Indigenous Economic Power Project
Indigenous Economic Power Project Snapshot 3.0
We are pleased to release our latest report on the Indigenous Business and Corporations Ecosystem, showing a sizeable contribution to the Australian economy.
Beyond the economic contributions, Snapshot 3.0 is also the inspiring story of Indigenous self-determination through the vehicle of business, providing opportunities to communities across the nation.
Authors: Evans, M., Polidano, C., Dahmann, S.C., Kalera, Y., Ruiz, M., Moschion, J., Blackman, M. (2024).
About the Indigenous Economic Power Project (IEPP)
Australian businesses are recorded in multiple registries., Until recently, research analysis of Australian businesses has been limited by the kind of data available. The release of the Business Longitudinal Analysis Data Environment (BLADE) in recent years has advanced the data infrastructure benefiting our collective understanding of the economy.
BLADE is an expansive collection of anonymised business data from administrative and survey sources compiled by the Commonwealth through the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), Australian Taxation Office (ATO), Department of Industry, Science and Resources, and IP Australia. Research based on this data provides insights that help identify opportunities and challenges across the business community that can shape policy and practice to support growth.
Yet, these benefits are not afforded to the Indigenous business sector because there is no identifier of Indigenous ownership.
Objective of the Project
The objective of the IEPP is to fix this problem and to quantify the economic, employment and social contribution of Indigenous businesses. Dilin Duwa is committed to continuing our collaborations with Indigenous business data custodians and the ABS to collectively develop greater data richness.
The Indigenous Business and Corporations Ecosystem
Along with the Australian Bureau of Statistics, we work with six Indigenous business and corporation registries: the Melbourne Business School’s MURRA Indigenous Business Master Class Alumni list; Industry Capability Network Limited Gateway; National Indigenous Australians Agency; Department of Jobs, Precincts and Regions Victorian Aboriginal Business Directory; Waalitj Foundation Aboriginal business list and the Office for the Registrar of Indigenous Corporations (ORIC) registry.
In addition, in Snapshot 3.0, we were able to incorporate Person Level Integrated Data Asset, expanding the sample size to 13,693 businesses. From under 4000 businesses in Snapshot 1, this tripling of the dataset this year provides the most comprehensive view to date.
