Registered native title bodies corporate

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 known as registered native title bodies corporate (RNTBCs). They are most commonly known as prescribed bodies corporate (PBCs). An RNTBC has prescribed functions under the Native Title Act 1993 to:

• hold, protect and manage determined native title in accordance with the objectives of the native title holding group
• ensure certainty for governments and other parties interested in accessing or regulating native title land and waters by providing a legal entity to manage and conduct the affairs of the native title holders.[1]

All RNTBCs must be incorporated under the CATSI Act.

In recent years there has been a rapid increase in the number of native title determinations and RNTBCs incorporated under the CATSI Act (figure 26).

Figure 26: RNTBC registrations

Note: Some corporations are determined as PBCs for multiple native title determinations. The date of registration as an RNTBC is taken as the date the native title determination took effect and the corporation was first determined to be a PBC. This information is registered on the National Native Title Register.

RNTBCs in the top 500 corporations

This section of the report compares the 159 RNTBCs registered as at 30 June 2016 (including those outside the top 500) with the top 500 corporations for the 2015–16 reporting period.
Thirty RNTBCs appear in the top 500 for 2015–16 (figure 27); one more than in the 2014–15 report.

Figure 27: RNTBCs in the top 500 corporations, 2015–16

Note: Based on RNTBCs registered as at 30 June 2016.

Income of RNTBCs

In 2015–16 the combined income of all 159 RNTBCs was $78.1 million, which is a drop of 30.2 per cent from 2014–15 ($112.0 million). In 2014–15 several RNTBCs received large sums reported as payments for native title compensation or Indigenous land use agreements.

Of the 159 RNTBCs, 55.3 per cent (88 RNTBCs) reported an income greater than zero for 2015–16. This is a small increase from 2014–15 when 54.2 per cent (78 of 144 RNTBCs) reported an income greater than zero.

The remaining 44.7 per cent of RNTBCs reported nil income, were exempted from reporting, or failed to report in 2015–16 (54 reported nil income, three were not required to report, 12 were granted exemptions and two failed to report). The Registrar has granted many exemptions from reporting requirements in an effort to reduce the reporting burden for small corporations whose sole purpose is land holding—that is, they have no other activity or income. These corporations are required to report on a three-year cycle rather than every year. For many RNTBCs with this type of exemption their most recent reporting year was 2014–15. Of the corporations that lodged a report that year, all reported an income of zero.

Table 7: Comparison of total and average income for the top 500 corporations vs all RNTBCs by state/territory, 2015–16

The average income for RNTBCs that did report an income in 2015–16 was $887,968 (table 7). This is a significant decrease on the average in 2014–15, which was $1,436,136. As mentioned earlier, in 2014–15 there were a range of significant one-off payments in the sector.

Table 8: Income and assets of RNTBCs ranked highest and lowest, 2015–16

* The values shown for assets are for the actual corporations ranked highest and lowest by their income. The values do not represent the highest and lowest asset values overall.

Table 8 shows the 2015–16 income and assets of RNTBCs with the highest income and lowest income greater than zero.

The rank and income of the highest ranking RNTBC has decreased significantly since last year, and returned to a ranking and income more closely aligned to the year prior (2013–14).

• In 2014–15 the highest ranked RNTBC appeared at position 8, with an income of $26,334,775 and assets of $108,143,299.
• In 2013–14 the highest ranked RNTBC appeared at position 44, with an income of $8,453,248 and assets of $13,943,193.

Figure 28: Total combined income for the top 500 corporations and all RNTBCs by state/territory, 2015–16

There does not appear to be any direct relationship between the number of RNTBCs, their combined income by state/territory or the combined income of top 500 corporations by state/territory (figure 28). This was the same for assets (table 9 and figure 29).

Figure 29: Total combined assets for the top 500 and RNTBCs by state/territory, 2015–16

As was the case for combined income (figure 28), there does not appear to be any direct relationship by state/territory between total combined assets of corporations in the top 500 compared with RNTBCs (figure 29).

Table 9: Total assets for the top 500 corporations and all RNTBCs by state/territory, 2015–16

Note: Average assets excludes the 73 RNTBCs that either have nil assets, were not required to report or failed to report for 2015–16.

Employees of RNTBCs

Table 10: Total employees for the top 500 corporations and all RNTBCs by state/territory, 2015–16

Table 10 shows that in 2015–16, 46 RNTBCs had a total of 291 FTE employees. This is nine more employer-RNTBCs with 18 more FTE employees than in 2014–15. There were 113 RNTBCs with no employees (or not required to report).

A total of 19 corporations in the top 500 reported nil employees, and a further 15 corporations did not report a figure for employees.

Figure 30: Percentage share of employees at RNTBCs by state/territory, 2015–16

Figure 30 shows that in 2015–16 almost half (46.4 per cent) of all FTE employees of RNTBCs were employed by RNTBCs in Western Australia. The next biggest shares were in Queensland with 26.1 per cent and Victoria with 16.8 per cent.

Employment in RNTBCs by state and territory is very different to employment by state for the top 500 (figure 20). For example, in the top 500 the Northern Territory employed the most (44.1 per cent), whereas RNTBCs in the Northern Territory employed only 3.4 per cent of FTE employees.

Gender of directors in RNTBCs

In 2015–16 a total of 1334 people filled directors’ roles in RNTBCs. The average number of directors at RNTBCs was 8.5, which was slightly higher than all corporations in the top 500 (8.2 directors per corporation).

The smallest board comprised three directors and the largest had 25 directors.

Figure 31: Gender of directors for RNTBCs, 2015–16

Excluding directors whose gender was not specified—the gender of 10 directors (0.7 per cent) could not be ascertained due to the corporation not reporting a title and the gender ambiguity of the first name—the breakdown of male and female directorships of RNTBCs was 56.6 per cent male and 43.4 per cent female (figure 31).

This breakdown is the reverse of female representation in the top 500 corporations (figure 25)—more men than women hold director positions in RNTBCs.

This year, there was one board comprising all female directors and nine boards with all male directors. Of these, two boards (both with all male directors) were represented in the top 500.

There was one RNTBC in the top 500 with no directors, since this corporation was under special administration at the time of reporting.

Notes

1. Background information on RNTBCs sourced from Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies’ (AIATSIS') website on native title.