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Noel Pearson, Director, Cape York Institute for Policy and Leadership asks "Why should private corporations engage with Indigenous people who have no money?"

Seemingly altruistic corporate responsibility can conceivably be in the self-interest of a major corporation such as a bank. In last year's Stakeholder Impact Report, Peter Kell of the Australian Consumers' Association contended that responsible banking – not exposing households to inappropriate risks – may be a relevant consideration in a strict business sense because it builds consumer trust.

But why would a corporation, operating in a merciless market, lead the way in terms of social responsibility when there is no customer relationship to nurture?

Part of the answer is that corporate people have strong social, humanitarian, cultural and political interests. There is no lack of constructive concern in corporate Australia for the plight of Indigenous people. The limiting factor for the private sector's involvement in Indigenous Australia is probably that many Indigenous regions have not been able to enter into meaningful partnerships with the private sector.

The sine qua non for partnerships between remote regions, government and the private sector is that Indigenous communities develop a strong leadership and a vision for the future. Where such leadership exists, the state and federal governments' crucial contributions to the partnership are legislative support and capital investment in reform.

Whilst businesses are not able to provide the capital necessary to assist welfare dependent people out of dependency, their time, expertise, advice, mentorship and contacts are indispensable resources for Indigenous people who have no experience and no networks.

Our vision in Cape York Peninsula is that our people will be integrated into the real economy, while retaining our distinct identity. We envisage that my people's land base will be secured, and that educated and successful Cape York people in the future will be able to "orbit" from their ancestral homelands to regional, interstate and overseas centres of growth and education.

However, for ancestral lands to become functional home bases, every one of the limited economic development opportunities must be seized, social order must be restored, and passive welfare defeated. The relatively few people who have strong entrepreneurial spirit and viable business ideas need to be supported – not subsidised – to develop their businesses.

In an Indigenous context "economic development" must be interpreted in a very wide sense. The great bulk of community people need to regain the skills and values that make an economically self-sufficient, functional society: budgeting, saving and prioritising of education. In those two areas – business development and innovation of groundbreaking welfare reform concepts such as Family Income Management (FIM) – our private sector partners are better suited to advise us than governments.

This year the Cape York reform process is taking giant strides. A key aspect of our reform agenda is that welfare payments are made conditional. During a trial period, community-based statutory bodies will have the authority to refer welfare recipients who struggle to meet normal responsibilities such as parental duties to income management.

Such revolutionary change requires government funding and new legislation. But the reforms build on FIM and other programs that could only have been developed with the aid of our private partners.

I asked initially what profit-driven organisations have to gain from getting involved in the intractable problems of remote Indigenous Australia. In the words of one of the people who came to us on a Westpac fellowship: "Throughout the Cape they know that the Westpac fellas are there to help". Surely this is the best reputation a bank could aspire to.

Noel Pearson is the Director of the Cape York Institute for Policy and Leadership, a body that drives new public policy directions on Indigenous issues.

*this Talkback is reproduced from Westpac's 2007 Stakeholder Impact Report