The ANAO on the ALC and AINT Annual Report delays: the case for radical transparency

 

To thine own self be true,

 And it must follow, as the night the day,

Thou canst not then be false to any man.

Hamlet, Act one, Scene three

 

Last week the ANAO released its Interim Report on Key Financial Controls of Major Entities (link here). In Chapter Five of the report, the ANAO provides for the first time an explanation of the delays in the finalisation and tabling of the Annual Reports of the Anindilyakwa Land Council (ALC) and Aboriginal Investment NT (AINT) and an associated Trust.

This Blog has covered these delays and the complete absence of any formal explanation in several previous posts (link here and link here). Given the technical details involved, before discussing the context and implications emerging form the explanations now provided, it is easiest if I reproduce an extract from the ANAO Report:

Anindilyakwa Land Council

5.3 The Anindilyakwa Land Council (ALC) was formed by the Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act 1976 (ALRA).

2024–25 audit results

5.4 The conclusion of the 2024–25 financial statements audit was delayed due to the impact of weaknesses in ALC’s financial statements preparation process and delays in receipt of supporting documentation. At the conclusion of the audit, one finding posing a significant business or financial risk and one minor finding remained unresolved

[Table 5.3 omitted]

Unresolved significant audit finding: Addressing previously reported governance findings

5.5 A significant audit finding that remained unresolved at the conclusion of the 2024–25 audit related to ALC’s progress in addressing 15 recommendations from the Auditor-General Report No.29 2022–23 Governance of the Anindilyakwa Land Council, which was tabled on 31 May 2023. The ANAO found that while the ALC had closed all high priority findings, five findings remained open, meaning the finding category remained unchanged for 2024–25.

 

Northern Territory Aboriginal Investment Corporation

5.6 The Northern Territory Aboriginal Investment Corporation (NTAIC) is a corporate commonwealth entity, established under section 65B of the Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act 1976.

2024–25 audit results

5.7 The conclusion of the 2024–25 financial statements audit was delayed due to the late notification to the ANAO of the preparation of separate financial statements for the Aboriginal Investment NT Trust. As the Auditor-General is required under the Auditor-General Act 1997 to audit subsidiary financial statements, additional audit work was required to enable reliance on the component auditor, which extended the audit timeline.

5.8 At the conclusion of the audit, one new other legislative finding was reported, and two minor audit findings remained unresolved.

Audit findings

[Table 5.4 omitted]

New moderate legislative finding: Key Management Personnel incorrect payments

5.9 A new other legislative finding relating to incorrect payments to key management personnel was raised at the conclusion of the 2024–25 audit. The ANAO found three instances of incorrect payments (two overpayments and one underpayment) to key management personnel, in breach of the remuneration tribunal determination.

 

Aboriginal Investment NT Trust

5.10 The Aboriginal Investment NT Trust (the Trust) was established on 19 December 2024 as an unlisted, unregistered managed investment trust and is wholly owned and controlled by the Northern Territory Aboriginal Investment Corporation (NTAIC), a corporate Commonwealth entity. The Trust was established to invest funds to provide exposure to a diversified portfolio of asset classes through investments in underlying funds.

2024–25 audit results

5.11 The conclusion of the 2024–25 financial statements audit was delayed due to the late provision of signed financial statements and late identification by the entity that the Auditor General is the mandated auditor. At the conclusion of the 2024–25 audit, one new moderate finding was identified.

Audit findings

[Table 5.5 omitted]

New moderate audit finding : Financial reporting omissions and audit arrangements

5.12 During the 2024–25 financial statements audits, the ANAO identified issues relating to the financial reporting and audit arrangements for the Trust. The Trust prepared and approved its first financial statements for the period ended 30 June 2025, which were audited by another auditor prior to engagement with the ANAO. The ANAO subsequently identified the existence of the Trust’s financial statements and that, as a subsidiary of a corporate Commonwealth entity, its financial statements fell within the Auditor-General’s audit mandate.

5.13 The originally issued financial statements did not include all disclosures required by Australian Accounting Standards. In particular, disclosures relating to the Trust’s parent entity, significant related party transactions with NTAIC—including the provision of funding of approximately $305 million and auditor remuneration—were not included. These disclosures are fundamental to users’ understanding of the Trust’s ownership structure, governance arrangements and use of public funds. The omission of this information resulted in a material misstatement of the originally issued financial statements.

5.14 The late identification of the Trust and its financial statements also affected the audit process. The ANAO was required to undertake audit procedures after the financial statements had been approved and an auditor’s report issued by another auditor, which limited the opportunity for timely audit planning and coordination with the audit of NTAIC and contributed to delays in completing both audits.

5.15 Following ANAO engagement with the Trust, the originally issued financial statements were withdrawn and replaced with revised financial statements that included the omitted disclosures. The ANAO completed the audit of the revised financial statements and issued an unmodified audit opinion, including an emphasis of matter drawing attention to the withdrawal and reissue of the financial statements. The matter highlights the importance of early identification of new subsidiary arrangements and timely engagement with the ANAO to support effective financial reporting and audit processes.

 

While the issues raised by the ANAO are not earth shattering in themselves, they do point to failures of process within both the ALC and AINT and, I would suggest, in the standards of ministerial decision-making and regulatory oversight being applied to the administration of entities established by the ALRA.

In relation to the ALC, it is difficult not to suspect that the ‘weaknesses in ALC’s financial statements preparation process and delays in receipt of supporting documentation’ identified as the reasons for the delays in finalising the audits and tabling the annual report were linked to the sudden termination of the former CEO Mr Hewitt. While the public narrative is that the ALC decided to unilaterally terminate Mr Hewitt’s services, the context surrounding the decision strongly suggests otherwise. As I documented previously (link here) ALC staff were excluded from the Council’s discussion and the only non-Council member present while the ALC considered the matter was a senior NIAA officer. Subsequently, the Minister lifted her unprecedented moratorium on approving a full year budget for the ALC and later approved (alone amongst the four NT Land Councils) a budget increase of around $2m for operational expenses over the ALC’s previous annual budget (link here). The Minister’s rationale for withholding budget approval in her media release of 29 August 2024 (link here) was that:

The full budget will only be considered when ALC has demonstrated to the NIAA that it is sufficiently prioritising and implementing the recommendations of the review and the ANAO audit.

Yet the ANAO now tell us that there are still (as of May 2026) five outstanding findings from the ANAO’s 2023 audit of the ALC.

My own hypothesis is that the Minister intervened directly in the ALC’s internal affairs to ensure that the former CEO was removed from his position (link here). Her agency had previously referred unspecified matters related to the management of the ALC for investigation by the National Anti-Corruption Commission. The Minister has never provided a full explanation for this referral. If my hypothesis is correct, then the administrative issues that caused the delay in the finalisation of the audit and the tabling of the annual report were the result, at least in part, of her actions.

The obvious avenue for sorting out these issues is in Senate Estimates Committee Hearings, yet for a range of reasons which I do not claim to fully comprehend, neither the Government, the Opposition nor the Greens and independents appear keen to ask the obvious questions nor even to have the ALC appear at Estimates Hearings. At the most recent Estimates Hearings, only three of the four NT Land Councils were listed on the agenda, the exception being the ALC, the only Land Council whose annual report had not been tabled in time or the previous hearings. As it transpired, the Committee decided to not take evidence from any of the NT Land Councils. In my view, the Senate Estimates processes have comprehensively failed to adequately oversight the performance failures of the ALC and the regulatory failures of the NIAA and its minister. For a related discussion, see this recent post on regulatory oversight (link here).

In relation to the AINT and its associated Trust, the failure to disclose over $300m in related party transactions, while perhaps merely an administrative error rather than an indication of misfeasance, should have set the alarm bells ringing. Again, the fact that the Minister has seen fit to provide no information or explanation for these problems, and that the Senate Estimates processes appear entirely disinterested in following them up, does not bode well for the maintenance of appropriate standards of administration and probity across the complex array of financial activities undertaken under the ALRA.

I recall sitting in a Senate Estimates hearing in the early 1980s when an Opposition Senator gained national headlines and almost brought down both the then Minister and his agenda of establishing ATSIC with unsubstantiated allegations that a ‘black mafia’ existed. Anyone who thinks that this might not happen again, and that the times are now different is, in my humble option, deeply mistaken.

In a context where the political opponents of land rights and Aboriginal aspirations more generally are gaining greater traction in political debate, the apparent Government strategy of sitting on their hands and hoping that issues of maladministration or mere incompetence will eventually evaporate is in my view deeply misguided. Obfuscation merely serves to deplete the waning levels of trust in government. The better strategy is to pursue policies of radical transparency complemented by the provision of explanations for government decisions. If governments and ministers are acting in the public interest, there is no reason not to provide explanations for their decisions. Good policy is good politics.

 

29 June 2026