AICD submission on charity secrecy reform – deregistration and finalised investigations

On 2 October 2026, the AICD made a short submission to Treasury's consultation on the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission Amendment (Disclosure of Revocation Summaries and Recognised Assessment Activity Summaries) Regulations 2026 (the Regulations).

The policy positions in this submission were informed by our 2021 and 2023 submissions on changes to the ACNC secrecy provisions under the ACNC Act and engagement with members of the AICD NFP Chairs’ Forum.

The AICD provided in-principle support for the Regulations. Limited transparency on ACNC Commissioner decisions on charity registration has been a long-standing identified issue in how the charity sector has been regulated, including in the 2018 ACNC Review.

While we broadly supported the publication of detail on ACNC decision-making, the administration and implementation of these new powers should not prejudice a charity’s access to natural justice. Further, in respect of investigations the ACNC should exercise caution in disclosure practices given the potential for public awareness to pose serious long term reputation risks with resulting impacts on the viability of the charity prior to the conclusion of the investigation.

The AICD made the following recommendations on the Regulations and Explanatory Statement:

• Information regarding revocation of a registered entity’s registration: We recommended updating Page 4 of the Explanatory Statement to specify that the revocation summary should state why the entity was not entitled to registration and why the Commissioner thought revocation to be the appropriate response, rather than may. We also recommended the Commissioner should publish a response from the entity where the entity has provided one, rather be expected to. This level of detail would be consistent with how other Commonwealth regulators document decision-making, notably the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s public registers obligations.

• Notification of decision relating to including information on the Register: We recommended extending the minimum timeframe of 14 days under section 40.12 (3)(a) of the Regulations that the Commissioner must give a registered entity written notice of a decision to include information on the Register or to not remove information from the Register after a removal request has been made. We recommended this timeframe is at least 21 calendar days which recognises that many charities, particularly smaller charities that rely heavily on volunteers, will have challenges responding in a fulsome manner in such a short timeframe. An alternative could be to provide a longer timeframe for small registered entities (i.e. 28 days) with a short timeframe for medium and large registered entities.

• Commissioner’s Interpretation Statement (CIS): We recommended the ACNC develop a CIS informed by comprehensive consultation on how the new Regulations will be applied in practice, including providing de-identified examples. For example, the Explanatory Statement highlights that there are no conditions attached to publishing summaries of revocations so guidance in a CIS would provide clarity on the decision-making process that the Commissioner will apply. This should cover the level of detail contained within disclosures, treatment of notice and review of decisions, and relevant timeframes.