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

Both as employers and as major purchasers of goods and services, governments can create demand for the employment of First Australians and for their businesses.

As Mr Forrest's report pointed out, other countries, such as Canada and the USA, have successfully used procurement to drive economic development for minority and first nations peoples. In Canada aboriginal businesses are growing at five times the rate of other businesses thanks to government procurement policies. In the USA, NANA Corporation, for example, is owned by aboriginal people in Alaska and has grown from very small beginning to now turning over $1 billion annually. The company is very competitive without any government subsidy. Its success is based on changes to the government procurement alone and through the US government's aboriginal exemption policies.