The Aboriginal Procurement Policy was a McGowan Labor Government election commitment that aimed to leverage the WA government’s role as a major purchaser to support the economic participation of Aboriginal people.

The policy mandates progressive targets for the award of WA government contracts to Aboriginal businesses and applies to all contracts valued at $50,000 and above. The targets apply to all WA government agencies when purchasing goods, services, community services and works and is intended to apply to Government Trading Enterprises (GTE).

This report provides an overview of the achievement of the policy targets within the first financial year, from 1 July 2018 to 30 June 2019, as well as contracting success achieved by the Aboriginal business sector.

As a result of information provided through the Supplementary Reporting process, spending with entities identifying as members of the Aboriginal community or Aboriginal business sector extends beyond those engagements identified as part of the policy reporting. This data demonstrates an additional $8 million of WA government spend above the $167 million associated with the policy outcomes. The submission of Supplementary Reporting was a voluntary process and relates to contracts excluded from the policy, as such this information has not been verified by the Department. Further information is available at Appendix 1.

Key findings:

• 179 contracts were awarded to Aboriginal businesses
• 92 Aboriginal businesses were engaged across a wide range of industries
• 99% of those businesses were Western Australian businesses
• 4.77% of contracts were awarded to Aboriginal businesses
• Total value of contracts in excess of $167 million