An effort by the country’s federal government to boost wealth among its indigenous people is a game-changer for First Nation groups
Many of Australia’s indigenous population – the Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders – are locked in cycles of poverty, unemployment and welfare reliance that come from exclusion and poor education. They also face racism and prejudice. There’s no cure-all, but in July 2015 the government introduced a procurement policy to start to turn things around. The Indigenous Procurement Policy (IPP) committed it to awarding 3% of contracts – of its annual multi-billion dollar goods and services budget – to indigenous businesses by 2020.