Video Transcript – Interview with Ron Morony, General Manager of IBA

This is a transcript of a 2 minute video featuring Mr Ron Morony, General Manager of Indigenous Business Australia (IBA) who was interviewed about the role and vision of IBA on 24 April 2008. Mr Morony is seated in his office at IBA’s National Office in Canberra. There is no background soundtrack or other external noise, and the only speaker is Mr Ron Morony.

Transcript begins

IBA’s vision is to create economic independence for Indigenous Australians, and to encourage Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to participate in the mainstream economy. And that can be achieved through a number of ways; obviously education and employment are important parts of that, but also through operating in the commercial environment as well.

Our purpose as an organisation as IBA, is really one of facilitation. We offer people choices and some fairly intensive assistance to participate in the mainstream economy.

So we are largely here to help people to form views about whether they should and are able to participate in business, and whether we are able to assist them with a home loan. And the all-important part of our purpose is to provide after-care and support, so that once we get people involved in the economy, we actually provide some fairly intensive support afterwards as well.

Some of the major developments that led to the creation of IBA are that Indigenous Australians have been saying for some time that the welfare solutions of the past haven’t worked. And that’s quite clear. The fact is that in the modern era, we need to participate in the mainstream economy. IBA is a unique organisation to help facilitate that level of participation. We have a range of programs that can assist people to make a choice and that’s purely what we can do, simply offer people a range of choices.

End of transcript.