There have been some high- profile cases in the last few years about which the ACNC has been unable to publicly comment including Bella Gibson; RSL NSW; Greenpeace, due to issues of secrecy and privacy.
The ACNC Review at https://treasury.gov.au/publication/p2018-t318031 broadly identified three areas where the current secrecy provisions overly restrict the extent to which the ACNC can publicly disclose information about its regulatory activities. These areas include:
- reasons for registration decisions;
- information about new or ongoing investigations; and
- information about finalised investigations and resulting compliance action.
In practical terms this means that the ACNC is restricted in what it can publicise and it has been identified that sometimes information might be of broad educational value to others in the sector to help them identify governance failures and disqualifying behaviour such as political advocacy.
The ACNC Review recommended that ‘the Commissioner should be given a discretion to disclose information about regulatory activities (including investigations) when it is necessary to protect public trust and confidence in the sector’.
Commonwealth Treasury has released a consultation paper seeking feedback and views on a recommendation that the ACNC should be given a discretion to disclose information about its regulatory activities (including investigations) when it is necessary to protect public trust and confidence in the sector.
The paper can be found https://treasury.gov.au/consultation/c2021-190067
Submissions close Sunday 22nd August 2021.
If you would like to join with others in making a submission, please contact me.