Aboriginal Procurement Policy

The Office of the Registrar of Indigenous Corporations (ORIC) is now an additional verification source of Aboriginal businesses.

The Procurement Board has approved a third verification source of Aboriginal businesses for the Aboriginal Procurement Policy (APP).

For the purposes of the APP, an Aboriginal business is one that has at least 50% Aboriginal ownership and that is recognised by any of the following organisations:

• Supply Nation
• NSW Indigenous Chamber of Commerce
• Office of the Registrar of Indigenous Corporations.

How to find Aboriginal businesses

Government buyers can log in and search for businesses recognised by these bodies. There are currently over 800 supplier profiles with the ‘Verified Aboriginal-owned’ tag.

Suppliers to NSW Government wishing to use an Aboriginal business can access any of these directories:

• Supply Nation business directory
• NSW Indigenous Chamber of Commerce business directory
• Office of the Registrar of Indigenous Corporations business directory.

The NSW Procurement Board has approved a new Aboriginal Procurement Policy (APP)

Following recommendations from the Aboriginal Procurement Policy and Aboriginal Participation in Construction Policy 2019 Review Report, the NSW Procurement Board has approved a new Aboriginal Procurement Policy (APP). The new APP supports sustainable growth of Aboriginal-owned businesses in NSW by driving demand through Government procurement of goods, services and construction. The APP, with a simplified reporting requirement, also:

• requires clusters to direct 1% of total addressable spend to Aboriginal-owned businesses by the end of 2021
• aims to award 3% of total goods and services contracts to Aboriginal-owned businesses by the end of 2021
• aims to support an estimated 3,000 FTE opportunities for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples through NSW Government procurement activities
• assigns targets to each cluster to improve accountability, with progress toward achieving the targets to be published
• requires 1.5% Aboriginal participation across all high-value contracts over $7.5 million
• permits agencies to negotiate directly with an Aboriginal-owned business for all procurements up to $250,000 even where there is a mandated prequalification scheme or panel in place.

The new Aboriginal Procurement Policy, which will contribute to the NSW Government’s strategic economic policy of Growing NSW’s First Economy, has now been published and will take effect from 1 January 2021.

To find out more view the Aboriginal Procurement Policy

Supporting Aboriginal job opportunities and businesses.

The NSW Government has announced a new Aboriginal Procurement Policy (APP) aimed at awarding 3% of government goods and services contracts to Aboriginal-owned businesses and, together with the Aboriginal Participation in Construction Policy, supporting 3,000 Aboriginal job opportunities by 2021.

Under the APP, NSW Government agencies:

• are permitted to directly procure goods and services valued up to $250,000 (excl. GST) from suitably qualified Aboriginal businesses
• must consider employment opportunities for Aboriginal people and engagement of Aboriginal businesses for procurements over $10 million (excl. GST).

Agencies must comply with this policy from 1 July 2018 but are encouraged to apply it earlier where appropriate.