Jacinta Nampijinpa Price to retain Indigenous business program

A Coalition government would retain the Indigenous procurement policy that has delivered $10bn to businesses owned or part-owned by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

Opposition Indigenous affairs spokeswoman Jacinta Nampijinpa Price. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

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A Coalition government would retain the Indigenous procurement policy that has delivered $10bn to businesses owned or part-owned by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

As Labor prepares to boost the proportion of commonwealth government contracts awarded to Indigenous businesses from 2.5 per cent to 4 per cent by 2030, opposition Indigenous affairs spokeswoman Jacinta Nampijinpa Price told The Weekend Australian she continued to support the policy.

In 2015, the Indigenous Procurement Policy was crafted by Tony Abbott and Aboriginal entrepreneur Warren Mundine.

“The Coalition understands the importance of the private sector in improving the lives of marginalised Indigenous Australians,” Senator Nampijinpa Price said.

“That is why it was the Coalition who introduced the Indigenous Procurement Policy in the first instance.

“We continue to support this policy which saw $5.3bn flow to over 2000 Indigenous businesses across the country under the Coalition government.

“However, consistent with that we have said all along, the Coalition, if elected, will be undertaking an audit of spending on Indigenous affairs including this funding to ensure it is being effective and producing outcomes for those who need it most.”

There have been repeated claims over the past decade that non-Indigenous companies were “black cladding” to get work under the policy, leading both the Coalition and Labor to introduce more checks. Indigenous Australians Minister Malarndirri McCarthy announced on Thursday that from now on companies could earn contracts under the Indigenous Procurement Policy Indigenous only if they were 51 per cent or more Indigenous owned. Previously, the requirement was 50 per cent.

In 2020, the Australian National Audit Office examined the Indigenous Procurement Policy to determine if government departments were complying with its minimum requirements. That audit found the policy was well designed. It did not assess whether it represented value for money or if it contributed to better living standards for large numbers of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people beyond company owners.

Advocacy and research body Supply Nation says Indigenous businesses generate pride, independence and financial stability. They are also 30 times more likely to employ Indigenous people.

Labor’s expanded Indigenous Procurement Policy is part of Senator McCarthy’s economic empowerment push in Indigenous affairs. Since taking over the portfolio last July, she has been leading an as yet unfinished overhaul of the failed work-for-the-dole scheme. This scheme has not required participants to work for their payments since the pandemic. The Coalition was forced to make work optional for remote welfare recipients in the scheme as a direct result of a Federal Court case claiming the scheme was racist because it was much more punitive than welfare for non-Aboriginal people.

Senator McCarthy is also rolling out 3000 new jobs with award wages in remote towns and communities.