The combined income of the top 500 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander corporations for 2015–16 was $1.92 billion (compared to $1.88 billion in 2014–15, an increase of 1.9 per cent).
Corporations in the Northern Territory represent 34 per cent of the top 500 and earned 47.1 per cent of the combined total national income. The Northern Territory had the highest total income ($903 million) of all the states and territories, with an average of $5.31 million per corporation. It has maintained this lead since 2004–05.
The ten-year average annual growth rate of total income for corporations was 8.3 per cent.
In comparison to 2014–15 the average income of the top 500 corporations in 2015–16 increased from $3.76 million to $3.83 million.
The income of the highest ranked corporation in 2015–16 has grown by 7.5 per cent from 2014–15 (from $88,873,326 in 2014–15 to $95,536,455 in 2015–16). The income of the 500th ranking also increased, by 28.7 per cent (from $310,716 in 2014–15 to $399,960 in 2015–16).
The top 500 had 12,981 FTE employees. This is 1886 more employees than 2014–15 (a 17.0 per cent increase).
The combined value of assets held by the top 500 corporations was $2.404 billion (compared to $2.224 billion in 2014–15, an increase of 8.1 per cent).
Corporations in Western Australia generally and the Pilbara region have experienced another fall in average income. However their average income is still well above the national average.
The overall representation of women on boards of directors decreased slightly to 51.6 per cent (a decrease of 1.2 per cent from 2014–15). However, 80 per cent of boards have more than 30 per cent female representation.
Single-sector corporations dominate the top 500, 320 operated in one sector only (64.0 per cent).
The health and community services sector continued to be the largest with 202 (40.4 per cent) of the top 500 corporations operating in this sector.
Compared to last year 137 corporations improved their ranking in the top 500 and 291 decreased their ranking.
There were 59 new entries in the top 500 for 2015–16. Sixteen of these were transfers of existing entities from other legislation.
In 2015–16 the greatest source of revenue for the top 20 corporations came from self-generated income (46.5 per cent of total income). However, government funding to the top 20 increased by 5.0 per cent—from 39.3 per cent to 44.3 per cent.
For the top 20, income from other sources which includes mining royalties, native title compensation and distributions from trusts fell from a 17.4 per cent share in 2014–15 to 9.2 per cent in 2015–16.
As at 30 June 2016 there were 159 registered native title bodies corporate (RNTBCs), also known as prescribed bodies corporate (PBCs). Only 30 RNTBCs (18.8 per cent of all RNTBCs) appeared in the top 500.
The average income of RNTBCs that recorded an income greater than zero (55.3 per cent of RNTBCs) was $887,968. The remaining 44.7 per cent of RNTBCs had nil income or were not required to report (54 reported nil income, three were not required to report and 12 were granted exemptions).