Hostname: page-component-7479d7b7d-c9gpj Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-15T18:30:39.797Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Whose business is it to employ Indigenous workers?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2023

Boyd Hunter
Boyd Hunter*
Affiliation:
The Australian National University, Australia
*
Boyd Hunter, Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research, Research School of Social Science, College of Arts & Social Science, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia. Email: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Research about the demand for Indigenous labour and the relationship of Indigenous workers to their employers is relatively scarce. Even less is known about Indigenous businesses. Supply Nation defines an Indigenous business as those where Indigenous stakeholders hold majority equity, but some researchers have argued that this definition could be relaxed to include businesses in which Indigenous people hold only half the equity in the enterprise. This article uses data from the Industry Capability Network Queensland, which has collected basic business information on a large number of businesses operating in Queensland. The findings reveal that Indigenous businesses have substantially better outcomes for Indigenous employment than non-Indigenous businesses – a result that holds even when the definition of Indigenous business is relaxed. The article also documents how Indigenous employment is concentrated in larger businesses, in particular industry sectors. Non-Indigenous micro-businesses employ relatively few Indigenous workers, and future research can usefully explore why this is the case. To understand the issues involved, it will be necessary to collect multi-level data that link detailed information on employers and employees (including a substantial sample of Indigenous workers).

Keywords

J15J21J68Business and Indigenous employmententrepreneursIndigenous-friendly workplaces
Type
Non-Special Collection Article
Information
The Economic and Labour Relations Review , Volume 26 , Issue 4: Special Collection: Union Organising and Revitalisation , December 2015 , pp. 631 - 651
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s) 2015

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) (2008) Australian and New Zealand Standard Industrial Classification (ANZSIC), 2006 (Cat. no. 1292.0). Canberra, ACT, Australia: ABS.Google Scholar
Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) (2011) Australian Statistical Geography Standard (ASGS): Volume 2 – Indigenous Structure (Cat. no. 1270.0.55.002). Canberra, ACT, Australia: ABS.Google Scholar
Biddle, N (2012) Population and Age Structure. Paper 5, Indigenous Populations Project: 2011 Census Paper. Canberra, ACT, Australia: CAEPR.Google Scholar
Biddle, N, Howlett, M, Hunter, B, et al . (2013) Labour market and other discrimination facing Indigenous Australians. Australian Journal of Labour Economics 16(1): 91–113.Google Scholar
Callus, R, Morehead, A, Cully, M, et al . (1991) Industrial Relations at Work: The Australian Workplace Relations Survey. Canberra, ACT, Australia: Australian Government Printing Service.Google Scholar
Cantillon, R (1730) Essai sur la Nature du Commerce en Général. London: Macmillan for the Royal Economic Society.Google Scholar
Foley, D (2000) Successful Indigenous Australian Entrepreneurs: A Case Study Analysis, vol. 4 (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies Unit Research Report Series). Brisbane, QLD, Australia: Merino Lithographics.Google Scholar
Foley, D (2005) Understanding Indigenous entrepreneurs: a case study analysis. PhD Thesis, University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, Australia.Google Scholar
Foley, D, Hunter, B (2013) What is an Indigenous Australian business? Journal of Australian Indigenous Issues 16(3): 66–74.Google Scholar
Foley, D, Hunter, B (2014) Indigenous entrepreneurship: establishing some definitions and theoretical perspectives. In: 59th annual international council for small business world conference, Dublin, Ireland, 11–14 June, pp. 1–18.Google Scholar
Forrest, A (2014) The Forrest Review: Creating Parity. Canberra, ACT, Australia: Commonwealth of Australia.Google Scholar
Gray, MC, Hunter, BH (2005) Indigenous job search behaviour. Economics and Labour Relations Review 16(1): 71–94.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hosmer, D, Lemeshow, S (2000) Applied Logistic Regression. New York: John Wiley & Sons.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hunter, B (2004) Indigenous Australians in the Contemporary Labour Market (ABS Cat. no. 2052.0). Canberra, ACT, Australia: Australian Bureau of Statistics.Google Scholar
Hunter, B (2013) Recent growth in Indigenous self-employed and entrepreneurs. Working paper 91. Canberra, ACT, Australia: Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research, The Australian National University.Google Scholar
Hunter, B (2014) Indigenous employment and businesses: whose business is it to employ Indigenous workers? Working paper 95. Canberra, ACT, Australia: Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research, The Australian National University.Google Scholar
Hunter, B, Gray, M (2013) Workplace agreements and Indigenous-friendly workplaces. Indigenous Law Bulletin 2013(8): 7–13.Google Scholar
Hunter, BH, Hawke, AE (2001) A comparative analysis of the industrial relations experiences of Indigenous and other Australian workers. Journal of Industrial Relations 43(1): 44–65.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hunter, BH, Hawke, AE (2002) Industrial relations in workplaces employing Indigenous Australians. Australian Journal of Labour Economics 5(3): 373–395.Google Scholar
Industry Capability Network (ICN) (2015) About ICN. Available at: http://icn.org.au/ (accessed 7 July 2015).Google Scholar
Miller, RG (1974) The jackknife – a review. Biometrika 61(1): 1–15.Google Scholar
Parker, SC (2004) Economics of Self-Employment and Entrepreneurship. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reconciliation Australia (2015) What is the RAP program? Available at: http://www.reconciliation.org.au/raphub/about/ (accessed 7 July 2015).Google Scholar
Stephens, BJ (2010) The determinants of labour force status among Indigenous Australians. Australian Journal of Labour Economics 13(3): 287–312.Google Scholar
Willmett, N (2009) Why we cannot wait: the urgent need for strategic Indigenous business sector development and Indigenous enterprise integration in Australia. Churchill Fellowship Report, Winston Churchill Memorial Trust of Australia, Canberra, ACT, Australia.Google Scholar