Video transcript
Good morning my name is uh Joe Wallace from uh Multhana Property Services. I'm the Managing Director, I'm a proud Aboriginal man from the uh Jirrabal people up in Atherton Tablelands in Far North Queensland and also the Juru people at Bowen.
[What is Multhana Property Service and what services does it provide?]
Multhana Property Services was established in 2017. The language group is meaning is to come together to help each other. So it was established a few years back, our core three businesses that we service within Southeast Queensland is actually your cleaning, uh your landscaping and also our minor building works that we perform.
[What contracts do you have with us?]
At this present time we have 4 contracts with TMR. We have 4 sites that we clean on a Monday to Friday, on a five days a week, and we also do COVID cleaning during other day across these 4 sites with TMR. So we currently do 1200 buses across 7 depots. We've been successful to continue the uh the COVID cleaning across those sites. We also have a big contract with the Cross River Rail, so we've been there for just over 16 months. So we first started off there with cleaning three dollars on that on that project and now we have 16 sites on that project and we have over 25 staff that work full-time and casual on that project. So we're quite fortunate to to work on one of Queensland's biggest infrastructure projects in Queensland, and we've also had an opportunity to pick up a contract with aseano with a TMR project, Main Roads job at Sunshine Coast. So we we're quite fortunate and I'm happy that we've we've got that, you know, it's our first big um uh song and dance that we won with that and we've gone from mowing lawns to to winning a uh big major project with TMR.
[How has COVID-19 changed the work you do?]
Yeah, we're quite fortunate with the COVID situation that happened is that it's actually increased our workforce and it's also uh increased our our revenue in terms of um you know with the extra cleaning that is required with the pandemic in in South East Queensland. When COVID hit last year, we were currently engaged by Brisbane City Council to clean community halls, the opportunity came about um to mobilize over 70 cleaners in 48 hours to to combat the COVID cleaning on those buses.
[What experience have you gained through your work with us?]
Yeah, the experience I think with the working with TMR, it's uh you know it was able to give us a good revenue, you know. Part of that was able to employ more Indigenous staff members from in the community um to also put them through their Cert III in Commercial Cleaning, and to look at, you know, buying other assets um for our businesses, you know, especially within the landscaping. So it was a very good fortune for us that, you know, it was able to support us financially
[What other First Nations businesses have you been able to work with as a result of your contracts with us?]
We have a great partnership with MAX Employment here. So they was able to to mobilise and and get Indigenous staff members, you know, to come and work for us, especially on the Brisbane City Council buses. We also, you know, engage other Aboriginal businesses in our supply chain for our uniform, so you know, we're able to to to work in together with other Aboriginal businesses.
[Where do you see the relationship between Multhana and TMR going in the future?]
Look, I see the future with TMR and Malthana Property Services and other Indigenous businesses, I think it's a there's a a lot of projects that are happening, especially in South East Queensland, especially with a lot of the infrastructure projects. I think it's, you know, very beneficial that, you know, we get Traditional Owner groups and other, you know, Indigenous people from the community to be involved, um, and employed, you know. My, you know, my passion and desires to to look at, um you know, giving Indigenous opportunities for uh school leaves that are coming out of Year 12 and also the mature age workers. On some of our projects that we currently work on now we have a lot of single mothers that work on our projects, um and you know, they love cleaning so we we see it as a great opportunity to work with TMR.
[What advice would you give other First Nations businesses looking to contract with TMR?]
I think, you know, the advice I can actually give is that is to keep persistence. That's the main thing and I think it's about, you know, don't be afraid to take smaller jobs because you don't know what the smaller jobs can do to to larger work and I think it's about, you know, getting your workplace health and safety, you know, your systems in place and actually, you know, performing and actually delivering um what your requirements are on, especially government contracts and that. And I think that, you know um, these things do take time and it's about, you know, being there at the right time and, you know, applying your, you know, business principles. I think, you know the you know, the key to it is that to, you know, don't be afraid to to push out there and to network and you've got to be really out there in the community to showcase your um Indigenous businesses and the capacity and capability that you can do.
