Case study: Winnam Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders Corporation

WINNAM A WINNER IN SOCIAL SERVICE

It started 25 years ago on the back of a $100 donation. A group of concerned local Aboriginal volunteers got together to establish a corporation. The aim was to help provide affordable housing for the local community. A quarter of a century later, Winnam is a thriving concern with over $22 million in assets.

When a determination recognising native title is made by the Federal Court, the Native Title Act 1993 requires traditional owners to establish a corporation to represent them and their interests. These organisations are prescribed for the purposes of the native title determination and referred to as prescribed bodies corporate (PBCs). Once a determination is made and registered on the National Native Title Register the corporation then becomes a registered native title body corporate (RNTBC).

This section examines the various sources of income for corporations registered under the CATSI Act. Information gathered from audited financial statements submitted between 2007–08 and 2014–15 by the top 20 corporations is provided in table 6 and figure 25. The total income of individual corporations in the top 20 in 2014–15 ranged from $16.4 million to $88.9 million. As a combined group their income amounted to $586,488,630.

Each year, corporations registered under the CATSI Act are required to provide the details of directors in their general reports, including their age, name and title—for instance, Dr, Mr, Mrs, Ms. This report has relied on directors’ titles and first names, as reported in general reports, to identify gender.

General reports submitted to the Registrar since 2007–08 contain information on the number of full-time equivalent (FTE) employees of each corporation. [9]

Figure 19: Total number of employees at the top 500 corporations, 2007–08 to 2014–15

The top 500 corporations reported that in 2014–15 they had 11,095 FTE employees. This represents a decrease of 626 employees (5.3 per cent) when compared to the previous financial year (figure 19).

As part of annual reporting under the CATSI Act, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander corporations provide information on the sectors in which they operate.

Figure 16: Number of sectors in which the top 500 corporations operated, 2014–15

Note: Six corporations did not report any sector at all.

Some caution should be exercised when referencing profitability. The vast majority of the top 500 corporations are not-for-profit corporations so this report focuses largely on income. Profit or surplus cannot be taken as an accurate measure of the performance of a not-for-profit because the objective of such corporations is quite different. Their aim is not to generate profit or wealth but to use their resources to the maximum to further their not-for-profit purposes. The more income that a not-for-profit generates, the more resources it will devote to its not-for-profit purposes.

In this section ‘total assets’ refers to current and non-current assets combined, as reported by corporations. Also, ‘total equity’ is calculated as:

total equity = total assets – total liabilities.

Figure 6: Combined total income, total assets and total equity, 2004–05 to 2014–15

The total income, assets and equity of the top 500 corporations have consistently increased since 2004–05, except for a slight drop in income in 2009–10 (figure 6).

In this report ‘income’ refers to total income as reported in corporations’ audited financial statements or general reports. This may include self-generated income, government grants, philanthropic gifts and other income sources.

In 2014–15 the combined income of the top 500 corporations was $1.882 billion, an increase from $1.739 billion in 2013–14 (nominal increase of 8.2 per cent).

Figure 4: Changes in overall income of the top 500 corporations, 2004–05 to 2014–15