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highest level capability project management teams. It’s about engagement with the client and cooperative relation- ships with community, because you can’t go to these places and not have a relationship with community, whether it’s an Aboriginal community, Defence community or otherwise.
So we invest heavily in those communities and in our re- lationship development. Our building division in SA hosted a Neil Murray concert for the community out at Woomera. We want to give something back wherever we are so that not only do our guys feel a part of the community, the com- munity wants us to be there. I think working in these re-
“DON’T BE THINKING ABOUT TICKING BOXES BECAUSE DEFENCE HAS REAL CAPABILITY TO TAKE ABORIGINAL PEOPLE OUT OF THE BOX.”
MARCH 2020 | WWW.AUSTRALIANDEFENCE.COM.AU
ment, but it’s also helped us to sustain a workforce and I think that’s the most critical piece, particularly as an Ab- original business in Defence.
Our model is a self-performing model; we believe that we are different to other Aboriginal businesses in that re- spect, and we’re different to a lot of other non-Aboriginal businesses as well because a lot of people incorporate a subcontracting model by project managing and subcon- tracting out all the little pieces of packages. Our model is all around self-performance and the policy itself aligns to our model, which has also helped with nation building. It’s helped Australian companies and Australian people align to the Defence premise of Australia first and invest- ment in country.
ADM: What does it mean at a practical level to be a Supply Nation company?
ANSTESS: As I said earlier, we were born 10 years ago as an idea around Aboriginal economic equity and working in a meaningful way with Aboriginal people, so in that respect, the formal body of Supply Nation is newer than us. The idea of Supply Nation has been around for a long time but on a practical level it’s about Aboriginal business owner- ship, and it’s also about Aboriginal employment opportuni- ties and engagement and, around economic equity.
So for us, our involvement with Supply Nation as a cer- tified Supply Nation company, at a practical level, we’re part of the Aboriginal business community around being role models, around seeing examples around what Ab- original people can be in the mainstream. It also means for us that we have a significant responsibility to demon- strate nationally, in the mainstream and particularly via Defence, what Aboriginal excellence looks and feels like. So we’re changing perceptions, we’re showing people what we are like in a real mainstream workforce because you can’t give second best to Defence, you can’t, you’ve got to give first best, every time.
As a Supply Nation company I guess our Aboriginality, our identity, our diversity is celebrated through our engage- ment in that, through our inbuilt business model and desire to meet all of the requirements and exceed them. Internally we have an Indigenous participation rate target of 30 per cent on all jobs, that is our internal aspirational target as a minimum. If you look at the Commonwealth policy and Supply Nation attachments to that around business owner- ship and they’re looking for three to four per cent. We’re looking for 30 per cent and we’re delivering that fairly regu- larly if not exceeding that.
ADM: What advice would you give companies looking to work more with indigenous owned and run companies? ANSTESS: Be braver. Be braver about how you carve out packages. Be braver about really looking at how you deliver what you want. Don’t be thinking about ticking boxes be- cause Defence has real capability to take Aboriginal people out of the box, out of the Aboriginal selected workforce, out of the Aboriginal quarantined contracting space and into the mainstream, and that’s the ultimate aim.
Talk to people, find out who their Aboriginal people
mote locations and understanding that you’ve got to be a bit of an innovator is imperative. It can be things like working out what to do when you’re not going to be able to get a piece of machinery out there or how to fix a piece of ma- chinery when you can’t get a mechanic out, for example. I think we’ve become really good at finding the solution in those environments so that we can maintain our program and deliver for our clients.
ADM: How has government policy changes around Austra- lian Industry Capability affected your Defence business? ANSTESS: Very positively. I think the focus on local en- gagement, local business and Australian capability has made a significant impact on the economy nationally, par- ticularly in the defence sector and construction sectors. I think focusing on what we can deliver here internally and what we can grow and the need to grow has been really important, particularly in the Aboriginal business sector for access and capability and economic equity. The policy has helped us to grow as a business.
It’s helped us to focus on our strength areas and to de- velop in our areas where we have opportunity for improve-
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