Podcast: Charity regulator on election watch for advocacy overreach

Posted on 11 Mar 2025

By Greg Thom, journalist, Institute of Community Directors Australia

The Australian Charities and Not-for profits Commission (ACNC) has refreshed its guidance on charitable advocacy ahead of the coming federal election.

In an interview on the Community Advocate podcast, ACNC commissioner Sue Woodward stressed that she supported charities' right to speak out during election campaigns.

“I think it’s important for charities to understand that they can advocate during a campaign in an election period and often it’s a very important tool,” she said.

“What they need to understand is where some of the guardrails are to make sure that they don’t stray into anything that could get them into difficulty with their eligibility to continue to be registered as a charity.”

In a recent appearance at Senate Estimates, Woodward revealed that the regulator received 500 concerns relating to charitable advocacy from members of the public during the 2022 federal election campaign.

Woodward said while she was not ACNC commissioner at the time, she was not surprised at the number.

“I probably wasn’t surprised that in a heightened period, you could get that number of complaints,” she said.

“Sometimes there will be lots of complaints about a particular charity for example so the number itself isn’t the best measure.”

Woodward said the 500 concerns raised with the regulator related to 39 charities.

“So, when you think that at that time there would have been about 60,000 registered charities, to have 39 queried about what they were doing, it's not a really high percentage but certainly one that we’d be looking at.”

Listen to the full interview with Sue Woodward below.