Two minutes, thank you very much, Chair.
My name is Josh Riley. As you might have picked up from my accent, I'm from Australia. I'm an Australian aboriginal. It's definitely a lot warmer there than it is in Ottawa. It's much colder here, as Max said. As a Wiradjuri person, I'd just like to acknowledge that we're on Algonquin territory, and also acknowledge all the indigenous people here today, and thank you for inviting us to share our perspectives as well.
Following on from what Max said, we've also been doing some work with INAC and our members to increase our procurement in the private sector. I think there are learnings that we've taken from our research and our approach that might be of benefit to add to this conversation here as well.
At the start of the year, as Max said, where it's all coming from, there are some great things happening in aboriginal procurement in the private sector as there are also in the public sector, but there's opportunity to do a lot more. We did some research at the start of the year to look at what are some of the challenges and needs between aboriginal businesses and our corporate members and non-members as well to make more aboriginal procurement happen. Twenty-five per cent of the respondents said they would like to see stronger procurement commitments from aboriginal corporations, and 22%, interestingly, said they're looking for direct connections to procurement officers in industry and government.
We've recently, as of last week, received some funding from INAC to be able to develop a strategy that is looking at getting corporates to collectively make more and stronger procurement outcomes for aboriginal businesses, creating a marketplace where corporations can find aboriginal businesses to integrate into their supply chains. But it's then also for those $100,000 and less procurement opportunities that aren't often publicly available in portals, making those available and visible to aboriginal businesses as well, and sharing best practices also.
We developed this approach from looking at some successful models from around the world, particularly ones I've had the privilege of being involved with in Australia, such as Supply Nation. Off the back of the success of the Supply Nation model in Australia, I just wanted to share a little bit about the Australian government's procurement policy, which has resulted in $594 million in aboriginal procurement over the last two years.
I think that's my time there, so I'll be happy to answer any more questions, and thank you very much.