The national charities regulator needs enforcement powers to take action against charities that “step over the line”, especially during election campaign periods, the Rationalist Society of Australia has told a parliamentary inquiry.

In a submission to the Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters’ inquiry into the 2025 federal election, the RSA raised concerns about the alleged election activities of religious charities with charitable status for ‘advancing religion’. 

The submission noted that such activities of concern during the 2025 federal election involved Catholic education authorities and the Plymouth Brethren Church, formerly known as the Exclusive Brethren, and were reported widely by the media during the election period.

The RSA’s submission said that the alleged conduct and widespread reporting of it had “further undermined public trust and confidence in the charities system, especially relating to religious charities”.

Read submission 238 here on the committee’s website

While the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC) reminded charities of their obligations not to engage in a “disqualifying purpose” – including “promoting or opposing a political party or a candidate for political office” – the RSA’s submission said there appeared to have been little consequence for charities alleged to have been involved in such conduct.

“We urge the parliament to ensure that the charities regulator has sufficient enforcement powers to take appropriate compliance action when there is sufficient evidence of charities stepping over the line, especially during election campaign periods. Australians expect that the ACNC will also demonstrate a willingness to exercise such powers,” it said.

The submission also argued that the cases outlined in the submission highlighted the need for parliament to modernise the charities system and remove ‘advancing religion’ as a charitable purpose.

“Charity status should be afforded to all organisations that conduct genuine charitable works for the public benefit and in an accountable manner, regardless of whether they have a religious affiliation,” it said.

“If the ‘advancing religion’ purpose were removed, a sufficiently robust public benefit test would ensure that religious charities that do genuine work in the public benefit – of which there would be many – would continue to qualify for charity status under another charitable purpose, such as ‘advancing education’, ‘advancing health’ and ‘advancing social welfare’.”

The Rationalist Society of Australia is actively campaigning for reform of the charities sector. Follow our campaign updates here.

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

Image: Australian Electoral Commission (Flickr)