Indigenous Engagement

The Business Council of Australia (BCA) acknowledges the traditional owners of country throughout Australia and their continuing connection to land and community. We pay our respect to them and their cultures, and to the elders both past and present.

The BCA Indigenous Engagement Task Force, comprising BCA member CEOs, was established in 2008.

The task force aims to identify, promote and share the experiences of member companies in supporting economic development among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians.

Representatives of BCA member companies have come together to form a network to discuss and share experiences and case studies of successful involvement. A list of companies represented in the BCA Business–Indigenous Network is here.

Some of the organisations BCA member companies are involved with and gain guidance from can be viewed here.

Publications released by the BCA have included three reports on on what BCA member companies are doing to extend employment and other opportunities to Indigenous Australians:

• One Country, Many Voices: BCA 2012 Indigenous Engagement Survey
• Improving Indigenous Economic and Employment Outcomes: Lessons from Business Experience, also published in 2012
  
• Vision and Values: Working Together to Close the Gap, published in 2011
• Common Ground, Uncommon Results: Closing the Gap, published in 2010
• Many Connections, One Goal: Closing the Gap, published in 2009
• research quantifying the economic impact of closing the gap in the Goulburn Valley in Victoria.

The BCA, together with Australian Unity, has forged a partnership with the Western Desert Nganampa Walytja Palyantjaku Tjutaku Aboriginal Corporation in Alice Springs. The partnership is helping this community organisation to build its business capacity, raise its profile and support its sustainable expansion.

BCA members are committed to achieving better Indigenous employment opportunities now and into the future.