The agency responsible for ensuring proper governance of Indigenous corporations under the federal Corporations (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander) Act 2006 (CATSI) has revealed 19 corporations did not lodge annual reports in 2025-26.
Most of the incidents related to corporations not providing annual reports over the past two financial years, although some were dated back much further.
Collectively, the 19 corporations were found guilty of 88 breaches of the CATSI Act by the Office of the Registrar of Indigenous Corporations (ORIC).
The federal agency convicted six corporations in the Northern Territory, which recorded the most breaches by jurisdiction, just ahead of five entities in breach across Western Australia.
Orders ORIC made against the corporations led to collectively more than $100,000 in fines, discharges, recognisances, good behaviour orders, and matters with no recorded monetary penalty.
Indigenous corporations were urged to check if any reports were due, which could be done in the public Register of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Corporations on the ORIC website.
A list of corporations with overdue reports for the 2023-24 and 2024-25 financial years was also available.
Under the Act a corporation may be deregistered or face penalties of up to $34,375 for corporations, and $6,875 for secretaries, for each report not lodged, depending on the timing and the circumstances of the offence.
There is no fee for lodging reports.
Director convicted over false reporting
Separately, one other prosecution led to the conviction of a director for knowingly lodging a false or misleading report to ORIC.
Wayne Fernando, formerly of Ellimatta Housing Aboriginal Corporation, received an 18-month community corrections order on October 14, 2025, for two counts of lodging false or misleading statements on behalf of EHAC.
Mr Fernando was automatically disqualified from being an officer of a corporation, which also prohibits offenders from being a director or manager of a corporation for five years from sentencing.
671 corporations to be deregistered
In May this year, ORIC registrar Tricia Stroud commenced deregistration of 671 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander corporations that failed to lodge reports for the two previous financial years.
This encompassed 25 medium-sized corporations, which no longer exist, while 646 small entities were issued a notice of intention to deregister them.
Ms Stroud said at the time corporations had two months to respond to notices and lodge overdue reports with ORIC, while if they failed to contact the agency at all, it would assume they no longer operated and deregister them.
"Where corporations are trying to do the right thing and meet their obligations, ORIC will assist them as far as possible," she said.
"But failing to lodge reports for multiple consecutive years demands action."
Other regulatory action
ORIC was also considering regulatory action for a further 122 corporations.
"Reporting is the foundation of transparency and accountability," Ms Stroud said.
"Failing to lodge reports deprives members and stakeholders - such as communities, creditors and government agencies - the ability to make informed decisions about a corporation."
Corporations deregistered in the past financial year no longer exist as legal entities, and are unable to trade, with notices posted on the public registrar on the ORIC website.
A full list of all ORIC prosecutions can be found online.
