IRAAC is a charity, independently governed by its Board — here's how we run ourselves and report to funders and regulators.
IRAAC is governed by a Board, chaired by the Chairperson and supported by the Secretary, meeting regularly using a standard agenda, minutes, decisions and actions framework.
An annual independent Board evaluation process checks and improves IRAAC's governance every year, and Board Members, staff and community members all receive governance training relevant to their role.
IRAAC doesn't operate in isolation — it sits inside a wider network of government partners, regulators and community structures. Understanding how these fit together helps explain why IRAAC reports the way it does, and who it's ultimately accountable to.
OCHRE is the NSW Government's overarching policy framework for Aboriginal affairs, and Local Decision Making (LDM) is the specific part of that framework designed to give Aboriginal communities a stronger say in decisions that affect them. Rather than government deciding priorities on communities' behalf, LDM is meant to shift that decision‑making outward, through structures like Alliances and Assemblies, so that Aboriginal people set the agenda for their own communities.
Every other entity on this page — IRAAC included — sits somewhere inside this framework. It's the shared backdrop that explains why IRAAC reports the way it does, who it's accountable to, and why building strong governance and reporting capability matters so much: it's what lets IRAAC show, clearly, that it can be trusted with more local decision‑making authority over time.
Aboriginal Affairs NSW is the NSW Government agency responsible for Aboriginal affairs policy, and the government partner IRAAC ultimately reports up to. It holds Ministerial advice, funding assurance and compliance oversight responsibilities across the OCHRE and Local Decision Making framework, and works alongside Aboriginal Community Organisations like IRAAC rather than directing them day to day.
It's important to be clear about what this relationship is and isn't: Aboriginal Affairs NSW is IRAAC's government partner and one of its funders, not its owner. IRAAC remains an independent, community‑governed organisation that reports to Aboriginal Affairs NSW on how it uses public funding and what outcomes it delivers, in the same way any funded charity reports to government.
NCARA is a proposed statewide Aboriginal coordinating structure that has been discussed as a way of connecting Aboriginal Affairs NSW with the regional Alliances and Assemblies described below. The idea is coordination, shared learning and a stronger collective voice across the sector — not direct control over any individual organisation's funding or decisions.
NCARA's exact role is still being worked through, and IRAAC doesn't have a settled relationship with it yet. We've included it here for completeness, because it comes up often in sector‑wide conversations about how Local Decision Making could be organised in future — but it should be read as an idea under discussion, not an established part of how IRAAC currently operates.
Alliances and Assemblies are the regional structures through which Local Decision Making actually happens on the ground. Alliances are regional Aboriginal governance structures that support engagement, priority‑setting and planning across a region. Assemblies are community forums that support local participation, so that the priorities an Alliance takes forward genuinely reflect what community members themselves have said matters to them.
Together, they're the participatory architecture that gives Local Decision Making its meaning — the channel through which Aboriginal communities identify their own priorities, rather than having them set from Sydney or Canberra. IRAAC works alongside its regional Alliance and Assembly to make sure its own programs and priorities stay grounded in what community has actually said it needs.
ORIC is the national regulator for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander corporations, and it's one of two regulators IRAAC reports to as a registered Aboriginal Community Organisation. ORIC's focus is corporate governance and compliance — making sure organisations like IRAAC are run properly under the rules that apply to Indigenous corporations specifically, separately from the Local Decision Making relationship with Aboriginal Affairs NSW.
IRAAC's Board Members and staff receive training on ORIC's expectations as part of building the organisation's governance capability, and ORIC reporting sits alongside quarterly reports, annual reports and audits as one of the regular compliance obligations IRAAC keeps on top of.
ACNC is the federal regulator for Australian charities, and the second of the two regulators IRAAC reports to — this time covering IRAAC's obligations as a registered charity rather than as a corporation. Where ORIC looks at corporate compliance, ACNC looks at charitable purpose, governance standards and public accountability.
Because IRAAC needs to satisfy both regulators at once, its reporting calendar and governance training are built to cover ORIC and ACNC requirements together, rather than treating them as two separate, unrelated obligations. Meeting both consistently is one of the clearest, most concrete ways IRAAC can demonstrate good governance to funders.
Building all of the above into everyday practice — digital systems, board reporting, training, external reporting, financial procedures and on‑the‑job capability development — is ongoing work. IRAAC draws on external governance and capability advisors to help design and embed these systems, so that good governance becomes something the organisation runs day to day, not just something it demonstrates when a report is due.
Publicly appropriate reports and key policies will be listed here as they're confirmed for release.
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