DroneShield, as part of the Sovereign Australian Prime Alliance (SAPA), said it welcomes the Australian government’s announcement of much needed reforms to the Commonwealth Procurement Rules to define an Australian business, in the context of the Commonwealth procurement framework as:
- “A business, including any parent business, that has 50% or more Australian ownership or is principally traded on an Australian equities market; and is an Australian resident for tax purposes;
- Is a business that has its principal place of business in Australia.”
DroneShield maintains that definitions are an essential building block for defence procurement when designing and implementing industry policies. “The importance of sovereign capability cannot be overstated at times of geopolitical uncertainty,” said Oleg Vornik, CEO of DroneShield. “As a proud sovereign defence technology company, DroneShield – alongside its Sovereign Australian Prime Alliance (SAPA) partners – welcomes the important procurement reforms the Australian Government has announced to redefine what constitutes an Australian business. Government will now be able to make accurate assessments of policies affecting Australia’s industrial base – both local and international – and direct future policies with confidence.”
SAPA also welcomed the additional reform to Commonwealth Procurement Rules, introducing the Broader Economic Benefits in Procurement metric when making value judgements in government tendering. This reform will require future government procurement to consider a broader range of weightings, priority outcomes, and contracting considerations when assessing submissions for government contracts.
Along with multiple industry peak bodies, SAPA participated in the Ministerial Working Group (Working Group) to help shape this important bipartisan reform. We look forward to working with Commonwealth government departments as this new reform gets embedded in future procurement and tendering processes, and we encourage state/ territory governments to adopt this commonsense solution which has been led at the Federal level.
