Nigel Scullion (NT, Country Liberal Party, Minister for Indigenous Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the senator for the question. Getting people into work is one of the Australian government's priorities in Indigenous affairs, and this government wants to lead by example. Indigenous businesses currently secure only a very small amount of government businesses—less than one per cent, or just over $6 million—despite having existing exemption policies in place which make it an awful lot easier for public sector agencies to purchase from Indigenous businesses.

We have set a target that three per cent of Commonwealth contracts will be with Indigenous businesses by 2020. This equates to about 1,500 contracts each year by 2020. In dollar terms this will be around $135 million each year based on an average contract value of $90,000. That is a massive increase in the current Commonwealth procurement spend. There are many Indigenous companies very capable of supplying services to the Commonwealth and winning a much greater share of the Commonwealth work.

Indigenous businesses are also more likely to be employers of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people—I think it is by a factor of 100—so it is obvious that, if more Commonwealth procurement is won by Indigenous businesses, then more employment opportunities will be created for Indigenous people. To support this procurement push, the government will work with Supply Nation to expand and strengthen its register of Indigenous businesses and make that publicly available by 1 July 2015. This will make it easier for government departments to identify procurement and partner opportunities with Indigenous businesses. The process for Indigenous businesses to become certified will also be faster and less resource intensive.

Each minister and each agency head will be held accountable for achieving the target and performance which will also be published annually for the whole of Commonwealth and by portfolio. The new Indigenous procurement policy will also apply to Commonwealth contracts; and that means that, if we have a contract to build a road in Queensland, the Queensland government will be held to account in the same way as us. (Time expired)