Launch of the WA Social Enterprise Council

Speaking at the launch of the WA Social Enterprise Council. Picture: Michael Goh

Introduction

I acknowledge we are on the land of the Wadjuk People of the Noongar nation.

We collectively pay our respects to Elders past, present and emerging.

Thank you Kerryanne for that beautiful welcome.

And thank you to Vanessa Rauland and the WASEC for the invitation to speak.

I love that you called it a launch party.

Because business should be exciting.

Building something new.

With purpose.

And we need more Western Australians to be building purpose driven businesses.

Visiting WA high schools, I find the conversation with students about their future is boxed in.

What job do you want, or what will you study?

I want more Western Australian kids to aim to create a business or social enterprise.

To be job creators and change makers.

And the proof they can do it is all around us.

In the Perth Electorate we are surrounded by success stories.

From the mutuals of the last century, like the RAC and HBF.

To the proud history of organisations, like Perth City Farm.

To 21st century enterprises, like Dismantle who do what our schools sometimes can’t, and Kirrikin who have launched artistic careers and dressed Prime Ministers and even Shadow Assistant Ministers.

Western Australia

This is why it is so good to have a Social Enterprise Council launching here in Western Australia.

Your work tonight is connecting our State to a global market.

At the UN Rio +20 conference in 2012 the UN Global Compact Framework for Action on Social Enterprise and Impact Investing was launched.

It was estimated that it would take 10 years for the global impact investing market to hit $1 trillion dollars.

It only took seven years.

And here in Australia the market is already estimated at $20 billion and growing.

We are Australia’s most export-oriented state.

I always say that when the WA economy does well, the national economy does well.

Economic Diversification

Western Australians know that we need to be an economy that is “more than ore”.

Fitch ratings forecasts that the Iron Ore price could be as low as $US63 by 2030.

More than half the current price.

Guinea's Simandou Iron Ore project is also expected to change the global market.

And that’s all before we get to the massive shift to renewable energy.

So we need to be ready.

Ready for disruption and opportunity in our local and global economy.

Ready to build new enterprises that can also help us tackle the major challenges our world faces.

And there are lots of challenges.

The Global Sustainable Development Goals are already behind schedule.

According to the Financing for Sustainable Development Report, it is estimated that the coronavirus pandemic has placed these goals 10 years behind schedule.

That means it will not be until 2040 that we meet the global mission to end hunger.

It will not be until 2040 that every child has access to education.

And we are seeing our limited achievements on gender equality slide backwards.

In other words – there are countless problems yet to be solved though social enterprise.

Gender equality

There is no doubt that my workplace, the Parliament of Australia, has failed to lead when it comes to gender equality.

I hope the Jenkins Review into Parliamentary Culture recognises that there are many in the social enterprise space who can assist.

It is clear we need the help.

Social enterprises and impact investing must be part of our nation’s path towards gender equality.

An article in the Stanford Social Innovation Review noted “companies where women hold 25 percent of decision-making roles generate 4 percent higher cash flow”.

That’s the good news.

More recently, the British Council found that there were more adverse effects from COVID on Wwomen-led social enterprises.

Once again, we don’t have an even playing field for women.

I know that when we get it right – impact investing and gender lens investing is one of the most effective ways to deliver gender equality.

Political enterprise

I feel a kindred spirit with social entrepreneurs.

Political parties across the spectrum have some interesting similarities to social enterprise.

Recognising that the profit motive and a traditional business isn’t always the best vehicle to create change.

I previously served as Secretary of the WA Labor Party.

A political party that existed before federation, and many of the laws that now govern it.

A party that is unincorporated.

But that adapted throughout decades - with a set of core values of fairness and opportunity - and achieving outcomes through parliamentary representation.

We then look abroad to the mega-campaigns of the United States.

Hillary Clinton’s campaign was once described as a $1 billion dollar start-up.

Raising and spending approximately $1 billion dollars in the space of 12 months.

And as is true in the real world, that start-up failed.

But I think the world learnt the lesson of backing the wrong entrepreneur.

The need for new business models

We didn’t need a global pandemic to prove we need new business models.

We knew it already.

Before the pandemic Australia saw:

· The worst wages growth on record.

· The lowest business investment since the 1990s.

· Declining productivity.

Simply put - we aren’t reaching our full potential.

We also saw during the pandemic that social enterprises are resilient.

A report from the British Council and the UN-ESCAP found in the face of COVID, “Social enterprises are survivors: only one per cent of social enterprises reported that they have shut down”.

It also found that social enterprises fall through the gaps of many government support programs.

A policy problem that WASEC will help to address.

Social impact in government

In the post-war challenge that Australia faced, there was no question that government procurement must have broader social impact.

We saw under Prime Minister Ben Chifley that government procurement was social policy.

The Australian Car industry, Snowy Hydro and the expansion of the public sector weren’t just projects.

They were nation building.

And we are, finally, seeing a resurgence in how we look at procurement.

From defence industry policy through to using government procurement to increase job security.

We see it here with the State Government building their own social enterprise at Bellevue where they will once again manufacture train cars in Western Australia.

For the first time in three decades trains will be made here.

246 of them.

This boosts manufacturing capacity in Western Australia.

Meaning we have more expertise for the private sector.

We have similar network benefits as we head into the hydrogen economy, the Square Kilometre Array and our position as the nation’s Indian Ocean data centre.

Close - Growing the WA Economy

I again congratulate you on launching the WASEC.

I look forward to your achievements, your lobbying, your policy changes.

Most importantly I look forward to your positive role in changing the WA economy.

Ensuring we have stronger communities.

Creating secure jobs.

And ensuring we have enterprises across Western Australia that plan for the future.

Thank you.

ENDS