The State of LGBTIQA+ Business in Australia
A national research report on LGBTIQA+ business ownership and its place in Australia’s purchasing systems. Published free by Just Gold through its impact program, with research review and intersectional analysis from the Aurum Foundation.
Just launched. We have published the research framework and opened expressions of interest for the LGBTIQA+ Advisory Board. The board does not exist yet. The people appointed will co design the research with us before it begins in March 2027. No findings have been published.
What it is
The State of LGBTIQA+ Business in Australia is the main research project of Pride in Business. The research begins in March 2027, after the advisory board has co designed the method.
What it asks
Four questions without an Australian answer.
How many LGBTIQA+ owned businesses are there?
And what can be said about them from the data that exists? The 2026 Census will, for the first time, let owner managers be described by sexual orientation and gender when results land in 2027, but it counts people, not enterprises. The report will set out what that data can and cannot establish and present any estimate of enterprise numbers as a range with its method shown.
Do Australia’s major buyers recognise LGBTIQA+ ownership as a supplier diversity category?
This is the central question. The report will scan the published supplier diversity and social procurement policies of the ASX 50 and the major Commonwealth and state purchasing agencies, one document at a time, recording whether LGBTIQA+ ownership is named, what evidence is accepted, and whether anything suggests the category is used. It will distinguish silence from exclusion, and recognition on paper from purchasing in practice.
How does Australia compare?
The United States and Canada have certified LGBTIQA+ owned businesses for years and place them inside national supplier diversity systems alongside Indigenous, women owned and minority owned business. Australia has no equivalent. It has a Commonwealth policy with targets for Indigenous business, certification for social enterprises and women owned businesses with far less policy behind it, and no certifier for LGBTIQA+ owned business. The report will set out what the overseas models do, what they cost, what they ask of owners, and what does not transfer.
What do owners and buyers say?
Fifteen to twenty interviews with LGBTIQA+ business owners and five to eight with procurement and supplier diversity leads, on why LGBTIQA+ owned businesses do not appear in supply chains and what would have to exist for that to change.
What it does
It is designed to replace assumption with evidence on a question that has been argued about without data, and to give procurement officers, policy staff and journalists a sourced reference they can cite. It gives LGBTIQA+ business owners an honest account of where they stand in systems built for other groups. And it establishes the evidence base for whatever the sector decides should exist next, without Just Gold announcing that decision for it.
What it is not
Not a count of businesses that pretends to a precision the data cannot support. Not a ranking of employers. Not a case for a certification body. If the evidence points there, the report says so and lets the sector draw the conclusion.
How the research is done
Roughly seventy per cent desk research and thirty per cent interviews, over six to eight weeks of work for the procurement scan, the comparison and the interviews. The ownership analysis depends on 2026 Census releases, with employment and income data due in October 2027, so it will be completed after that release. The report will be published with a full method page and a standing data page that is updated annually. The research framework sets out the draft method.
The Aurum Foundation will contribute research review and intersectional analysis, examining the research design and interpretation, including how experiences may differ across cultural background, disability, gender, age and location. Just Gold and the Aurum Foundation share a founder, so this is a related party review arrangement, not independent peer review.
Timetable
- October 2026
- Research framework published. Advisory board expressions of interest open.
- 6 December 2026
- Expressions of interest close.
- Early 2027
- Advisory board appointed and the method co designed.
- March 2027
- Research begins.
- June 2027
- First 2026 Census results due.
- Publication
- To be set with the advisory board once the method is agreed.
Taking part
We will interview LGBTIQA+ business owners and people responsible for procurement or supplier diversity. Participant information and a secure contact process will be published here before recruitment opens. A subscription to The Briefing and consent to take part in the research are separate decisions. To hear when recruitment opens without telling us anything about yourself, subscribe to The Briefing.
Procurement and supplier diversity leads: if you would like your organisation’s published policy considered in the scan, email the link to [email protected].
