Gerard Community Council Aboriginal Corporation

The Hon. N.J. CENTOFANTI (Leader of the Opposition) (14:32): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking a question of the Minister for Aboriginal Affairs about the Gerard Community Council Aboriginal Corporation.

Leave granted.

The Hon. N.J. CENTOFANTI: Many members of the Gerard community have raised ongoing concerns with the opposition about the governance of the Gerard Community Council Aboriginal Corporation. It is my understanding that a Gerard community member wrote to the Minister for Aboriginal Affairs back in March of this year after a group of Gerard community members came together to express their concerns about the operating performance of the Gerard Community Council Aboriginal Corporation. In that correspondence the minister wrote, and I quote:

In response to their concerns, Aboriginal Affairs and Reconciliation (AAR) contacted ORIC (Office of the Registrar of Indigenous Corporations). ORIC confirmed that it is actively considering [the Gerard Community Council Aboriginal Corporation's] compliance with the CATSI Act, including its lack of general meetings. ORIC further advised that Gerard currently does not have the number of members required for a general meeting under its rules—it only has eight but needs at least 15. ORIC encouraged all eligible Gerard community members to apply to the [Gerard Community Council Aboriginal Corporation] to become members.

I further understand that a number of Gerard community members have applied to the Gerard Community Council Aboriginal Corporation to become members but have not heard back from the corporation. We are now in September and these members of the Gerard community still have no information or clarity around the investigation. Understandably, the community members of Gerard are frustrated that they still do not have any transparency and accountability over the investigation process. My questions to the minister are:

1. When is the expected completion date of the ORIC investigation?

2. When can members of the Gerard Community Council expect to hear from ORIC?

3. If the ORIC investigation determines that the Gerard Community Council Aboriginal Corporation is not compliant with the CATSI Act, what processes or actions will be implemented?

The Hon. K.J. MAHER (Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, Attorney-General, Minister for Industrial Relations and Public Sector) (14:34): I thank the honourable member for her question. I am happy to answer most of the question. Part of the answer, I think, is in the asking of the question, as the honourable member has stated it in the question itself. ORIC have indicated that they are considering matters to do with the Gerard Aboriginal communities corporation.

As is the case with quite a number of Aboriginal communities that are constituted on lands trust land, Gerard is constituted under federal legislation, the CATSI Act (Corporations (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander) Act), which has oversight of ORIC (Office of the Registrar of Indigenous Corporations). It is not constituted under state legislation, so it is that federal body that has oversight. It is not something that the state has direct regulatory oversight over. I know that if people are interested and keen to get an update, ORIC is the appropriate body to seek that clarity from.

I regularly meet with people from Aboriginal communities across the Riverland. The last time I was out at Gerard would have been earlier this year. We had a meeting that would have had a couple of dozen members of the community. I have been to Gerard a number of times, particularly during the flood event that we saw in the Riverland during the course of this term of parliament, where much of the lower lying areas of where the community was originally established as a mission were well under water but, thankfully, where the community is now, on a high point, was not under water.

In relation to what sanctions ORIC can impose, there are a wide range of sanctions that ORIC can impose in terms of supervision of corporations, right up to placing corporations in administration. That is not an unheard of thing. Certainly, there are native title bodies, prescribed body corporates under the Native Title Act that, by virtue of the native title legislation, have ORIC oversight that in recent years have been placed in administration in South Australia. So there are a range of options that ORIC as the regulator can impose, right up to putting an organisation into administration, which they have done on occasion in South Australia.