Why now is the time to support Indigenous business

Welcome back to #FoodForThought, a newsletter serving up food for your brain — exploring news headlines, economic trends and workforce issues. Below, you’ll find insights from small business show #TogetherInBusiness. Hit subscribe above to be notified of future editions and share your thoughts in the comments.

This week marks NAIDOC week — a time to celebrate the history, culture and achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.

The number of Indigenous-owned businesses is on the up, growing 12.5% each year. Research from Supply Nation shows there are up to 16,000 Indigenous-owned businesses in Australia, a figure expected to grow to more than 18,000 in the next five years.

Why is this important? In 2016, the unemployment rate for Indigenous people of working age was 18.4%, 2.7 times the non-Indigenous unemployment rate (6.8%), according to ABS Census data. 

Supply Nation reports indigenous businesses are 100 times more likely to employ other Indigenous staff, pointing to a vital eco-system. As Small Business Ombudsman Kate Carnell writes on LinkedIn, “procuring from Indigenous businesses is an investment in both Indigenous employment and economic development more broadly.”

This week on #TogetherInBusiness LinkedIn News Editor Cayla Dengate and I spoke with NAIDOC Committee Co-Chair John Paul Janke and Barrister-at-Law Joshua Creamer to discuss the challenges facing Indigenous businesses and professionals at this time. Together, we covered:

• Why NAIDOC Week is more important than ever this year. 
• The speedbumps Indigenous-owned small businesses continue to face.
• Supporting digital literacy amongst older communities.
• Building a successful talent pipeline for professional development.

WATCH: Together In Business in full above

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• Australian 7-Eleven workers have shared in $173m in repayments after franchisees "falsified records" in an underpayments scandal. But critics say that figure understates how much is owed.
• Universities long accustomed to a yearly surge of international student arrivals are noting that applications by foreign citizens to study in Australia are down by over 80% since March.
• The big four banks have been steadily reducing the ATMs they are operating with some 33% of machines removed from public in the past three years. But why?
• Amid an unprecedented crisis, the Reserve Bank of Australia agreed on a history-making rate cut.
• Consumers have ramped up their spending in the past month, even as emergency income support measures such as the JobKeeper wage subsidy have been reduced.

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Additional reporting by: Cayla Dengate, Andrew Murfett, Scott Olster

(Photo credits: Getty Images)