2024-2025: A Year of Growth and Resilience

First Nations Economics is proud to release our 2024/25 Annual Report — our first as a national Aboriginal-led organisation shaping economic reform across Australia.

This report captures a year of growth, resilience and increasing influence. In 2024/25, we strengthened our role as trusted advisors to government, partners to community-controlled organisations, and advocates for structural economic reform grounded in self-determination.

This report reflects more than activity; it demonstrates how Aboriginal-led economic expertise can shape systems, influence decision-making and strengthen long-term outcomes for First Nations communities.

As we look ahead to 2025–2030, our focus remains clear: investing in community futures, amplifying change through social impact, and embedding First Nations culture and leadership across all that we do.

We thank our partners, scholars, communities and supporters who walked alongside us throughout this year.

Download the full Annual Report here

Gurminder Saro

Interim Chair

Associate Professor Rick Macourt is a proud, queer Gumbaynggirr man, lawyer, and economic specialist. He leads First Nations Economics as Managing Director of Strategy and Foundation and serves as Associate Dean of First Nations Strategy and Services at the University of Sydney.

With over 15 years of experience spanning government, corporate, and not-for-profit sectors, Rick is deeply committed to advancing the economic development of First Peoples. As the former Director of First Nations Expenditure and Outcomes at NSW Treasury, he spearheaded the state’s inaugural Indigenous expenditure reporting processes and established the groundbreaking First Nations budget process in 2021/22. Previously, Rick held an executive role at the Westpac Group, overseeing First Nations affairs, and has a rich history in government, monitoring, evaluation, and negotiation, with senior positions at the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, City of Sydney, and Standards Australia.

Rick is a published author with Oxford University Press, a member of the First Nations Advisory Board of Siemens Australia, and a Non-Executive Director on the board of Barnardos Australia.