All corporations registered under the Corporations (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander) Act 2006 must lodge reports with the Registrar by 31 December each year unless exempted.
Read about reporting requirements on our website.
The Registrar expects Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander corporations to meet all their legislative obligations and in 2024 is focused on those that underpin accountability and transparency to members. Annual reporting in a timely manner is a fundamental form of accountability to members, community, and other stakeholders.
Our regulatory approach
The Registrar puts significant effort into providing information and reminders to corporations about their reporting obligations.
A corporation’s reporting status is always publicly available in its ‘corporation extract’ on the Register of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Corporations. When an annual reporting deadline passes, the Registrar sends corporations warnings and also publishes a consolidated list of corporations with overdue reports which also shows if those corporations are in the process of being deregistered.
Where a corporation continues to ignore their reporting obligations, referral for prosecution is an option.
We prioritise referral of corporations that are large or medium in size as they are most likely to carry greater responsibility and risk in terms of financial or service delivery on behalf of members.
Although we will also consider referrals of corporations that are small in size where they are in long-standing breach and cannot be deregistered.
Current prosecution activity
We have referred 29 corporations to the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions for failing to lodge their annual reports for one or more of the past 3 years. These are for breaches of sections 330-10 (General report to be lodged with Registrar) and 348-1 (Lodging annual reports with the Registrar).
Thirteen referrals have been filed in court and dates set for hearings.
So far in 2024, 3 prosecutions against corporations have been finalised. The prosecutions were conducted by the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions.
All corporations who have been prosecuted are listed in our prosecution outcomes.
How to prevent enforcement action
To avoid being deregistered or referred for prosecution, corporations should lodge overdue report(s) now or if the corporation is no longer operating, contact ORIC for support to close your corporation.
Tricia Stroud
Registrar of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Corporations
5 June 2024