Senate Finance and Public Administration Legislation Committee, , 5:48:21 to 5:54:16
The agency discusses reforms to the Indigenous Procurement Policy (IPP) to combat 'black cladding.' Key changes include increasing the ownership and control threshold to 51% and collaborating with regulators to identify fraudulent business structures.
Topics: Procurement, First Nations
Speakers: Shane Dexter, Senator Lidia Thorpe, Julie-Ann Guivarra, Speaker 30, Unknown Speaker
>> Thank you. I'm not sure how much time I've got, but I got um I'd like to ask about black cladding uh and what what due diligence is being undertaken for certificates of Aboriginality? There's a number of stat decks being used by non-abinal people saying that they're ainal. They're cashing in. Uh not that we have we get much uh but they are cashing on the procurement process that's meant to provide economic opportunity for ainal people in this country. Uh it's cashing in on a originalinal identified positions and accessing grants. Uh and basically you can get a certificate of a originality from a mate on a board that will give you one. So where's a what what this is a big problem. Um so what due diligence is done to ensure white followers aren't cashing in >> on the little crumbs we get? Thank you,
Senator, for the question. Um, we can certainly uh speak to some of the efforts that have been made um more recently in terms of looking at reforms to the indigenous procurement policy um to address uh issues around um uh black cladding there. There have been obviously uh efforts to strengthen uh the thresholds for the indigest procurement policy which was previously 50% um owned now 51% owned and controlled and that will be part of obviously what's administered um as part of the reforms. Uh in addition to that uh there is obviously the three-part test which all um uh government departments are required to to look at in terms of how they administer their programs. um you know how they do that individually is is a matter for each each individual agency when they're looking at the administration of their own policies and programs. But I will get um um Mr. Dexter just to go through in a bit more detail because as I said we're sort of looking at what we're responsible for most um directly and there are several things in addition to what I just said in terms of the strengthening of the thresholds. There's other things that we're also doing and looking at black cladding specifically as part of the the reform process. But Mr. Next.
>> Yeah, thank you Miss Gavar and thank you Senator for the question. So black cladding is a complex issue and there are various perspectives on what is and is not black cladding and the best ways to address it and prevent it. Um the nor the the northern the national indigenous Australians agency considers black cluting to include disempowering or disingenuous business practices or corporate arrangements that uh and business structures that are intended to misrepresent a business and as an indigenous business when in fact it is not. One of the main things that the government is doing to address black cladding is the strengthening of the criteria around the indigenous procurement policy. Um the the move from 50 to 51% might sound like a small shift, but I do want to emphasize that moving to 51% both owned and controlled. make sure that First Nations business owners who are able to access the IP going forward are actually empowered to run their own businesses and to make decisions about how that business is operating in a way that the previous definition didn't require that to be a part of the test. Um the United Na is also engaging with the First Nations Economic Partnership which has listed as one of its immediate actions about strengthening the IP and um we presented to that partnership um the last meeting in September on what we were doing around IP strengthening and they've asked us to come back to do some more work with them around black cladding as well. So it is something that the government is working in partnership with our partners um the first nations economic empowerment alliance as well as the coalition of peaks about how government can take more action to address black cladding. Um I would also point to the fact that the NIA is working with different regulators across the Commonwealth who there are different regulators with different roles that can they can play in this space. Certainly our current verification services provider which is supply nation can look at whether or not a business is meeting the definition or not. that is their role to do. But there are other regulators in this space such as ASICH who can look at breaches of the corporations law, the AC who can look at misleading and deceptive conduct in terms of the trade practices law as well as of course law enforcement agencies who can look at um instances of fraud. So if someone has you know um said that they are an Aboriginal person when in fact they are not that in some circumstances might amount to fraud which is something that law enforcement
thinking around the threepart test to be reviewed given it's just easy to it's so fake that it's easy to get a mate on the Is there is it is that set there's no review of that process?
>> No senator not at this point in time.
>> Is it raised with you regularly? that that's a problem of stat deck black fellows and ones that just rock up Johnny come lately all of them like that never gets raised with the national indigenous Australian
>> certainly something the use of statute of declarations has been raised uh with the NIA government generally want to highlight though that making a false statutory declaration is equivalent is uh amounts to fraud um and if uh members of the community are aware fair or are alleging that a statute of declaration is false, then there are um accountability mechanisms including criminal uh uh provisions that should be dealt with through those mechanisms.