David Bushby (Tasmania, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is also to the Minister for Indigenous Affairs, Senator Scullion. Can the minister advise the Senate about how the coalition government is supporting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander small businesses and entrepreneurs?

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

I thank you for that question, Senator. Mr President, I was very proud to announce, with the Prime Minister yesterday, that our small business policies are receiving unprecedented results. The Indigenous Procurement Policy, or IPP, has just eclipsed $1 billion in contracts to more than 1,000 Indigenous businesses. In fact, it's been so successful that we're applying its principles to our other investments including the Launceston City Deal around Launceston, in your state, Senator Bushby.

The data from the 2016 census shows that our policies are overseeing unprecedented growth in the Indigenous business sector. Since the last census, the number of Indigenous businesses has grown by 30 per cent. The sector is still small—despite being three per cent of the population, there is only 0.7 per cent in businesses—but if we close that gap, the economy will be $28 billion better off. That's why yesterday we launched the Indigenous Business Sector Strategy, the first comprehensive roadmap to grow the Indigenous business sector, which has been co-designed with more than 200 Indigenous business people. And I can advise the Senate that, as part of this strategy, we will be rolling out Indigenous business hubs across the country, which will be one-stop shops for business advice and support. We'll be launching a $27 million Indigenous Entrepreneurs Capital Scheme for mature Indigenous businesses who, because of historic undercapitalisation, cannot currently access commercial finance.

The other end of the spectrum will be doubling microfinance to particularly help CDP participants when they want to turn activities into microbusinesses. This is on top of our existing initiatives, like our $30 million Indigenous Entrepreneurs Fund and the refocused IBA business support programs.

Scott Ryan (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Bushby, a supplementary question.

David Bushby (Tasmania, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Can the minister advise what impact these measures are having on getting more Indigenous jobseekers off welfare and into work?

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

I thank the senator for the question. We know that our policies are helping get more people off the misery of welfare and into the dignity of employment. Data from the census shows that our strong jobs market is particularly benefitting Indigenous Australians. We know that the economy created over 400,000 jobs last year, and since the last census the number of Indigenous Australians with a job has increased by 23.3 per cent. A lot of that is down to our small-business policies like the IPP, because we know that if we get more Indigenous businesses in the economy we're likely to get more Indigenous workers into work.

The average Indigenous workforce in our IPP firms is around 41 per cent Indigenous employment compared to the Indigenous workforce in the mainstream, which is 0.7 per cent. It means that, by supporting more Indigenous businesses, we get more Indigenous jobseekers into work by a factor of 60. These are fantastic results. (Time expired)

Scott Ryan (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Bushby, final supplementary question.

David Bushby (Tasmania, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Can the minister advise why the growth of the Indigenous business sector around the government's jobs agenda is critical to our efforts at closing the gap?

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

Clearly our policies have been a success, and it's just down to being fair dinkum about things. The IPP works because we set targets that are clear and we made the secretaries for every department accountable for those targets. Unfortunately, what came before the IPP was a convoluted web of policies that no-one understood or really ever enforced. Is it any wonder that in 2012-13 it was only 30 Indigenous businesses which won about $6.2 million in contracts? Contrast that with our policies, which have taken Indigenous procurement from 6.2 to $1 billion in just 2½ years. We're making the necessary investments to keep this growth going through the Indigenous Business Sector Strategy. Unfortunately, the previous approach was the National Partnership Agreement on Indigenous Economic Participation, which was signed in 2008 with all jurisdictions with much fanfare but was just corporate speak with no response and no resources. It did absolutely nothing.