Strengthening Impact: Boosting the Bottom Line.

‍Geoff Smith: Good morning, Treasurer, ministers, distinguished guests, and fellow sector leaders committed to purpose beyond profit. It is an honour to be here at the Speaker’s Green to celebrate the launch of Queensland’s inaugural social enterprise and impact investment roadmap.

I love the title - ‘Strengthening Impact - Boosting the Bottom Line.’ It recognises that social impact and financial success are not mutually exclusive; they can be two sides of the same coin. And our future can prosper on this understanding. I want to thank the Treasurer for prioritising social impact in such an overt way.

The Queensland Government has already demonstrated its commitment to social enterprises through its existing procurement practices. The government’s willingness to look beyond conventional supply chains and invest in social initiatives provides the bedrock upon which organisations like Australian Spatial Analytics have been built.

At Australian Spatial Analytics, or ASA as we call it, our purpose is simple. We address one glaring statistic - that 34% of autistic adults are unemployed in Australia. This problem is not due to a deficit of skill. It is a failure of system design. Unlike what a certain president has recently expressed, autism isn’t actually the problem - the employment system is. Autistic people being out of work long-term is a social problem of immense proportions that has ripple effects for our state.

However, for the optimists among us, this unemployment rate can reveal enormous opportunity – Australia could add $43 billion to its economy if the autistic unemployment rate were reduced by just one-third, from 34% to 23%. And considering NDIS supports for autistic people in Queensland total over two billion dollars a year for 65,000 participants, the employment issue isn’t getting any less important for our communities.

I've seen the employment barriers that autistic people face time and again. At ASA, we empower young, neurodivergent adults who possess potential. Many of our autistic team members possess exceptional pattern recognition, hyperfocus, and innovative lateral thinking. We train them on the job to become high-calibre data analysts in the complex, growing ‘big data’ fields in surveying and civil engineering. These skills are in high demand for Queensland’s growing digital economy needs.

Our job is to bridge the gap between unique autistic talent and the massive demand for data professionals. Our success is measured by the number of meaningful careers we have launched – over 250 since we began five years ago - and we’ve delivered more than $20 million in commercial projects to local customers.

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We are a team of doers, of problem-solvers, and of innovators. Our team designs the NBN rollout that provides your internet. We map the electricity infrastructure that powers your home. We even design digital twins of Brisbane’s airport buildings where you board the plane for that long-awaited trip.

There are many impactful stories at our social enterprise. One of my favourites is of Ben, who was out of work for six years before joining us. Within six months, he was a star performer, and six months after that, he was poached by a leading engineering consultancy based in Brisbane.

We’ve shown that with the right supportive environment, neurodivergence isn't a disability; it's a strength. Helping build the future STEM workforce, one person at a time. The ripple effect of this work is profound, not just for the fantastic people we employ but also for their families and the broader community.

We’re not talking about an insignificant group of people here. I’m sure there are many in the audience this morning who are either neurodivergent or have friends and relatives who are and are struggling. You are not alone, I assure you of that.

Now, I find the discourse around strengthening impact is often framed with front-end social service delivery in mind. Fair enough, but the biggest lever for change, the largest engine for inclusive job creation, is the supply chain. The Queensland Government, along with other organisations, actively partners with ASA (and that’s code for paying us money to do work you need done). This transforms your own supply chains into a source of social good.

We have the privilege of delivering critical data projects for the Government every day. For the Department of Environment, Tourism, Science and Innovation, our teams clean up National Park permit datasets that are vital to supporting conservation strategies. For the Department of Natural Resources and Mines, Manufacturing and Regional and Rural Development, our analysts conduct land tenure validation for Native Title claims. For the Department of Transport and Main Roads, we provide design and drafting services for road spray and seal projects.

We also work with government-owned corporations and statutory authorities, including Urban Utilities, Sunwater, Queensland Hydro and Powerlink. Our largest-ever project, mapping electricity assets for Energy Queensland, provided a career starting point for over 70 young, previously unemployed people across three years.

In every one of these projects, the Queensland Government is not just buying a timely service; they are turning procurement dollars into careers, self-belief, and economic independence for our neurodivergent team.

The most important part of this story is that this is not charity. It is simply good business. Our analysts deliver accurate results, and we’re local, so you can saunter over to our office and check our quality. ASA provides commercial reliability with social impact. This is the true meaning of ‘Boosting the Bottom Line’.

The roadmap gives every single person here, from every sector, a clear direction. It calls us to embed purpose into our economic decisions. I urge you to look at your own supply chain, regardless of your industry and ask yourself, how can you transform a necessary business expenditure into a life-changing opportunity?

From our perspective, this is the ideal time to launch this roadmap. We know that our autistic talent can help deliver Brisbane 2032 successfully – Queensland’s largest-ever infrastructure investment.

The Queensland Government has demonstrated that economic and social impact can co-occur. ASA shows that this can work. So let’s work together, following the direction of this roadmap, to ensure that the bottom line we boost is not just financial, but one that supports every Queenslander’s right to a meaningful career and a dignified life.

Thank you.