Aboriginal businesses are hitting resistance when they chase work outside their own country.
The Taylor family has been in business in the Pilbara for more than 20 years and seen a lot of progress over that time.
But Brenden Taylor, who heads Port Hedland-based contractor Cundaline Resources, has started to run into a new problem.
“We’re from Njamal country, we’re pigeonholed as to where we can work,” Mr Taylor told Business News.
“Because the clients, the BHPs and FMGs, when we go to tender outside our native title zone, they turn around and say ‘No, sorry, you’re not a traditional owner from this area’.”
Mr Taylor said native title holders often resisted outsiders bidding for work on their country.
“The first thing the traditional owners say is: ‘Who the hell are they, they’re not from here, you’re from over there’,” Mr Taylor told a recent WA Mining Club lunch.
“Every indigenous business in Australia faces the same barriers.”
Non-indigenous contractors did not face the same issue, he said.
“Nobody says anything if a non-indigenous business wins a contract,” Mr Taylor said.
“We’re trying to diversify, partly with other traditional owners, so we can try and get out of that pigeonhole scenario.”
Nevinia Davenport, who is a senior adviser on diversity and inclusion to tier one contractor Thiess, told the Mining Club she had seen a similar trend.
“There has become a perception that you can’t work anywhere other than your own country, and that has become a real barrier and challenge for Aboriginal businesses,” Ms Davenport said.
“If you don’t create greater opportunities for Aboriginal businesses to work off their country, then they won’t grow in their capacity and capability.”
“That is definitely a challenge for our industry.”
Amanda Healy is another to have experienced the problem.
Ms Healy heads mechanical engineering contractor Warrikal, which has grown to have about 600 staff.
Like others, she has no problems with the big miners preferencing contractors owned by native title holders or based in the Pilbara.
But she gets frustrated by the response when native title groups cannot deliver.
“[W]hy is it okay to invite non-indigenous contractors to bid for work but exclude indigenous contractors because of some agreement they have with the traditional owners?” Ms Healy said.
Bunbara Group founder Nikky Barney-Irvine shares these concerns.
“It’s all about the traditional owners,” Ms Barney-Irvine told Business News.
“We’ve found it very hard to get in.”
Ms Barney-Irvine said she and co-founder Pamela Baldwin established Bunbara two years ago, in part because there were no Aboriginal businesses in their specialised field of pipes and fire suppression equipment.
“No traditional owner business does what we do,” she said.
“If they can’t deliver, the miners should look at other indigenous businesses.
“We want to get in and have a conversation, but we can’t get in the door.”
Another Aboriginal business owner, who did not want to be named, said Rio Tinto was one of the worst, claiming it only supported Aboriginal businesses in the Pilbara.
“They [Rio] exclude indigenous businesses that are not from the Pilbara,” they said.
A Rio Tinto spokesperson insisted this was not the case.
“Aboriginal businesses from outside the Pilbara are not excluded and we strongly support these businesses carrying out work,” the spokesperson said.
“We have had many successes in this area, as well as with Pilbara-based businesses.”
Similarly, a BHP spokesperson said the miner was committed to increasing opportunities for Aboriginal businesses, regardless of location.
Mr Taylor said a big positive was the reduction in ‘black cladding’, where joint ventures that purported to be indigenous were controlled by big contractors.
“Nowadays its good, we can choose our partners that we want to work with,” he said.
“Back then, companies didn’t help indigenous people with their capability or their capacity.
“They just sent them a cheque every month and there was no capacity building whatsoever.” Fortescue Metals Group’s Aboriginal business development principal, Yulu McGrady, said he was looking for a five-year plan from joint ventures.
“I will not meet with a company or a joint venture unless the Aboriginal person is in the room,” Mr McGrady told the Mining Club lunch.
“We need to know there is going to be capability transfer and what the plan for that is.
“If you are looking to do an Aboriginal joint venture, it has to be long term.”
