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Launch of Advanced Indigenous Business

Mr Tom Calma,

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner

Cairns Convention Centre

7 June 2007

I would like to begin by acknowledging the traditional owners, the Gimuy Walubara Yidinji people of the Cairns region on whose land we are meeting today.  I also acknowledge and pay respects to all of our elders here today.

I would like to also give recognition to our young people; particularly those who are taking our community forward in innovative ways and sowing the seeds for our future generations along the way.

Thank you for the opportunity to speak here today and to launch a great innovation in Indigenous Economic Development.  We are here today to launch Advanced Indigenous Business. 

As the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner, I have a responsibility to report annually to the Federal Attorney-General and the Australian Parliament on the enjoyment of human rights by Indigenous peoples and the impact of the Native Title Act on us.    My latest reports - the Social Justice Report 2006 and Native Title Report 2006 – are due to be released next week.  They consider the opportunities available for economic development for Indigenous peoples, particularly in relation to opportunities on Indigenous land. 

At this, the launch of Advanced Indigenous Business, we celebrate and encourage a different approach to Indigenous economic development.  An approach that is not often paid a lot of attention, that is, Indigenous entrepreneurship.

Established in 2005 Advanced Indigenous Business is a partnership with the Cairns Region Economic Development Corporation and local Indigenous business owners.  As an Indigenous business cluster under the umbrella of the Corporation, Advanced Indigenous Business has been established to assist its members to seek opportunities to develop their businesses.

Advanced Indigenous Business is the result of a group of Indigenous small business owners in Cairns who have successfully built their own businesses and who are now willing to share their knowledge, experiences and expertise with their brothers and sisters to promote wealth creation for Indigenous people.  They started with only 2 members, have built their network to 10 members, and are supported by a number of national corporate partners and partrons.  The most significant feature of Advanced Indigenous Business is their collective drive to build an Indigenous micro economy through not only the Indigenous market, but through engaging in the mainstream economy.

As a unique cluster of Indigenous business owners, Advanced Indigenous Business is actively taking on the challenge of improving economic development for Indigenous people and communities.  The core members of Advanced Indigenous Business are Indigenous people who are sole or part owners of a business that holds an Australian Business Number or are interested in establishing a business and who share a common vision.

In 2003, the Indigenous Business Review reported that in June 2001, there were 1,162,000 private sector small businesses in Australia.  16 percent of non-Indigenous Australians are self-employed, yet, less than 5 percent of Indigenous people are likewise occupied.1 This is a stark disparity in the levels of self-employment between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people and highlights a significant disadvantage faced by our people.   

At the 2001 Census, there were 6,089 Indigenous Australians aged 15 years and over who identified as self-employed.  Of these, 2,058 identified as employing other people, and 1,845 were in urban areas.2 I suspect that these numbers will increase significantly when the 2006 census figures are published.

However, According to the recent Report, Business Failure and Change: An Australian Perspective,3 around two-thirds of all businesses continue to operate after five years (34% have exited), almost half are operating after ten years, and only one-third are still operating after 15 years.  These statistics paint a stark picture of the difficult reality of survival in the business world; especially where economies are small and the outlays are high.

For many of our people, the challenge of becoming a successful business person is a great one indeed.  However, with the support of both Indigenous and mainstream organisations and Advanced Indigenous Business to effectively market and conduct business, our existing Indigenous businesses and aspiring entrepreneurs will have an enhanced capacity to achieve economic independence for their families and their communities.   

It is important to remember that in order for Indigenous people to be competitive in the open market, our businesses need to grow.  Indigenous people first and foremost need to support our Indigenous businesses.  This includes all of our Indigenous organisations supporting our small business owners, and ensuring that our communities can benefit by circulating the Indigenous dollar within the community.

Today I launch Advanced Indigenous Business and in doing so I encourage all of our Indigenous organisations, our Aboriginal Shire and Community Councils, and those mainstream Councils and organisations that provide services to Indigenous communities, to support our small business owners and support the Indigenous struggle to build an Indigenous economy that contributes to the advancement of Indigenous people.

Innovative organisations such as Advanced Indigenous Business are taking Indigenous economic development to the next level by challenging the status quo for Indigenous economic development.  But most importantly they are doing so as a collective group of Indigenous business owners who have control of their own destiny - Their futures are not being determined by policy developers, researchers or Governments.

I applaud the efforts of innovative groups like Advanced Indigenous Business. 

I trust that your own discussions about Native Title over the coming day will raise the level of consciousness in our community about choices involving hiring and developing business relationships with Indigenous business in your local region.  And also the engagement of Indigenous business with whatever you do as an Indigenous corporation, a private sector corporation and most importantly, as a government.

We must seek to provide opportunities for our people, particularly our youth, to be able to develop and pursue economic development and personal wealth creation.  But we must do so from a considered and informed position to minimise the potential for failure that will lead to greater poverty.  Economic development and business creation must not be promoted and pursued just as an ideological aspiration but as a serious and informed endeavour if it is to have a real chance to impact on the abject poverty experienced by too many of our people.   

I wish Advanced Indigenous business all the success for the future and acknowledge and applaud its members for their participative and engaging approach to Indigenous economic empowerment and development. 

Thank you.

[1] Indigenous Business Review 2003.  Report on Support for Indigenous Business, Australian Government, Canberra, available at www.atsia.gov.au/Media/Reports/default.aspx#sub3, accessed 28 May 2007.

[2] Hunter, B.H, 2004.   Indigenous Australians in the Contemporary Labour Market, cat.  No.  2052.0, ABS, Canberra.   As cited in Foley, D, 2006.  Indigenous Australian Entrepreneurs: Not all Community Organisations, Not all in the Outback, Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research, Discussion Paper No.  279/2006, ISSN 1036 1774.

[3] Bickerdyke, I., Lattimore, R.  and Madge, A.  (2000).   Business Failure and Change: An Australian Perspective,  December 2000, as cited in Indigenous Business Review 2003.  Report on Support for Indigenous Business, Australian Government, Canberra, available at www.atsia.gov.au/Media/Reports/default.aspx#sub3, accessed 28 May 2007