Reference Hub · 18 April 2028
This series has referenced the ACNC Governance Standards constantly, connecting individual articles back to specific standards as the relevant discipline required. This article does something different: it puts all of them side by side, in one place, as the consolidated reference this series has not yet given them directly.
A Genuine Correction Worth Making Before Anything Else
Most governance commentary, including much of this series, refers to five Governance Standards. There are now six. A sixth standard, addressing participation in the National Redress Scheme for institutional child sexual abuse, was added following the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, and an accurate reference needs to include it. All six apply to every ACNC-registered charity except Basic Religious Charities, and even that exemption is partial: Basic Religious Charities are specifically excused from Standards 3, 4, and 5 only, not the full set.
The Foundational Principle Underpinning All Six
The Governance Standards are principles-based, not prescriptive rules with a single correct answer. Each charity must take reasonable steps to meet each standard, and what counts as reasonable depends on the charity's own size, activities, and risk profile. A large charity working with vulnerable beneficiaries is expected to take meaningfully more extensive steps than a small association with a low-risk membership base. Charities do not submit formal evidence of compliance to the ACNC routinely, but must be able to produce it if the regulator ever asks, which connects directly to the records retention discipline discussed earlier in this series.
Governance Standard 1: Purpose And Not-For-Profit Status
A charity must demonstrate it is established as a not-for-profit with a charitable purpose, that it is run as a not-for-profit working toward that purpose, and that it can share information about its charitable purpose with the public. This standard sits behind the constitutional discipline this series has returned to throughout, since an association's governing document is the primary evidence of its purpose and not-for-profit status.
Governance Standard 2: Accountability To Members
A charity must take reasonable steps to be accountable to its own members and give them genuine, adequate opportunity to raise concerns about how the charity is being run. This standard connects directly to the members register access discipline, the member complaints handling framework, and the voting rights and meeting procedure articles discussed throughout this series, all of which are, in substance, different practical expressions of this single underlying standard.
Governance Standard 3: Compliance With Australian Law
A charity must act in a lawful way and comply with Australian laws. This is deliberately the broadest of the six standards, and it is effectively the umbrella under which nearly every specific legal obligation this series has covered sits, from WHS and industrial manslaughter law to privacy, employment, and tax obligations. A breach of almost any other law this series has discussed can also constitute a breach of this specific standard.
Governance Standard 4: Suitability Of Responsible People
A charity must take reasonable steps to ensure it is not controlled by people who pose a risk to its financial position or its charitable work, specifically confirming its Responsible People are not disqualified from managing a corporation under the Corporations Act and have not been banned by the ACNC from holding a Responsible Person role within the past twelve months. This requires checking both the ACNC's and ASIC's disqualification registers, and for smaller charities, asking prospective Responsible People to confirm this directly, often through a signed declaration.
Governance Standard 5: Duties Of Responsible People
This is the standard this series has referenced most frequently, and it deserves its full, precise list stated in one place. A charity must take reasonable steps to ensure its Responsible People meet these duties: to act with reasonable care and diligence; to act honestly and in good faith in the charity's best interests and for its charitable purposes; not to misuse their position; not to misuse information gained through their position; to disclose conflicts of interest; to ensure the charity's financial affairs are managed responsibly; and not to allow the charity to operate while insolvent. An easily overlooked legal nuance sits inside how this standard actually works: unlike the Corporations Act, which imposes duties directly on individual directors, Governance Standard 5 places the obligation on the charity itself to take reasonable steps ensuring its Responsible People meet these duties. There is no direct statutory obligation on the individual under this specific standard the way there is under the Corporations Act. This places the proactive burden on the organisation, not solely on each director personally, to build the systems, induction, and oversight that make compliance likely.
Governance Standard 6: Responding To Institutional Child Abuse
A charity must take reasonable steps to become a participating non-government institution in the National Redress Scheme if it is, or is likely to be, identified as involved in the abuse of a person, either through a redress application or otherwise. This standard is newer and less frequently discussed than the others, but it carries serious weight for any association whose history, however distant, could connect it to this scheme, and it connects directly to the Working with Children Checks discipline discussed earlier in this series.
How To Actually Use This As A Reference, Not Just Read It Once
- Confirm which of the six standards apply to your association, remembering Basic Religious Charities are exempt only from Standards 3, 4, and 5, not all six.
- Treat the reasonable steps test as scaled to your association's actual size and risk profile, rather than assuming a single universal standard of evidence applies to every charity regardless of scale.
- Understand that Governance Standard 5's duties are owed by the charity's obligation to ensure compliance, not as a direct personal statutory duty under this specific standard, distinguishing it from Corporations Act director duties covered elsewhere in this series.
- Maintain genuine, retrievable evidence of compliance with each standard, connecting directly to the records retention discipline discussed earlier in this series, since the ACNC can request this evidence at any time.
- Revisit this consolidated view periodically alongside the ACNC's own self-evaluation tool, treating governance standards compliance as an ongoing discipline rather than a one-time confirmation.
The six Governance Standards are not six separate compliance exercises. They are six facets of the same underlying expectation, that a charity is what it says it is, run lawfully, accountable to its members, led by suitable people who take their duties seriously, and responsive to society's most serious protective obligations. Nearly every article in this series ultimately traces back to one or more of these six standards, and this is the map that shows how.
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— Annie