A new website to crack down on black cladding has been launched by entrepreneur Gerry Matera and backed by former federal Indigenous affairs minister Ken Wyatt.
A new website to crack down on black cladding has been launched by entrepreneur Gerry Matera and backed by former federal Indigenous affairs minister Ken Wyatt.
The platform, named the Indigenous Business Integrity Register, will independently verify businesses claiming to by Aboriginal-owned and hold a publicly available database.
Its aim is to supplement efforts to crack down on the practice of black cladding, where a non-Indigenous person or business sets up a company structure which makes it appear to be an Aboriginal-controlled entity to gain contracts where Indigenous procurement is prioritised.
This is often done via 50-50 or 51-49 joint ventures where the Indigenous partner is there in name only.
Mr Matera, a Noongar business owner, said black cladding had become normalised in the community as a way to get ahead.
“But it comes with significant grouping taxation and legal risks for the participating individuals,” he said.
“Authentic Indigenous businesses are compromised when the competition is stacked by a false sense of capabilities or a national footprint established by non-Indigenous businesses.
“IBIR is about building a stronger Indigenous business landscape and ensuring integrity of tendering and procurement processes.”
Black cladding is a well-known bugbear of major companies seeking to support Indigenous businesses but is an issue which has been difficult to understand the extent of.
Supply Nation goes some way to addressing the issue but Mr Matera does not believe it goes far enough.
IBIR will use a confidential verification test independent from Mr Matera which will assess ownership, control, and identity.
It will also provide an anonymous portal for people to flag businesses claiming to be Indigenous for testing.
Mr Wyatt said assessments of businesses would be undertaken outside of the influence of culture, family and financial status.
“Black cladding practices are extremely sophisticated and involve a complex web of ASIC registrations and overlapping resources that are both labour-intensive to collate and may fall within the ‘legal’ parameters that define an Indigenous business,” he said.
“However, this is not a question of legalities but ethics, and the risk associated with engaging in or with unethical businesses is having an impact on industry confidence.
“IBIR is a significant opportunity to provide corporate and government procurers with the information needed to correctly assess procurement opportunities and support positive reform within the Indigenous business environment.”
The website also hosts an AI bot which will help Indigenous people access resources such as government policies, laws, and regulations.
