RIAA Co-CEO Estelle Parker recently joined the authors of RIAA's research paper, Charting the Path: Foundations for a scalable First Nations investment market in Australia, to brief Opposition Indigenous Affairs Minister Julian Leeser on the findings and recommendations of the report.
The discussion focused on the significant opportunity to build a values-aligned investment ecosystem that honours Country, culture and community while creating long-term prosperity and public value. The research highlights that First Nations peoples already possess the leadership, capability and solutions required to drive investment outcomes. The challenge now is ensuring the broader financial system is equipped to support these opportunities through appropriate policy settings, capital pathways and institutional support.
The paper aims to build an understanding of how investment markets currently engage with First Nations peoples and economies. It provides an overview of current practice, explores key challenges and opportunities for action, and outlines areas for further research.
Indigenous businesses create jobs, pay competitive wages, provide services communities want and need, and build the dignity and capability that comes through enterprise. Charting the Path focuses on unlocking private capital, removing barriers, shaping markets and reserving direct public funding for targeted catalytic roles.
The paper calls for enabling finance that respects land rights, properly values First Nations consent and equity, strengthens market transparency, helps Indigenous enterprises scale and supports First Nations-led investment institutions.
Policy recommendations include:
- Enable tenure-sensitive finance: Developed with banks, philanthropy, community-controlled organisations and institutional investors, bridge the collateral gap created by Native Title constraints, without undermining the inalienable nature of land rights. Government’s role could be to provide legal clarity and convening power, while private and philanthropic capital carries much of the financing task.
- Value First Nations rights and equity: A transparent methodology for valuing Free Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC), cultural heritage, equity participation and rights-based involvement would help First Nations communities negotiate revenue sharing, co-ownership, equity stakes and benefit agreements in projects on or connected to their lands. This would also reduce conflict risk for investors and project proponents.
- Lift market transparency: Encourage investors to assess consent, partnership quality, cultural heritage management and shared benefit more consistently.
- Use procurement as a capital lever: Connect procurement pipelines with capital: investment readiness support, supply-chain finance, concessional lending, working capital and private-sector procurement commitments. This would help Indigenous enterprises scale, compete for larger contracts and reduce reliance on government procurement over time.
- Build Indigenous investment institutions: Specialist Investment Vehicles, First Nations fund managers and well-resourced intermediaries can translate aspiration into investable opportunities: aggregating projects, preparing enterprises for capital, matching investors with communities, and ensuring First Nations control and benefit are built into investment structures from the outset.
- Play an enabling role: remove barriers and set enabling rules: clarify how tenure-sensitive financing can operate; modernise tax incentives so First Nations legal structures such as Prescribed Bodies Corporate and social enterprises can access concessional capital; broaden eligible asset classes beyond high-growth venture capital to include community-owned clean energy, housing and land-based development; and support consistent valuation and disclosure settings.
Read the paper: <a href="https://www.responsibleinvestment.org/research-and-resources/resource/charting-the-path-foundations-for-a-scalable-first-nations-investment-market-in-australia" class="button is-outline">Charting the Path: Foundations for a scalable First Nations investment market in Australia</a>
.avif)
.avif)