As part of their standard reporting requirements Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander corporations now have greater flexibility to reflect what they actually do.
The Registrar of Indigenous Corporations, Ms Tricia Stroud, has today released an update to ORIC forms – online and hard copy – providing a more expansive list of activities for corporations to more accurately report against.
Early in 2020 ORIC consulted corporations about the categories used to describe what corporations do. (This list appears when you first register, and when you lodge a general report.) Most people said they preferred ORIC’s proposed new – much longer and more relevant – set of categories. Later that year ORIC followed up to refine the list by asking corporations to nominate their categories from that list. More than 200 corporations contributed to that review process. That work finally came to light today.
‘Our highest priority is to make it easier for corporations to interact with us and meet their legal obligations,’ said Ms Stroud. ‘Some aspects are set by the legislation, but there's a lot of scope to improve the system to better serve corporations.’
The industry list is how corporations publicly report which activities they undertake. There are many stakeholders interested in services offered by corporations. The Registrar uses the data for reporting, and to tailor industry-specific support and information.
'The old list was 15 years old and didn't reflect the emergence of new industries during that time; nor did it reflect the unique activities that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander corporations can be engaged in,' said Ms Stroud.
'New categories, including ‘native title, land and waters management’ and 'heritage and culture', have been added, while other categories have been split or their names amended. The revised list also includes sub-categories for the first time, which will give us a deeper understanding of the range of products and services these corporations provide across Australia.'
ORIC’s online lodgement portal assists corporations by pre-populating their general report with data from previous years. ORIC has automatically mapped old categories to new. As always, corporations are asked to review this pre-populated data as part of preparing their 2021–22 general report – which is due now.
Media contact
Lisa Hugg 0477 762 290
16 September 2022