Defence-Ready Indigenous Supplier List

⁠⁠⁠Following consideration of industry feedback regarding Indigenous participation in Defence's facilities, infrastructure, maintenance and remediation projects, including as to how the objectives of the Indigenous Procurement Policy can be optimised, Defence is seeking to establish the Defence-Ready Indigenous Supplier List.

It is anticipated that:

The Defence-Ready Indigenous Supplier List will be available to be used by Defence, its external service providers, contractors and suppliers for the purposes of informing procurement planning and determining potential tenderers to be approached by Defence (or a service provider / supplier as the case may be) in respect of a particular project. Such projects would:

(i) be of varying complexity and carried out within Australia;

(ii) be valued at or above $4 million (exclusive of GST); and

(iii) include those relating to:

A. facilities and infrastructure works including airfields, heavy civil, fuel, marine, engineering services, utilities and explosive ordnances; and

B. UXO, PFAS or other environmental remediation works; and

(iv) any contract and associated procurement documentation would be based on the Suite of Facilities Contracts (available at https://www.defence.gov.au/business-industry/procurement/contracting-templates/suite-facilities-contracts).

The Defence-Ready Indigenous Supplier List is not intended to replace Supply Nation or the register maintained by the Office of the Registrar of Indigenous Corporations, but rather to supplement these with a Defence-focused list of potential Indigenous suppliers.

Other Instructions:

Defence requests that responses are only provided by entities that are: 

(a) an Indigenous Enterprise as defined in the Indigenous Procurement Policy, being an organisation, operating a business, that is:

(i) prior to 1 July 2026, 50% or more Indigenous owned; or

(ii) after 1 July 2026, at least 51% First Nations owned and controlled (or registered with the Office of the Registrar of Indigenous Corporations); and

(b) an SME as defined in the CPRs, being an Australian business (as defined in the CPRs) which has fewer than 200 full-time equivalent employees. When assessing the number of employees a business has, employees of any associated entities (as defined in s 50AAA of the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth)) to the business are included. Associated entities to a business include a business’s parent company, a business’s subsidiaries, and any related bodies corporate to the business. Special instructions that you may wish to bring to the attention of potential suppliers.

Defence requests that responses are only provided by entities that hold WHS Accreditation Scheme accreditation. More information on the WHS Accreditation Scheme is available at www.fsc.gov.au.

Conditions for Participation:

The Respondent must:

1. Be an Indigenous Enterprise and an SME; and

2. Hold WHS Accreditation Scheme accreditation.