Treasury has published a draft legislative instrument and explanatory materials for changes to governance standard three in Regulation 45.15 of the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission Regulation 2013 which deals with compliance of charities with Australian laws.

UPDATE: The Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission Amendment (2021 Measures No. 2) Regulations 2021 which provided that registered entities must not engage in conduct that may be dealt with as a relevant kind of summary offence was disallowed on 25 November 2021.

The proposed amendments will include that, in addition to the current governance standard which prohibits committing an indictable offence , registered charities:

• must not engage in conduct that may be dealt with as a summary offence relating to real property, personal property or persons under an Australian law; and
• must take reasonable steps to ensure their resources are not used, nor continued to be used, to promote or support any entity to engage in unlawful activities prohibited under the standard.

The purpose of governance standard three is to give the public confidence that a registered charity is governed in a way that is sustainable and consistent with its purposes, and that it protects its assets, reputation, and the people it works with.

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