Has your home or business been impacted by the recent floods to parts of the East Coast of New South Wales?
If you have an IBA home loan or business finance product and have been impacted by this weather event, we want to reassure you and your family that IBA is here in times of need.
Customers impacted by the recent natural disaster can apply for an emergency natural disaster relief grant – $5,000 for IBA business finance customers and/or $2,000 for IBA home loan customers.
Applications accepted until midnight 15 June 2024, or until funds are exhausted (whichever comes first).
Apply via the forms below
IBA business finance customers Disaster Relief form
IBA home loan customers Disaster Relief form
Additional information and resource links are below:
Indigenous Business Australia (IBA) launched their 3rd Impact Report at an event on Whadjuk Noongar boodja in Boorloo (Perth WA) on 17 April 2024.
The report was a deep dive into the intergenerational impacts of home ownership as reported by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander single carer and single parent families.
Joined by IBA’s Chair Eddie Fry, Senator Louise Pratt and an honoured panel of customers who shared their personal stories, IBA celebrated the reported social, cultural, and economic impacts highlighted by homeowners.
The launch event held at the State Theatre Centre of WA was opened by musician and Bibbulmun Noongar man Kobi Arthur Morrison and a heartfelt Welcome to Country by Aunty Robyn Collard with a special performance by her grandson, Tryse Rioli, showing how intergenerational impact is not limited to home ownership alone.
This new report is the third in a series of groundbreaking studies looking at the impact of IBA’s activities from the perspective of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. The latest results focus on the experiences and impacts of home ownership as reported by First Nations single carer and single parent families.
First Nations single carer and single parent families care for 44% of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in Australia. 84% of those households are headed by a female. Just over 1 in 5 IBA home loans is with a single carer family.
IBA strive to understand and encourage positive change by investing with First Nations people across business, home ownership, investments and capability development. This report highlights not only the success of First Nations single carer homeowners, but lessons for the broader financial services sector.
Gija woman Kia Dowell is the Executive Director of Strategy & Impact at IBA. From creating the framework and carrying out each of IBA’s previous reports, Kia understands what impact means.
“This report is another critical step in the right direction. IBA seeks to deliver on our purpose and 2028 strategy informed and guided by the lived experiences of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Importantly we must take action and learn from those stories to improve the way products are designed and services delivered.
“We’ve been on our journey with the launch of the framework in 2019 and our first report in 2021. This is not simply about understanding the impacts generated as a result of home ownership, it goes to the heart of intergenerational change.
“Inclusion and prosperity are two of IBA’s strategic goals and when home ownership is realised, it provides further evidence of the positive impact that can be created.
“The demand for home ownership amongst Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people continues to increase and this report serves as a reminder to all levels of government and the sector that access to affordable, stable and appropriate housing is a basic human right.
“The next in our impact series is already underway with research kicking off this month to find out how IBA’s activities support Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people’s financial wellbeing. We’re talking directly to community in yarning sessions as well as our more traditional quantitative research.”
Stories shared directly by the inspiring panel of speakers at the launch event highlighted the impacts they experienced to their own wellbeing, aspirations, and determination.
Renarta Coyne is a proud Minang Noongar Yorga woman from the Great Southern Regions of Albany and Mt Barker, Western Australia. As a single mother of 4 children and 12 grandchildren, she talked about both the success and struggles of gaining home ownership.
“Besides my children and grandchildren, I am proud to say I have achieved the ultimate goal of being a ‘Home Owner’ and paving the way for my family.
“As a single mum the journey along the way hasn’t been without challenge although the support and love of my family and friends has seen me through these difficult times.”
Images from the launch event are available.
Media contact: Tara Toohill 02 9207 6362 or tara.toohill@iba.gov.au
Indigenous Business Australia (IBA) is delighted to announce that more than $1 billion in contracts have now been supported through the IBA Performance Bond Trust. This milestone achievement for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander success has continued to grow since the bonds were introduced in 2018.
Since inception, IBA now supports over 500 performance bonds valued at almost $60 million with contracts valued at over $1 billion. A substantial increase since 2020 when after two years IBA had supported over 170 bonds worth $12 million, and contracts valued at nearly $202 million.
Performance bonds are issued to the beneficiary of a contract as security against the other party being unable to meet obligations specified in the contract. Banks often require a 100 per cent cash deposit as security for the bond, which ties up considerable amounts of working capital.
IBA assists Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander businesses by issuing bonds directly to the buyer, in cases where the business may not have the required level of security to provide a bond facility for their contracts.
The bond partnership that took the contract’s value to over $1 billion was through Mine Power Solutions, an Indigenous-owned and managed diversified construction, mining and electrical contractor which has been successful in winning contracts at Olympic Dam.
Cameron Buzzacott, Managing Director of Mine Power Solutions, is a long-standing IBA customer being the initial performance bond customer through one of his other ventures, Zancott Knight. He says:
“In mid-2018, Zancott Knight strategically decided to collaborate with IBA, transitioning away from our traditional banking institutions for bond requirements.
“Being IBA’s first client, this bond was pivotal for both companies. For Zancott Knight, it was a turning point as it not only streamlined the process of bond origination but also freed up working capital to grow our business.”
IBA CEO Kirsty Moore says, “IBA’s Performance Bond Trust has assisted First Nations contractors across the country to participate in a wide variety of contracts including mining, civil works, construction, facility upgrades and renewable energy construction by guaranteeing their capacity to complete projects while requiring minimal security.
“We’re extremely proud of this milestone figure – it ultimately contributes to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander business growth which is positive for everyone.”
Cameron agrees. He adds, “This growth has strengthened our market presence and allowed us to seize new opportunities and execute more projects, enabling Zancott Knight to navigate the competitive landscape with confidence and agility.
“We are honoured to have partnered on two major milestones, from the first bond in 2018 with Zancott Knight to the bond with MPS that tipped the $1 billion threshold in 2024.”
The Performance Bond Trust is administered by IBA who provide bonds directly to an Indigenous-owned business or alternatively provide capital to enable the business to secure a bond from a mainstream bank. When kicked off in 2018, IBA co-invested $10 million in the facility along with National Indigenous Australians Agency (NIAA) matching a further $10 million.
Find out more about IBA Performance Bonds.
Media contact: Tara Toohill 02 9207 6362 or tara.toohill@iba.gov.au
We are making exciting changes to our online services, including the EOI for a home loan. The current EOI system will be unavailable from Thursday 28 March for approximately four weeks.
If you've already started an EOI, you can still complete and submit until 12 April.
If you'd like us to let you know once the Expression of Interest is back again, please fill out your details here.
Has your home or business been impacted by the recent bushfires to parts of the Central Highlands in Tasmania?
If you have an IBA home loan or business finance product and have been impacted by this weather event, we want to reassure you and your family that IBA is here in times of need.
Customers impacted by the recent natural disaster can apply for an emergency natural disaster relief grant – $5,000 for IBA business finance customers and/or $2,000 for IBA home loan customers.
All eligible customers should have received a direct link via SMS or email with information about how to apply. Applications accepted until midnight 15 May 2024, or until funds are exhausted (whichever comes first).
Additional information and resource links are below:
Has your home or business been impacted by the cyclone in Queensland or the storms and flooding in Victoria?
If you have an IBA home loan or business finance product and have been impacted by either of these weather events, we want to reassure you and your family that IBA is here in times of need.
Customers impacted by the recent natural disaster can apply for an emergency natural disaster relief grant – $5,000 for IBA business finance customers and/or $2,000 for IBA home loan customers.
All eligible customers should have received a direct link via SMS or email with information about how to apply.
QLD Grant Applications accepted until midnight 29 March 2024, or until funds are exhausted (whichever comes first).
VIC Grant Applications accepted until midnight 12 April 2024, or until funds are exhausted (whichever comes first).
Additional information and resource links are below:
The interest rates for some of IBA business loans are changing based on market conditions.
All impacted customers will be notified in writing about the change to their interest rate and loan repayment amount. Interest rate changes will come into effect on 28 February 2024.
IBA Business Solutions has a range of resources available on our website including workshops to assist you manage your loan and review your budgeting and financial management skills.
We’re always here to help. If you have any concerns about managing your business loan repayments or are experiencing financial difficulty, please call us on 1800 107 107 to discuss your circumstances, or submit an online enquiry form to arrange for someone to contact you.
IBA CEO Kirsty Moore and Chair Eddie Fry spoke with Australian Institute of Company Directors on how IBA is working toward the economic empowerment of First Nations communities. The resulting article describes IBA's 'powerful activities' which has transformed the dream of home ownership into reality, for 21,000 owner-occupier Indigenous families and individuals.
See full article below, which appeared on the AICD website.
Home ownership. For many First Nations Australians, it’s a dream which will only ever remain out of reach and a remote fantasy. But for 21,000 owner-occupier Indigenous families and individuals, it’s an idea which has at last actually transformed into reality, due to powerful activities by federal agency Indigenous Business Australia (IBA).
Roughly, we are nearing 5,000 home loans nationally at this point in time,” IBA CEO Kirsty Moore GAICD told the AICD in a recent interview in Perth. “And we continue to have very, very strong demand.
“The Indigenous home ownership program is the longest running program in the Indigenous affairs portfolio and it's been around for almost 50 years.”
According to the 2021 census, only 41 per cent of First Nations people own their own homes, compared to 66 per cent of non-First Nations people. “So there's a gap,” says Moore. It's a real gap in home ownership. For as long as that gap exists, IBA will need to play a role in in providing that finance where the mainstream banks won't.
“The need for that finance isn't just the fact that our customers live in maybe regional and remote areas where banks do not lend… but it's also because they don't have the bank of Mum and Dad. They don't have that intergenerational asset to support them. And they don't necessarily have role models in their community to look at - people who've owned a property.”
IBA also finances First Nations businesses. These range from small businesses such as Kakadu Kitchen, a non-alcoholic drinks entity with a store in Humpty Doo, and Mack Construction NT, a design and construction service, through to bigger enterprises such as the Centre for Appropriate Technology in Alice Springs, Warialda Engineering and Welding based in NSW, and Wilpena Pound Resort in the Flinders Ranges in South Australia.
IBA has also invested in building a new cucumber farm in Geraldton, Western Australia, and greenhouses are currently being constructed, according to Moore. “It’s part of a native title settlement with the state of Western Australia and we have had some extensive investment into that. The intent is that it will become Australia's largest cucumber farm.”
IBA is working with First Nations organisations across Australia and has joined forces with Export Finance Australia to empower First Nations companies to build their capacity to enter international markets.
IBA has an investment pipeline manages a portfolio of co-investments with Indigenous organisations valued at over $500 million, including direct investments, managed funds and a real estate investment trust. According to the IBA 2023-2024 Corporate Plan, IBA currently has $2 billion in net assets, which it aims to grow to $2.5 billion by 2028.
IBA Chair Eddie Fry, a Dagoman-Wardaman man from the Katherine region in the Northern Territory, told the AICD that IBA has already doubled net assets from $1.15 billion in 2014 to around $2 billion now. “We have cleaned up a lot of non-performing assets and we also have a board that clearly understands the commercial marketplace,” he said.
“We got smarter at doing business. In 2017, we made a massive leap from about 450 home loans to about over 900 in that one year.”
Management culture has also changed both at board level and at the operational level and offices such as the ACT have been downsized. “I would suggest we've taken on a greater corporate and operational approach than we used to have.”
The future
Over the next five years, IBA will facilitate new investment opportunities and new partnership arrangements to increase wealth and assets. It has boosted this work through recent partnership activity with the Northern Australian Infrastructure Facility (NAIF), Housing Australia, and Export Finance Australia (EFA), and in strategic banking partnerships with Australian Unity and Bank Australia.
According to the 2021 national census, there are now nearly one million First Nations people in Australia. The population of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people now sits at around 984,000.
However, high interest rates and high property prices are making home ownership a more difficult proposition for many First Nations people.
“I think a big challenge going forward is to see how IBA can exceed what market conditions are currently determining. In the previous two years, house prices have just skyrocketed. Therefore, that’s going to impact on the ability of our buyers to borrow,” says Fry.
Because first homebuyers are struggling to find properties to purchase, IBA launched in August a shared equity program, which combines a finance option with an IBA home loan. The borrowing capacity of customers is increased, so they do not need to buy smaller properties than they need. “They still borrow the same amount, but by IBA putting in an equity contribution, the customer can hopefully buy a more appropriate home in a better location, with proximity to amenity and family, community in particular,” says Moore.
She says the focus on regional areas is important. Over 60 per cent of the home loan book of IBA is in regional Australia, mostly Queensland and NSW, she says. About 10 per cent is in remote areas, mainly in the Northern Territory and Western Australia.
“That's where the IBA business investment activity comes in, because we believe that if we can create local economic development, that will create opportunities for people ultimately to take control of their own futures.
“We know that home ownership provides security. A roof over your head. We also know this concept of passing assets onto kids really resonates strongly with our customer base, who want to give their kids a bright future. So they want to own a home, and they want to pass on the home. They want those kids to know that they can lay their roots in that place.”
She says IBA is governed by federal legislation and is obliged to make sustainable investment decisions to ensure that when lending to customers, the risks of ultimate financial losses are minimised through good customer support and sensible lending decisions in the first place.
“It is the IBA support which is the bit that creates success,” says Moore. “So it's the support around readiness to enter into that financial commitment in the first place. And making sure that if somebody is going to buy a house, they really understand the obligations of home ownership, that they really understand what it will mean and how they're going to withstand certain pitfalls that might come – that they have financial literacy. We support them through the customer journey for the entire length of the loan.”
UK-born Moore became CEO of IBA in May 2021, after starting as IBA Head of Products and Markets in early 2018. Driven by a passion to help people who need support, she has lived experience of difficulty with home ownership and brings this understanding to her role.
“I think part of my motivation is the fact that I come from disadvantage myself. My family come from a social housing background in the UK and I understand about opportunity. So, for me, I really want to support a cohort of society that needs assistance. It’s really as simple as that.”
Role of the board
The IBA board is composed of majority First Nations members alongside non-Indigenous members – all with business expertise. “Our board understands our customer base, so they understand some of the challenges that sit in community, they understand some of the issues of intergenerational trauma and they understand the concept of a proper fair go,” says Moore.
“They don't want IBA to be purely giving handouts. They want IBA to be investing with people who are ready to actually have a bit of gumption and go forward and take control of their own economic future.”
The board is also heavily focussed on cyber security and in 2021 created an IT subcommittee. “This is a new thing that we put in place a couple years ago in response to the need to make sure technology starts at the board level.
It recognises that we do need to have modern day banking systems, and appropriate data protection in place,” she says.
The board has also driven and monitored a significant digital transformation to update IT and core business systems. “We went from having quite old-fashioned IT systems to being on the cusp of having a modern-day banking system that is used by mainstream financial services institutions. The board has supported the organisation to do that and played an active role in the oversight of that initiative.”
The board is very engaged on the subject of cyber security, inquisitive and keen to understand it, she says. “They're definitely not passive when it comes to technology and implications of cyber and customer protection in general.
“Remember that we are here not only to deal with very sensitive information pertaining to the most disadvantaged but there's also a reputational risk to the Commonwealth government, if we get it wrong.”
Has your home or business been impacted by the cyclone in Queensland?
If you have an IBA home loan or business finance product and have been impacted by this weather events, we want to reassure you and your family that IBA is here in times of need.
Customers impacted by the recent natural disasters can apply for an emergency natural disaster relief grant – $5,000 for IBA business finance customers and/or $2,000 for IBA home loan customers.
All eligible customers should have received a direct link via SMS or email with information about how to apply. Applications accepted until midnight 29 March 2024, or until funds are exhausted (whichever comes first).
Additional information and resource links are below:
Has your home or business been impacted by the cyclone in QLD or severe weather or flooding in NSW?
If you have an IBA home loan or business finance product and have been impacted by these weather events, we want to reassure you and your family that IBA is here in times of need.
Customers impacted by the recent natural disasters can apply for an emergency natural disaster relief grant – $5,000 for IBA business finance customers and/or $2,000 for IBA home loan customers.
All eligible customers should have received a direct link via SMS or email with information about how to apply. Applications accepted until midnight 2 February 2024, or until funds are exhausted (whichever comes first).
While applications are open, please note that due to the holiday closure period, all eligible payments of the Natural Disaster Relief Grant will be delayed until after our offices reopen on Wednesday 3 January 2024.
Additional information and resource links are below:
