Page 56 - Australian Defence Magazine July-August 2022

56 INDIGENOUS ADVANTAGE
KILLARA SERVICES
JULY-AUGUST 2022 | WWW.AUSTRALIANDEFENCE.COM.AU
ENGAGEMENT WITH DEFENCE
The first foray into defence came with success in a tender for cleaning services at NSW RAAF bases Richmond, Glenbrook and Orchard Hills, through facilities services company BGIS.
Newman acknowledges Killara wasn’t especially Indig- enous at that stage.
“We were just shy of 12 months of operating the busi- ness. It was our first major contract. As an Aboriginal busi- ness we started that contract with no Indigenous engage- ment,” she said.
“Since then, we’ve built an authentic partnership that is achieving more than just contractual service delivery obli- gation and one that is making meaningful impact for Ab- original people.
“We have about 40 staff on this contract and four and a half years later, we now have 60 per cent Indigenous en- gagement by head count.”
Through BGIS, Killara won the national cleaning con- tract for Australia’s largest defence company BAE Systems at its major facilities at Henderson, WA, Osborne, SA and Williamtown, NSW.
The company now lists a long roster of commercial, de- fence and government clients, among them Thales, Airbus, BAE Systems, Shell, Civmec, Australian Naval Infrastruc- ture, Australian Federal Police, Department of Home Af- fairs and NSW Departments of Education, Aboriginal Af- fairs and Family and Community Services.
Newman says within these contracts, Killara delivers not only cleaning services but a holistic cultural journey, col- laborating with client partners to immerse them in rich Ab- original culture via cultural awareness training, delivering cultural events, designing Indigenous murals and artwork and creating Indigenous career pathways.
She also attributes her success to a genuine desire for engagement on the part of Defence.
LEFT: Killara Services (Killara) is a Supply Nation certified, national Cleaning Company
“It is not your typical vendor-supply approach. It is very much a partnership and BGIS has done a wonderful job in supporting that,” she said.
“Defence has a D-RAP (Defence Reconciliation Action Plan) with commitments to employ so many Indigenous people. We’re proud to be a part of the Defence Department in achieving this commitment.
“There are a lot of barriers to getting Indigenous people to enlist. The next responsibility comes to the suppliers to then employ Aboriginal people to increase that Indigenous engagement for defence.
“It’s something I take really seriously because I am able to do it really successfully.”
In November last year, the company took a huge step and rebranded from GJK Indigenous Solutions to Killara Ser- vices. Killara is an Aboriginal word meaning ‘always there’. Killara is also a Sydney suburb.
The name change has empowered Killara to hold their own strong identity as an Aboriginal company.
AN INDIGENOUS BUSINESS
The rebrand also aligned with their reclassification by Sup- ply Nation (the national organisation designed to promote Indigenous business), from a joint venture to a standalone Aboriginal business.
“We were one of the first Indigenous joint ventures in Australia to be reclassified as a standalone Aboriginal busi- ness that no longer showed any reliance, commercially or operationally on the joint venture,” she said.
“We grew really fast since 2017 and we grew our own legs and we are now very much self-sufficient.
“It’s been five years of brutal hard work but it’s an abso- lutely incredible feeling.”
This reclassification means Killara is a bona fide Indige- nous business, majority Indigenous-owned and wholly able to run itself and its operations.
That may not seem that big a deal but there are plenty of businesses happy to promote a pretence of Indigenous ownership – a practice known as ‘black cladding’.
Newman said ‘black cladding’ was rampant in the clean- ing and construction sectors.
“A major cleaning company will have an Indigenous certi- fied business which has an Indigenous person at the front. But realistically, they have no say or control over the opera- tions of the business,” she said.
“It’s just a commercial vehicle to make money by way of opportunities that should be given to Indigenous businesses.
“It is absolutely really prevalent.”
Newman said business procurement managers had a re- sponsibility to perform due diligence when awarding work to ensure a firm claiming to be Indigenous really was.
“Are they speaking to the Indigenous owner? Does that individual know what’s actually happening within the busi- ness and can they answer basic questions?” she asked.
KILLARA SERVICES