DistantNews
Support us
🇦🇺 Australia /Economy & Trade

Indigenous Business Accused of 'Economic Stolen Generation' Amid Legal Battle

From ABC Australia · () English

Translated from English, summarized and contextualized by DistantNews.

At a glance

News Named sources In the courts
  • An Indigenous business venture, Glad Indigenous, aimed to provide employment and training for First Nations people but is now facing legal action.
  • The business, a joint venture between Glad Holdings and Scott Franks, was created to leverage the federal government's Indigenous Procurement Policy (IPP).
  • Glad Holdings has applied to wind up Glad Indigenous in court, with allegations of the business being 'black cladded' and having low profit margins.

A business initiative designed to create employment and training opportunities for Indigenous Australians is now embroiled in a legal dispute. Glad Indigenous, a joint venture between Glad Holdings and Wonnarua man Scott Franks, was established with the goal of fulfilling cultural obligations while generating profit and supporting First Nations people.

Indigenous people establish a business so that our core principles of sharing and caring evolve. It's for the next generation. We always think like that.

— Scott FranksExplaining the cultural motivation behind establishing Glad Indigenous.

Scott Franks, an archaeologist and environmental consultant with two decades of business experience, partnered with Glad Holdings in 2021. The venture aimed to service government contracts for cleaning and security, leveraging the federal government's Indigenous Procurement Policy (IPP). This policy, in place since 2015, sets a target for government departments to spend 2.5 percent of their procurement budget with businesses at least 50 percent owned by First Nations people.

The goals of the Indigenous Procurement Policy is to ensure that Aboriginal prosperity grows in a society where we can design and build businesses so that we can look after our own people, our communities.

— Scott FranksDescribing the intended purpose of the Indigenous Procurement Policy.

Franks envisioned Glad Indigenous as a vehicle for prosperity, allowing Indigenous communities to design and build businesses that would care for their own people. He emphasized that Indigenous people are best placed to look after local communities and employ their own. To qualify for IPP contracts, businesses must be at least 50 percent Indigenous-owned and controlled. As the 51 percent shareholder and CEO, Franks believed Glad Indigenous met these criteria and was protected from 'black cladding,' a practice where non-Indigenous businesses falsely claim Indigenous ownership.

We would always be best placed to look after local communities and employ our people.

— Scott FranksHighlighting the belief in Indigenous self-determination and community support.

However, the reality within Glad Indigenous proved challenging. Franks reported that the profit margins on the contracts were only about 1.6 percent, and he was shocked by the company's overheads. Internal issues led Glad Holdings to launch an application in the Supreme Court of New South Wales in 2023 to wind up Glad Indigenous, raising questions about the policy's effectiveness and the business's operational integrity.

I was already very aware of black cladding, and I wanted to make sure that this one was set up properly.

— Scott FranksExpressing his awareness of and intention to avoid 'black cladding' practices.
DistantNews Editorial

Originally published by ABC Australia in English. Translated, summarized, and contextualized by our editorial team with added local perspective. Read our editorial standards.

More Stories

From Our Blog