Local Industry, Community and Indigenous Participation Policy
Our Commitment
As an Australian owned and operated business, Phoenix One believes that working with local industry, local and Indigenous communities is vital to sustaining the long-term viability of our business and to deliver the economic and environmental benefits of tourism to homes and businesses throughout the Australian waters that Phoenix One operates in.
We are committed to building and maintaining mutually beneficial relationships with local communities, businesses and Indigenous people wherever we operate. We do this by providing employment, commercial provisioning relationships and enterprise opportunities associated with our industry so that the communities where we work share in the benefits of Tourism and Phoenix One’s operations.
The seas surrounding Australia and in particular Queensland, Northern Territory and Western Australia are incredibly rich in Indigenous and Torres Strait Islander culture and heritage, dating back thousands of years.
“It is vitally important that our heritage sites, culturally significant places and traditions are kept for our present and future generations.” – Gooreng Gooreng Traditional Owner, 2017
Indigenous heritage includes everything in Sea Country, including natural values, Indigenous values and historic values. It includes tangible and intangible expressions of Traditional Owners’ relationships with country, people, beliefs, knowledge, law, language, symbols, ways of living, sea, land and objects, all arising from Indigenous spirituality.
From artworks, fishtraps, middens and tools, to songlines, languages and traditional practices, the sea itself and everything in it has stories and significance to Indigenous and Torres Strait Islander people.
The strategy sets out how Phoenix One will work in partnership with Traditional Owners to combine their thousands of years’ expertise in Sea, Land Reef management with Phoenix One to help keep Sea Country heritage strong, safe and healthy.
Key outcomes and actions of Phoenix One Strategy
The Strategy has four major outcomes.
- Keep heritage strong: respect, recognise and protect the connection of Indigenous and Torres Strait Islander peoples with the Barrier Reef and Seas Surrounding Australia.
Actions under this outcome focus on empowering Traditional Owners through the use of Local and Indigenous guides and promoting understanding of Indigenous heritage values with Phoenix One guests.
- Keep heritage safe: protect Indigenous heritage values through Phoenix One processes.
Actions under this outcome focus on how Phoenix One can incorporate Indigenous heritage values into our policy, planning, permitting and compliance processes with tours and guests.
- Keep heritage healthy: partner with Traditional Owners and others in Sea management.
Actions under this outcome focus on how we can work with Traditional Owners through partnerships including tours, guides and other activities associated with tourism.
- Keep Local Industry viable in supplying the operational and provisioning requirements for Phoenix One.
Actions under this outcome focus on:
- Actively work to increase the benefit of development activity to local industry and Traditional Owners / clans through the supply chain
- Positively favour local and Indigenous businesses by taking into account the social licence value when evaluating contract proposals
- Give preference to those tenderers that maximise local content in both labour and materials where comparative tenders are commercially competitive and technically acceptable
- Develop procurement strategies that take into consideration local and Indigenous capability
- Actively promote local and Indigenous industry