Members of the public have raised concerns about issues of coercive control in religious charities with the national charities regulator, a parliamentary inquiry examining cults and fringe organised groups has heard.

Appearing at the Victorian Legislative Assembly’s Legal and Social Issues Committee inquiry on Monday, Sue Woodward, the head of the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC), confirmed that the regulator had received “concerns” related to allegations about the treatment of people in religious charities.

“Over the almost 13 years that the ACNC has been in existence, we have certainly received those types of concerns and we’ve certainly acted on them – yes,” she said.

Asked whether such concerns included coercive control in high-control organisations, she replied: “… Yes, we have had … concerns raised with us that would fall into that category.” 

Ms Woodward also repeated the ACNC’s position, as stated in its submission to the inquiry in August, that exemptions provided to Basic Religious Charities (BRCs) under federal charities laws impacted its regulatory work.

Of 13,872 charities registered for the purpose of ‘advancing religion’, the 7,742 that self-identify as BRCs are exempt from the financial reporting requirements and Governance Standards that apply to all other charities.

“These limitations affect how we can apply our regulatory approach… But changes to our powers are, obviously, a matter for government,” she told the committee.

In its written submission, the ACNC also said that the “differences between the obligations” of BRCs and other charities “could impact … the public’s trust and confidence” in the charity sector.

As reported by the Rationalist Society of Australia in 2024, the ACNC told a Productivity Commission inquiry that “reduced transparency” of BRCs “may impact public trust and confidence in the charity sector” and “slows our reactive and proactive compliance work”.

On Monday, Ms Woodward told the Victorian inquiry that the ACNC recognised the importance of ensuring charitable status was not misused to “shield harmful and exploitative conduct”. 

The ACNC website states that “safeguarding” – protecting the welfare and human rights of people – is part of a charity’s “primary duty of care”.

Ms Woodward said that the ACNC could more easily take compliance action against charities found to have engaged in illegal activity, as any clear breach of state or federal laws gave the ACNC “something … to hang our hat on”.

“…if there is a law that says something is illegal of a certain level of severity, then that helps us in our regulatory approach because we’ve got something, if you like, to hang our hat on – as to say, ‘Well, that’s not good enough’,” she said.

“In terms of the detail of particular laws, obviously things that are crimes are pretty straight forward. Other things which are not so clear that are not currently the law mean that we find it more difficult. We’d have to be trying to find something else which would go perhaps to that broader Governance Standards around care and diligence and acting to protect people from harm.”

However, Ms Woodward also told the committee that charities with BRC status were exempt from complying with ACNC Governance Standards. Among the Governance Standards that apply to all other charities is the requirement to “act in a lawful way, and comply with Australian laws”.

Asked whether she had concerns about charities potentially being classed as ‘cults’, she said there was no clear definition of the word.

“So, again, we don’t impose our judgement on that. So if nothing per se illegal, and there’s no particular definition – but if we have concerns about … the health and safety and wellbeing of people in those organisations, and they’re raised with us, that is one of those risk factors that would be treated very seriously,” she said.

We are actively campaigning for coercive control laws to be extended to cover cults and high-demand groups. Follow our campaign here.

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Si Gladman is Executive Director of the Rationalist Society of Australia. He also hosts ‘The Secular Agenda’ podcast.