NIAA Hails ‘Rapid’ Decade-Long Response To Black Cladding As Indigenous Business Verification Goes Out To Tender

CANBERRA, 11 May 2026 – The National Indigenous Australians Agency has hailed its forthcoming competitive tender for Indigenous business verification as a “rapid and decisive response” to the issue of black cladding, more than a decade after Indigenous business owners first raised it.

The tender, scheduled for release later in the 2025-26 financial year, follows consultations held between December 2023 and March 2024.

“What this demonstrates is the agility of the modern Australian Government” a senior NIAA spokesperson said. “From the moment a problem is identified, we are capable of moving through consultation, response, framework development, transitional arrangement design and competitive procurement in just under three financial years.”

Under the revised framework, the 51 per cent Indigenous ownership threshold will become mandatory from 1 July 2026, with transitional arrangements allowing businesses operating under the existing 50 per cent threshold to continue participating through 2026-27.

“The transition window is generous because we recognise that some operators may need additional time to adjust to the standard of being mostly owned by the people they claim to represent” the spokesperson said.

A departmental official familiar with the matter said the response time compared favourably with the agency’s other major reforms.

“By Closing the Gap standards, three years is essentially overnight delivery,” they said.

The Commonwealth’s Indigenous procurement target will rise to 3 per cent from 1 July 2025, before reaching 4 per cent in 2030. Officials confirmed the target would not be backdated to account for contracts awarded during the period in which the verification system was identified as not working.

The National Indigenous Business Chambers Alliance, formed in 2024 to advocate for the changes now under consultation, declined to confirm whether members would seek to recoup the past decade of misdirected procurement spend.

The verification provider is expected to be appointed sometime before the policy it verifies is reviewed again.