An entity structure is the legal form that the representative body will take, this could be a private entity like a company or a government entity like a statutory authority. The evaluation process began by taking all possible entity legal structures and evaluating them against the Design Principles. This left three entity structures that fit best against the Design Principles, they were:
- Company limited by guarantee
- ORIC corporation
- State owned company
To support the analysis a rating system was devised using the definition of each Design Principle developed during the previous phase of consultations. This rating system is based on finding a poor, reasonable or good fit against the Design Principles. A good fit is shown in green, a reasonable fit in orange and a poor fit in red. The high level assessment using that rating assessment for the top three entity structures is shown below in Figures 3, 4 and 5. For the detailed rating system and analysis please see our main report for the Phase 2 Community Consultations.
A Treaty does not belong to an organisation it belongs to all of us. (Portland)
Of the three preferred models, the company limited by guarantee and the ORIC Corporation both rate highly against the Design Principles with the State owned company achieving a medium rating. One of the primary reasons for the medium rating for the State owned company is that the relevant Minister is still the ultimate shareholder of the entity limiting its independence.
Comparatively, the ORIC corporation measures strongly against the independent, inclusive representation, culturally based, transparent and skills based Design Principles. However, the ORIC Corporation is heavily regulated by ORIC – a statutory authority similar to ASIC but designed specifically for the regulation of Indigenous Corporations. The regulatory authority and control over an Indigenous Corporation that ORIC has is more extensive than that of ASIC’s powers under the Corporations Act. This limits the practicality of an Indigenous Corporation.
Finally, the Company Limited by Guarantee, much like the ORIC corporation measures strongly against the independent, practical, inclusive representation, unity, transparent and accountable and skills based Design Principles. However, comparatively to the ORIC corporation, a company limited
by guarantee does match up the better to the Design Principles overall due to it being more practical which supports the principle of unifying the Aboriginal Community. That is largely due to its flexibility in the way it can be designed, established and run to accommodate appropriate cultural governance
practices.
ORIC Corporation analysis
| Culturally based | Good fit |
| Independent | Good fit |
| Practical | Reasonable fit |
| Inclusive representation | Good fit |
| Unity | Reasonable fit |
| Skills based | Good fit |
| Transparent and accountable | Good fit |
| Clan based | Reasonable fit |
State owned company analysis
| Culturally based | Reasonable fit |
| Independent | Poor fit |
| Practical | Poor fit |
| Inclusive representation | Good fit |
| Unity | Good fit |
| Skills based | Reasonable fit |
| Transparent and accountable | Good fit |
| Clan based | Reasonable fit |
Company limited by guarantee analysis
| Culturally based | Reasonable fit |
| Independent | Good fit |
| Practical | Good fit |
| Inclusive representation | Good fit |
| Unity | Good fit |
| Skills based | Good fit |
| Transparent and accountable | Good fit |
| Clan based | Reasonable fit |
Updated