Big consultancies sweating over new rule that says Indigenous business has to actually be Indigenous

Major non-Indigenous consultancies and contractors have raised concerns about the updated Indigenous Procurement Policy released this month, which from 1 July 2026 requires Indigenous businesses to be at least 51 per cent First Nations-owned and controlled to access the IPP, replacing the previous threshold which had allowed firms with considerably less Indigenous ownership to access procurement targets.

“This will create significant compliance burdens for businesses that have built entire procurement strategies around being just under the bar,” a senior industry spokesperson said. “Many of our member firms have invested heavily in obtaining the precise level of Indigenous ownership required to be classified as an Indigenous business without actually being one.”

The Indigenous Procurement Policy was introduced in 2015 to stimulate genuine Indigenous entrepreneurship. Since 2015 and as at February 2026, the IPP has generated over $13.5 billion in contracting opportunities, generating concern in some quarters that not all of that money has reached Indigenous businesses.

A spokesperson for one major contractor said the firm had been “actively reviewing” its ownership structure to ensure compliance.

“We are looking at a number of options,” the spokesperson said. “These include partnership restructures, equity reallocations, and, in some cases, becoming an Indigenous business in a meaningful way, which we acknowledge is the more difficult option.”

The NIAA confirmed the updated policy was part of a broader effort to ensure the economic benefits of the IPP genuinely flow to First Nations people, “as originally intended, before they did not.”