ABORIGINAL BUSINESSES — PROCUREMENT
54. Ms A.E. KENT to the Minister for Finance:
I refer to the McGowan Labor
government's commitment to supporting businesses and creating
employment opportunities across Western Australia, particularly in the
Aboriginal business sector. Can the minister update the house on the outcomes
of the McGowan Labor government's Aboriginal procurement policy and
outline what additional steps the government is taking to strengthen this
policy even further?
Dr A.D.
BUTI replied:
Congratulations, member for
Kalgoorlie, on your election to this chamber and your inaugural speech this
morning. I very much look forward to working with you.
It
is interesting that the member asked me this question, because the last time
this matter was brought before the house to the previous Minister for
Finance, I was actually asking the question. It is good to be the minister
responding to a question on the Aboriginal procurement policy, which we
established in 2018 in our first term of government. It is an incredibly impressive
and important policy. It was designed to ensure that Aboriginal businesses
across Western Australia, in the regions and the city, would have access to the
significant spend by government. We started off with a pretty modest target of
one per cent for 2018–19, then two per cent in the following year and
up to three per cent in 2020–21. I can tell the member that last year
we far exceeded that target, with 5.5 per cent of all government contracts awarded to Aboriginal-owned businesses in Western
Australia. I think that is an outstanding achievement and it shows that
this policy has been used very well and is achieving more than we initially
thought.
In the first two years of this
policy, the WA government awarded more than 413 contracts worth more than $339 million to Aboriginal businesses across the
state, and 61 per cent of those contracts were awarded to Aboriginal
businesses in the regions. I am sure the Nationals WA members will be very
pleased with that and would applaud our decision to instigate this policy. In
the last two years, 137 contracts were awarded to Aboriginal businesses in the
Kimberley region. I very much look forward to working with the new member for
Kimberley and progressing this matter further.
We all know that Aboriginal-owned
businesses generally employ Aboriginal people, so obviously this will be a great
opportunity to ensure that we can improve outcomes for Aboriginal people in Western
Australia. I am very pleased with the progress we have made on this policy. The
Department of Finance is working with the Aboriginal business sector and
government departments and agencies to explore further opportunities and to
ensure that we provide positive outcomes.
Many departments and agencies have been very, very good on this. Obviously, we
need to work with some agencies to improve their target outcomes. I invite
and encourage all members of this house to see whether there are any Aboriginal
businesses established and operating in their electorates, and to encourage
them to apply or to tender for government contracts. The message we want to
send to the Aboriginal business community is quite clear: we are here to do
business with you and we want to work with you.