Date: 7th of December 2021
Time: 10:35am to 12:00pm
Venue: Storey Hall, RMIT
Session Type: Panel
Participants: Sue Boyce (AbilityWorks), Dr Warren Staples (University of Melbourne), Paul Ashby (Aurecon, waiting for his confirmation), Dr Joanne Meehan (University of Liverpool, UK) and Sebastian Conley (Transurban)

The panel will be moderated by Dr Kevin Argus (RMIT) and Dr. Natalya Turkina.

Sebastian Conley

Sustainable Procurement Manager
Transurban

Sebastian is a responsible sourcing and sustainability professional with over 15 years working with domestic and international supply chains. 

He has been involved in driving practical outcomes for leading Australian businesses working in collaboration with suppliers to educate and improve outcomes in addressing more sustainable materials, improving traceability, educating and empowering disadvantaged workers.

Sebastian plays an active role in many multi-stakeholder initiatives to share skills and experiences, understanding the barriers and challenges faced and promoting collaboration for effective outcomes.

In 2020, Sebastian was appointed as an inaugural member of the Modern Slavery Expert Advisory Group, to advise the Australian Government on the development and implementation of the Modern Slavery Act (Cth) legislation.

Topic: “Beyond ‘Box-Ticking’: Institutional Challenges and Opportunities for Australian Social Procurement”.

Synopsis: The COVID-19 crisis has significantly hit Australia, bringing in the first economic recession since the 1990s along high un- and under-employment rates, especially amongst the vulnerable, disadvantaged, or marginalised groups of people (e.g., women and youth at risk, refugees and migrants, people with disabilities, indigenous people). To recover from this crisis, the Victorian Government has prioritised social procurement as a promising strategy for creating meaningful long-term employment. Social procurement is a framework for organisations to use their buying power to generate social value for local communities above and beyond the economic value of goods or services being purchased. This can be achieved via direct procurement from social enterprises or by including social impact or employment assessment in the tender requirements. However, Australian firms tend to take a short-term ‘box-ticking’ approach to social procurement by merely complying to minimum contractual requirements instead of creating meaningful long-term business and employment opportunities in the local communities. During this Panel discussion, we will discuss what institutional (i.e., political, cultural, financial) challenges inform such a ‘box-ticking’ approach and what institutional opportunities lie ahead of Australian social procurement.