The Problem of the Secret Watchdog
When a registered charity in Australia fails in its public duty, the body responsible for investigating them is the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC). However, the ACNC Act contains secrecy provisions that create a profound and troubling problem: the entire complaints process is conducted in complete secret.
A complainant receives no confirmation of an investigation, no updates, and no outcome. The process is a complete black hole.
This raises a fundamental question: If the watchdog's work is entirely invisible, how can the public be confident that it is doing its job at all?
Our Formal Complaint to the ACNC
Having previously lodged concerns about the systemic conflicts of interest in major charities, we have now taken the next logical step. We have lodged a formal complaint with the ACNC itself, challenging the very nature of this opaque system.
Our submission, sent today, asks the ACNC to justify a process that appears to have no public accountability mechanism. We posed several critical questions, but the core of our complaint is simple:
The Broader Fight for Transparency
This is more than just a complaint about one regulator. It is part of a broader fight for transparency and accountability across all the systems that are meant to protect the public.
A regulator whose primary function appears to be protecting the sector from scrutiny, rather than holding it accountable, is not a regulator at all. It is a shield for the status quo.
We do not yet know how the ACNC will respond to this direct challenge to its own processes. But we believe it is a question that must be asked.
We will provide further updates as they become available.