Australian Disability Enterprises: Building Better Business Opportunities report

Australian Disability Enterprises:

Building Better Business

Opportunities

REPORT

Prepared for:

The Australian Department of

Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs

(FaHCSIA)

June 2013

This report was funded by:

Australian Government Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs.

The Australian Government accepts no responsibility for the accuracy or completeness of any material contained in this report. Additionally, the Australian Government disclaims all liability to any person in respect of anything, and the consequences of anything, done or omitted to be done by any such person in reliance, whether wholly or partially, upon any information contained in this report.

Any views and recommendations of third parties contained in this report do not necessarily reflect the views of the Commonwealth, or indicate a commitment to a particular course of action.

Creative Commons Licence

With the exception of the Commonwealth Coat of Arms and where otherwise noted all material presented in this document is provided under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Australia licence (Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Australia licence).

The details of the relevant licence conditions are available on the Creative Commons website (accessible using the links provided) as is the full legal code for the CC BY 3.0 AU licence (Full legal code for the CC BY 3.0 AU licence).

This document must be attributed as the Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs [Provision of Australian Disability Enterprises: Building Better Business Opportunities Project].

Contact details:

Phone: [phone]

Email:   [e-mail]

Post:   Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs

Tuggeranong Office Park

PO Box 7576

Canberra Business Centre, ACT 2610

Report Authors:

Janet Hopkins, Marion Wands, Amanda Bresnan, Catrina Waterson and Mary Hackett from ConNetica.

ISBN (print): 978-0-9922842-0-6

ISBN (online): 978-0-646-90667-6

 

Disclaimer

This report has been prepared by ConNetica Consulting Pty Ltd (ConNetica) at the request of the Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs (FaHCSIA) in our capacity as consultants and in accordance with the guidelines and conditions provided by FaHCSIA.

This document is not intended to be utilised or relied upon by any other persons other than FaHCSIA. Accordingly, ConNetica accepts no responsibility in any way whatsoever for the use of this report by any other persons or for any other purpose.

The information, statements, statistics and commentary (together the “Information”) contained in this report have been prepared by ConNetica from publicly available material, from material provided by FaHSCIA, various Australian Disability Enterprises, business and government representatives.

ConNetica has not sought any independent confirmation of the reliability, accuracy or completeness of this information. It should not be construed that ConNetica has carried out any form of audit of the information that has been relied upon.

Accordingly, whilst the statements made in this report are given in good faith, ConNetica accepts no responsibility for any errors in the information provided by FaHSCIA, other parties as described above, nor the effect of any such error on our analysis, suggestions or report.

Contact:
Marion Wands – Director
ConNetica

PO Box 484

Moffat Beach

Queensland, 4554

Ph: 07 5491 5456

Connetica website: www.connetica.com.au

Table of Contents

Disclaimer 4

Acknowledgements 6

Abbreviations 7

Executive Summary 8

Introduction 14

Our approach 16

Results and Analysis 17

Discussion 38

Recommendations and Strategic Solutions 55

Outline of Building Better Business Opportunities Training 60

Further Reading 61

Other resources and ideas 61

Appendix A – Schedule of Interviews conducted 63

Appendix B: Procurement exemptions 68

Appendix C - WA Procurement Case Study Flow Chart 71

Appendix D: De-identified survey comments on experiences with Governments 72

Appendix E: De-identified survey responses - Success Tips 79

Appendix F: Survey responses on experience with Big Business, key challenges and considerations 88

 

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the following organisations and individuals for the significant contributions and expertise they made to this report:

Report Authors: Janet Hopkins, Marion Wands, Amanda Bresnan, Catrina Waterson and Mary Hackett from ConNetica.

The 139 respondent Australian Disability Enterprises who took the time to complete the project survey.

The many Australian Disability Enterprises, Government Departments and businesses that welcomed visits from ConNectica, completed surveys, provided case studies and gave their time and information generously.

A full list of acknowledgements is provided at Appendix A.