IPP owned and controlled test: use 2026-27 to get ready

Fifty-fifty was a fair split when the business started. A First Nations founder and a non-Indigenous co-founder set up an IT services firm in Cairns, shared the shares evenly and cleared the Indigenous Procurement Policy (IPP) line of the day, which was 50% ownership. The firm is listed with Supply Nation and has won Commonwealth work.

The firm is a composite. We've had this conversation with enough owners to know it's common. When the IPP changed on 1 July 2026, the owner's view was simple: we're registered, so nothing changes.

For now, that's right. But the date that will change it is still ahead, and that's why this year matters more than the owner thinks.

What changed on 1 July 2026

The National Indigenous Australians Agency (NIAA) says that from 1 July 2026, an Indigenous Enterprise under the IPP must be at least 51% First Nations owned and controlled, or registered with the Office of the Registrar of Indigenous Corporations (ORIC). The old test was at least 50% ownership. Senator Malarndirri McCarthy announced the change in a release on the Ministers' media centre on 13 February 2025.

So the test moved by one percentage point and two words. The percentage gets the attention. The words "and controlled" will do more of the work.

Ownership is a line on a share register. Control is about who runs the business. Ask yourself who makes the decisions, who signs the contracts and who holds the bank authorities. A business can clear the first and still have questions to answer on the second.

Why your status hasn't changed yet

NIAA has made 2026-27 a transition year. During it, a business that meets either the old test (at least 50% ownership) or the new test (at least 51% ownership and control) can still access the IPP.

NIAA also extended Supply Nation's contract by 12 months, so Supply Nation can keep maintaining its database of businesses that meet the original 50% test through the transition.

The date to plan around comes later. NIAA went to market for a provider to verify businesses against the new criteria and run an online registry of verified businesses. Submissions closed on 18 September 2026. The National Indigenous Times reported that NIAA expects the new verification service to start in 2026-27.

Once that service starts, NIAA says existing registrations have 12 months to move to the new criteria. For the Cairns firm, the 50/50 split works today. Once the verifier opens, it has a year left.

Twelve months sounds generous. It stops sounding generous once you count what it takes to change who owns a business.

Ownership takes time, control is easy to miss

Changing ownership means lawyers and accountants. Often it means a valuation, sometimes a tax question, and nearly always a hard conversation between founders. Someone who built half the business is being asked to let go of a slice of it. That conversation shouldn't be rushed, and it rarely goes quickly even when both people agree on where it needs to land.

Control is the quieter problem, and it catches businesses that are well clear on ownership. Take a catering company where the First Nations founder owns 70%. On shares, there's nothing to talk about. But say a non-Indigenous general manager signs every contract, runs the accounts and makes the hiring calls, because that's how the founder chose to split the work years ago. Now the question is who controls the business, and the answer on paper may not match the answer in practice.

Or take a security company, for example, where the founder holds the majority but an old shareholder agreement still gives a departed investor a veto over major decisions. Ask your lawyer whether it cuts across control.

Check how control works in your business with your adviser before a verifier reads your paperwork.

What to sort out this year

None of this needs a restructure to start. It needs someone to pull the documents out of the drawer and read them side by side.

• Gather the shareholder register, the constitution, any shareholder agreement and the board minutes. Check they all tell the same story about who owns and who decides.
• Write down who makes the day-to-day decisions, who signs contracts, who holds the bank authorities and who hires. If the answer is "it depends", write down what it depends on.
• Flag any clause that gives someone a veto, a casting vote or a right that cuts across control, and take it to your lawyer.
• If you're at exactly 50%, start the ownership conversation now. Don't leave it until the 12-month window has started.
• If you're an ORIC-registered corporation, check your registration details are current.
• Keep your current Supply Nation listing up to date in the meantime.
• Book your accountant and lawyer early. Plenty of other owners read the same NIAA page.

The businesses that do this now will hand the verifier a tidy file. The ones that wait will be restructuring and bidding at the same time, and one of those usually suffers.

Buyers are moving too

The other half of this story sits with the agencies. NIAA says the Commonwealth IPP target rose from 2.5% to 3% on 1 July 2025, and rises by 0.25 percentage points each year until it reaches 4% in 2029-30.

Every year, Commonwealth buyers have a higher number to reach. Tender cycles don't wait for your ownership review, so don't let the paperwork stop the bidding. The transition year is still a full bidding year, and the tenders keep closing while the lawyers work.

It's also where a small First Nations business can slip. The owner is the person sorting the constitution, and the same person who's meant to be checking the federal and Queensland portals every morning. When something gives, it can be the tender that closed last Tuesday.

Helm Tender won't tell you whether you meet the new test. That's the verifier's job, and your adviser's. What Helm Tender does is keep Commonwealth work in front of you while you sort the paperwork: federal and Queensland Government tenders arrive in a digest, each scored 0 to 100 against what your business actually does, with every add and subtract labelled. You can check the portals and track your buyers by hand, or you can watch the agencies you already supply and the contract end dates you're counting on, and Helm Tender will email you about them.

See which tenders fit your business at https://helmtender.com.au/?utm_source=web&utm_medium=insights&utm_campaign=helm-tender