Director

Setting up corporate governance

Good corporate governance processes and practices ensure the corporation achieves its purpose and objectives, and delivers the outcomes that the members and stakeholders expect.

What good governance looks like

When governance is set up well, these are some outcomes you can expect in your corporation.

Director records

Corporations must keep a record of directors and notify ORIC of any changes to these records within 28 days of finding out.

Running a directors' meeting

Learn how to run a directors' meeting, including having a quorum, selecting a chairperson, declaring conflicts of interest and what to do after the meeting.

The CATSI Act sets out the rules for meetings but there are some parts of the law that corporations can change in their rule book. Corporations need to set out in their rule book how often their directors' meetings will be held. We recommend that directors meet at least every 3 months. For corporations that are not very active, holding meetings less often may be appropriate.

Indigeneity requirement

For a corporation to be registered under the CATSI Act, the corporation must at all times be owned and controlled by Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander people.

What reports you need to lodge

If your corporation is required to lodge reports here's a quick tool to help you work out what reports you need to prepare and lodge.

Tool: Work out what reports your corporation needs to lodge this year

Step 1: What size is your corporation?

Small
Medium
Large

Reporting to other stakeholders

Your corporation may have reporting obligations with other regulators and stakeholders such as the examples below.

Charities

If your corporation is also registered as a charity with the Australian Charities and Not-for-Profits Commission (ACNC), you only need to lodge reports and changes to your corporation with ORIC.

We share your reports and updates with the ACNC. The ACNC will treat your corporation as meeting their requirements and update the ACNC register.

Creating a rule book

Read through steps on how to draft a rule book for a corporation.

Exemptions

There are certain parts of the CATSI Act that the Registrar can grant exemptions for. An exemption means that a corporation does not have to comply with that part of the Act.

Exemptions may:

be conditional
be for a short time
have no end date
cover a group of corporations.

Requesting an exemption is different to replaceable rules in a corporation’s rule book.

Types of rules

There are different types of rules for a corporation’s internal governance. There are rules that are set in the law and cannot be changed, can be replaced, can be changed and are specific to the corporation.