Our contribution towards Aboriginal economic empowerment continues
Main Roads has contributed significantly towards the Transport Portfolio exceeding the State Government’s target of engaging $700 million of contracts with Aboriginal businesses, 18 months in advance.
Published: 19 December 2024, Updated: 19 December 2024
We have also considerably surpassed the State Government’s Aboriginal Procurement Policy target of 4 per cent of contracts awarded to Aboriginal businesses, having awarded over 15 per cent of all contracts to Aboriginal businesses in the past financial year.
To date, $532 million of works have been undertaken by Aboriginal businesses for Main Roads, since the 2021-22 financial year.
This equates to 7 per cent of total business spend across Main Roads’ major infrastructure projects.
The intention of the targets is to improve economic outcomes for Aboriginal businesses and peoples by working with industry to create opportunities, programs or smaller packages of works within the Transport Portfolio’s major infrastructure projects across the State.
This in turn, supports the employment of Aboriginal peoples and develops the capacity and capability of Aboriginal owned businesses towards a more sustainable future for Aboriginal communities.
A recent example of this, is the engagement of Kardan Construction on the Matagarup Bridge Activities Operating Premises and Café Project, where Main Roads’ Lands and Property Services invited several emerging Aboriginal businesses to a forum, to learn about the project and how to tender for the works.
Kardan Construction, an Aboriginal business and the successful tenderer, recently completed the project which included provision of training opportunities for Aboriginal peoples during the project life cycle.
The Transport Portfolio’s Aboriginal Business Directory (ABD) contains more than 5000 businesses through membership with Supply Nation, which verifies that businesses in the ABD are more than 50 per cent Aboriginal owned.
More than 440 Aboriginal businesses have secured work across the Transport Portfolio since financial year 2021-22.
