Insurance firm focuses on First Nations’ needs

A Queensland entrepreneurhas launched Australia’s first insurance brokerage specifically for First Nations organisations and communities.

Stuart Whitehas launched Australia’s first insurance brokerage for First Nations

Indigenous entrepreneur and former property executive Stuart White has launched Australia’s first insurance brokerage specifically for First Nations organisations and communities. White, a proud Biripi man, has started First Peoples Insurance, an authorised representative of Austbrokers Comsure, officially launching it during NAIDOC Week.

After a corporate sales career of more than 20 years, White identified a distinctive gap in the market. “The work I’ve done with corporates on Reconciliation Action Plans (RAP) identified a lack of trust among Indigenous people about insurance. They don’t understand it and mob prefer to buy from mob,” says White, 46.

White’s journey to insurance took an interesting path. Born in Wauchope, NSW, he left school at only 15 years old and spent enough years working in a timber yard to receive long-service leave. But his ambitions saw him eventually forge a corporate career in Melbourne and Brisbane, most recently as a retail leasing executive with the Queensland Investment Corporation. First Peoples Insurance is 100 per cent Indigenous owned and operated and focuses on providing insurance not only for Traditional Owner and Indigenous community- controlled organisations and businesses but the broader business sector.

Stuart White has founded an insurance company focusing on First Nations people

White also aims to provide skills training and jobs for First Nations people, few of whom are employed in the finance industry.

“A lot of our mob will move into education, health or medical jobs but not many are in finance,” he says. “I want to encourage Indigenous people to study commerce. I am 46 and learning a new language (insurance).”

He says he established First Peoples Insurance because he sought a new opportunity that matched his sales ability and filled a gap in services for Indigenous people.

As a registered entity with Supply Nation, a database of verified Indigenous businesses, First Peoples Insurance also can partner with corporate clients to help them meet compliance requirements for social procurement and RAPs and their ESG targets.

Once he developed the concept for First Peoples Insurance, White pitched the business plan to several potential partners that could provide the training and back-end support he needed to launch the company. Brisbane-based Austbrokers managing director Ian Garbutt says he was proud to welcome First Peoples Insurance into the AB Comsure family.

“AB Comsure prides itself on promoting a diverse and inclusive workplace. The opportunity to support Stuart in creating a business that focuses on the Indigenous community is a natural progression for us,” Garbutt says.

Trade links

Trade and Investment Queensland (TiQ) has been chosen to deliver the federally funded TradeStart program that helps small to medium enterprises realise their export potential. 

Co-funded in Queensland between the Federal and Queensland Governments, the program will continue to help small and medium businesses across regional Queensland sell their products and services overseas.

Trade and Investment Queensland will continue delivering the program for four more years in Far North Qld (Cairns), North Qld (Townsville), Wide Bay Burnett (Bundaberg), Sunshine Coast, Brisbane Metropolitan, Darling Downs South West (Toowoomba).

In 2023, of Queensland’s estimated 7,366 goods exporters, more than 3,100 (or 42 per cent) were located in regional Queensland.

Between 2020 and 2023 the number of Queensland goods exporters grew by 6.4 per cent, the fastest growth among all the Australian States. Compared with trade and investment agencies in New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia,