

For Rossingh, this role reflected his life-long commitment to “Aboriginal-driven initiatives that are going to help our people prosper”.

“It’s a dream job for someone to be part of a history and legacy-leaving initiative,” said Rossingh.

"We are out there consulting with Aboriginal people across the NT, taking it slowly and steadily to ensure we get it right so that when we recommend a framework, it is not only robust and sustainable, but reflects what people have told us.”

Rossingh said that although the job is not without its logistical challenges, he is motivated by the once-in-a-lifetime chance to do work that will shape Australia’s future and right historical wrongs.

Start your own inspiring story by becoming a CPA. The CPA Program teaches not only accounting, but also the skills to help you reach the next level – leadership, strategy and business. Start your CPA journey today.