Purpose-driven companies seek support from Canberra

Social enterprises make up 1 per cent of Australia’s GDP so do they need their own government growth strategy?

IT trainees Nick Williams, Cherie Walker and Elijah Williams with CEO Kurt Gruber of WV Technologies in Canberra. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Martin Ollman

Does Australia need a minister for making money and doing good?

How about a department of profit-for-purpose?

Social enterprises – businesses that trade like any other “but exist specifically to make the world a better place” – have begun lobbying the federal government to take them seriously and develop policy to help them grow.

The 12,000 certified social ­enterprises in Australia – from childcare centres to housing providers – say they contribute $21.3bn a year to the national economy and employ 206,000 people, or almost as many as the mining sector.

Yet, according to newly formed peak body Social Enterprise Australia, while the arts and recreation sector has its own minister, social enterprise is not part of federal economic strategy.

And it’s companies like WV Technologies – a $10m-a-year green recycler and data disposal company with high-security federal government contracts – that is proving the point about “business for good”.

Set up seven years ago by Kurt Gruber and Jamie Miller to train and hire Indigenous and other vulnerable young people, it now employs 60 people in Canberra, Brisbane and Melbourne, as part of the founders’ vision to avoid the “begging bowl” approach to charity. They run a not-for-profit called Worldview Foundation with funds coming from the disposal firm’s profits. They also run a social enterprise called WV Pathways as a hiring and recruitment operation for Indigenous youth.

Mr Gruber said the company, headquartered in Canberra’s Fyshwick, had top-level clearance and contracts with federal departments to dispose of sensitive material. It’s also in discussion with the NSW government to set up a centre in the state.

Other social enterprises include the Goodstart Early Learning childcare chain; aged-care provider HammondCare; the community-owned Bendigo and Adelaide Bank; and insurers such as HCF.

Enterprises are certified by a group called Social Traders and must have a defined primary ­social, cultural or environmental purpose consistent with a public or community benefit; must ­derive a substantial portion of their income from trade (rather than philanthropy); and must ­invest effort and resources into their purpose “such that public/community benefit outweighs private benefit”.

Jess Moore, the chief executive of the peak body Social ­Enterprise Australia, on Tuesday called on Canberra to develop a national plan to unlock the full potential of social enterprise.

“We want a national strategy that enables the sector and its ­impact to grow,” she said. “This could look like access to capital, social procurement, tax breaks or payments for outcomes. To work, it must be co-designed with the sector. Australians may not realise it, but social enterprise is part of our daily life and our economy.

“These businesses for good have many faces – a local cafe training and employing survivors of domestic violence, a super fund that only invests in things that support people and planet, or a provider of quality, affordable housing.

“Social enterprise has the ­potential to tackle some of the big social and environmental challenges we face, and tackle them at the source.

“The social enterprise sector is larger than the arts and recreation services sector in terms of economic contribution, and about the same in terms of jobs.

“Both drive social good, but only one of these sectors has a dedicated minister and government department, and associated government supports. Without a federal government strategy, Australia risks falling behind other countries where social ­enterprise drives positive social and environmental change.”