Page 2873 - Week 07 - Wednesday, 29 June 2011
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this issue about employment and engagement. We know there are so many wonderful opportunities that can be available to so many Canberrans who may, as I said, have a disability; they may have an illness; they may be from a refugee background; they may be long-term unemployed.
There are a range of different projects across Australia, which is why we have called for some demonstration projects. We already have some social procurement and some social enterprises here in the ACT. We really do want to expand that. We do want those three demonstration projects to go ahead, because we think that is part of promoting this as a very viable way for departments to go about procuring particular services, and also to be promoting it in the wider community, in the private sector and so forth.
We believe that so much can be gained through social procurement, through assisting and supporting social enterprises, and that is why today I commend my motion to the Assembly.
MS GALLAGHER (Molonglo—Chief Minister, Minister for Health, Minister for Industrial Relations and Treasurer) (5.27): I thank Ms Hunter for the motion today around social procurement. The government supports the motion, but will be proposing some minor amendments to the wording of the motion; I will outline the reasons for those proposed amendments shortly.
A lot of work has been done in this area. This is an area where I am extremely interested in seeing how much more we can do in the area of social procurement and really use the purchasing power that the government has to provide additional benefits to members of our community, particularly those who are disadvantaged in some way and marginalised from the labour market.
In 2010, the government released our social procurement policy, and we published a procurement circular on the procurement website. The policy is closely linked with the broad objective of social inclusion by aiming through procurement activity to provide opportunities for all people who are disadvantaged to gain employment. Much of what we buy involves local employment, and we believe strongly that this should be leveraged to enhance the social inclusion objectives.
This social procurement policy is only 12 months old. We need to develop social enterprises capable of responding to our tenders and supplying to the government. The procedures for procurement have already been changed to reflect the policy, and agencies are currently incorporating social procurement into their thinking and planning with respect to forward procurement. Also, businesses that are not social enterprises need time, and often support, to be able to respond to social procurements that are not directed to social enterprises—for example, where social benefits are pursued through regular contracts.
We have provided some additional financial support to the ACT Social Enterprise Hub to assist them with the work they do in supporting emergent social enterprises to become sustainable businesses. Indeed, I have met with Mandy Richards and Kevin Robbie from Social Ventures Australia, who were really interesting in talking
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