A mandatory social media review of non-profit organisations registered by a federal commission could present a “significant extra burden” for the regulator, its boss has warned, after the proposal was put to her at the antisemitism royal commission.
Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC) commissioner Susan Woodward warned that the regular monitoring of social media accounts linked to the 66,000 non-profits certified by the commission could impose an “unnecessary burden”, despite acknowledging its virtues as a “free and possibly simple thing”.
“Social media works very fast, as I’m sure you appreciate,” Woodward told the commission.
“When you also combine that with consistently over the last 14 years, we’ve seen that about half of all registered charities are entirely volunteers, and you put that sort of extra layer on, it can be considered quite a significant extra burden.”
The proposal was put to Woodward by Nicholas Bender, SC, who is acting as counsel for a coalition of Jewish communal bodies.
Woodward told the hearing there was a 17 per cent rise in the number of registered charities under the regulator in the 10 years after June 2015.