Western Australia has not been alone in implementing Indigenous procurement policies, but the Commonwealth and other states and territories have not matched WA's success.

Introduced in 2018, the WA government's Aboriginal Procurement Policy, or APP, enshrined phased-in whole-of-government targets to ensure Aboriginal businesses received a minimum percentage of awarded contacts. In every year since their introduction, the targets have been substantially exceeded.

In 2018-19, 4.7 per cent of contracts went to Aboriginal businesses despite the target only being one per cent. In 2019-20 the two per cent target saw 5.5 per cent of Aboriginal businesses being awarded contracts, and then in 2020-21 the three per cent target was more than doubled, with 6.5 per cent of Aboriginal businesses receiving state government contracts.

The cumulative value of this policy has meant that in three years almost half a billion dollars of contracts have gone directly to Aboriginal businesses.

The ambition of the WA government stands in stark contrast to the targets of the federal government of one per cent, and most other state governments.

In the two most populous states the targets remain well below those in Western Australia. In New South Wales the target is 1.5 per cent of contracts above $7.5 million and in Victoria the target remains one per cent as part of a social procurement framework.

Former WA Treasurer and Aboriginal Affairs Minister Ben Wyatt introduced the policy upon coming into government.

Mr Wyatt, now retired from politics, was firmly focused on what the APP needed to do to lift Aboriginal business.

"This was not about sacrificing value for the taxpayer, to the contrary, but ensuring that Aboriginal businesses had not just the opportunity to pitch for and receive work, but to ensure there was access to contracts of significant scale to ensure reliability so that Aboriginal businesses had the confidence to grow, employ people, and invest more in the business," he said.

Mr Wyatt said the APP ensured government agencies rethought their approach to helping support Aboriginal businesses in Western Australia.

"The introduced targets for government agencies, and public reporting, forced agencies to think more about the opportunities they could create but also understand that Aboriginal businesses are diverse and have a much greater capacity than Government previously considered."

The trend is clear in Western Australia, not only has there been an increasing level of commitment from the government, but businesses have followed suit. The impact has been significant and now, in the words of Mr Wyatt, it has seen the resilience and capacity of Aboriginal-owned businesses substantially improve.

"Not only has the APP seen contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars awarded to Aboriginal businesses but the businesses are now growing as confidence and capacity increases."

Zak Kirkup is the director of Kolbang Pty Ltd