From humble beginnings in 2007 as a truly “mum and dad” business, Jasmine Newman and her husband Max have seen Killara Services grow to what is now one of the largest Aboriginal-owned and operated cleaning companies in Australia.

It is a company AnglicareSA is proud to partner with, not just as a contracted supplier, but as a partner in reconciliation and providing opportunities for First Nations businesses through a dedicated First Nations Procurement Standard.

“When we started this wonderful business, it was very much a vacuum pack on the back with a five-month-old baby at the time,” Killara Services Managing Director, Jasmine Newman, said.

“We won our first contract and drove two-and-half hours with our daughter to deliver that contract.

“Fast forward to today and we are about 750 employees strong, operating in every state and territory, cleaning everything from high-security defence spaces, commercial-grade facilities, corporate buildings, and absolutely everything in between.”

 

 

The driving force behind starting Killara Services for Jasmine was about continuing the legacy of her great-grandfather Howard Groves who, in the 1960s and ’70s, fought for the betterment of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders through access to education and opportunities for employment and overall advancement of First Nations Australians.

“For me, through this business, what I have been able to do is, instead of simply advocating for opportunities for Aboriginal people, I have been able to create those opportunities within my business that Pop fought for, which is really cool.”

AnglicareSA’s First Nations Procurement Standard seeks to provide opportunities for businesses to grow and honour the unique experiences, perspectives, and skillsets offered to our organisation through these partnerships.

The Standard is based on a commitment to increase the First Nations supplier diversity footprint across AnglicareSA, and for Jasmine, that type of commitment played a significant role in the business and organisations that Killara Services partnered with.

“I think that unless businesses make a conscious decision to engage with Indigenous businesses genuinely, the commitment and objectives that the wider Australian society is trying to achieve through reconciliation are just not achievable,” Jasmine said.

“Something that I have found really important throughout my journey was not just business engagements, but partnerships.

“I think once it is a partnership and there is alignment with values and who we are as both organisations, those synergies allow us to be the award-winning Indigenous business that we are.

“It is about a genuine commitment and partnership rather than a simple commercial arrangement.”

AnglicareSA Procurement Senior Manager, Cristina Giordano, said the team was continually building on its cultural capability to ensure that partner businesses were engaged and supported in a way that was culturally appropriate and aligned with AnglicareSA’s Strategic Plan commitment.

“We currently engage with several First Nations businesses as well as a number of other companies that have First Nations suppliers.”