Governance

The Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC) provides support and regulation in the charities and not-for-profit sector. It helps charities understand and meet their obligations through information, advice and guidance.

All charities must maintain registration with the ACNC and meet their governance standards to maintain charity status.

This particularly applies to their charity tax concessions (for example, income tax exemption, GST concessions, FBT concessions and deductible gift recipient status). See www.ato.gov.au/non-profit/getting-started/in-detail/types-of-charities/rules-and-tests-for-charity-tax-concessions-endorsement

You are required to have a login and password for your organisation. To ensure your obligations are met, please transfer this to the appropriate person in your parish or congregation as people move into and out of positions.

You will need to notify the ACNC of changes of responsible persons (for example, council members after each annual general meeting and changes to your constitution).

An Annual Information Statement must be lodged online (due within six months of your financial year-end). See the ACNC website for more information, the Annual Information Statement Guide and the online form at www.acnc.gov.au/for-charities/annual-information-statement

Only 'large' entities are required to submit their financial statements. Large entities are defined as those with income over $1,000,000.

For further assistance, contact your local District Office. See the ACNC portal at www.acnc.gov.au

External Conduct Standards

The ACNC also has four standards that apply to charities supporting overseas projects. These standards are a set of core, minimum standards that deal with how a charity is run and ensure that any support given reaches the people it is intended for. They require a charity to remain charitable, operate lawfully, and be run in an accountable and responsible way.

Congregations and parishes must ensure that the charities they support comply with these standards and keep appropriate records. LCA International Mission and Australian Lutheran World Service are compliant with these standards.

For more information on the standards, including an External Conduct Standards self-evaluation tool, see www.acnc.gov.au/for-charities/manage-your-charity/governance-hub/acnc-external-conduct-standards

NZCS (New Zealand)

If you are registered as a charitable trust in New Zealand, see the New Zealand Charities Services site for tax and other information. They will help you to understand and meet your obligations.

If a church is not registered with Charities Services, it will not have charitable status. The church will, therefore, not have tax-exempt status and could be liable for income tax, fringe benefit tax, resident withholding tax, etc.

All registered charities must complete annual reporting to the Charities Service. This includes filling out an annual return and attaching financial statements.

For information on registration, requirements and reporting standards for New Zealand charities, see the Charities Service website:

• www.charities.govt.nz
• www.charities.govt.nz/reporting-standards/about
• www.charities.govt.nz/im-a-registered-charity/running-your-charity/tax-information

The need to demonstrate God’s love is the foundation for how we deal with child protection in the LCA. LCA Professional Standards has been established to protect people while supporting the LCA’s church workers and volunteers.

Professional Standards assists congregations and other bodies to promote high standards of ethical behaviour and care for all – especially for children and others in vulnerable circumstances – by providing a comprehensive training program.

All church or parish council members must complete the relevant Safe Church Training and support your Safe Church Coordinator in ensuring that congregation and parish members have completed the training.

All church or parish council members must have a current Working with Children type check appropriate to your state or territory.

In 2021, the LCA Child Safety Standards for Congregations (Child Safety Standards) were introduced. These are based on the Australian National Principles for Child Safe Organisations. Implementation of these standards in all LCA congregations is now a mandatory requirement.

Congregations are required to complete a congregational Self-Assessment and then develop and implement a Child Safety Action Plan every three years. See the Child Safety Standards.

Relevant LCA policies

LCA Statement of Commitment to Child Safety

LCA Child Protection Policy 06.03 and the Child Protection Procedure 06.03–1, Prevention of Abuse by a Person of Concern Policy 06.01, Prevention of Harassment and Abuse Policy 06.05, Pastoral Care (Harassment and Abuse) Policy 06.02

Training

See the Professional Standards website for information on training opportunities.

Current child protection legislation can be found at https://aifs.gov.au/cfca/publications/australian-child-protection-legislation

Copyright is a church council responsibility; however, the management is conducted by an individual.

You can find a comprehensive Copyright: A Guide for Australian Congregations on the Worship Planning Page, which explains copyright and the obligations of congregations and parishes.

• The church council is responsible for compliance with copyright laws.
• The secretary’s role (or their delegate) is to report the use of copyrighted material.
• Any delegate (for example, worship committee or office manager/secretary) must inform the council of their reporting.

The best practice is to document the copyright process (which provides accountability and structure).

Employment legislation and industrial relations are complex and rapidly changing environments. Employment legislation and regulations exist to protect workers and employers. Whenever people are employed by an entity, the entity must meet the relevant legislative and regulatory requirements. Employees also have responsibilities that they must meet.

In Australia, National Employment Standards include but are not limited to:

• maximum weekly hours of work
• requests for flexible working arrangements
• parental leave and related entitlements
• annual leave
• personal/carer’s leave, compassionate leave and domestic violence leave
• community service leave
• long service leave
• public holidays
• jury duty
• notice of termination and redundancy
• pay provision of a Fair Work Information Statement.

Terms in awards, agreements and employment contracts cannot exclude or provide for an entitlement less than the National Employment Standards and those that do have no effect. An Australian employer must not contravene a provision of the National Employment Standard.

The National Employment Standards for employees can be found on the Fair Work Australia website.

The Fair Work Information Statement must be given to all new Australian employees.

LCA Church Worker Support is happy to assist you with any queries relating to church workers, from employment of lay workers to working with volunteers and support for your pastor.

New Zealand

The minimum employment rights and obligations are provided on the New Zealand Government website.

See the Churchworkers page for further information.

In Australia and New Zealand, food laws place responsibilities on charities and community organisations. You need to be aware of these responsibilities if you are organising an event or are an official of a charity or community organisation providing or selling food and drink.

For churches, this includes morning tea after church, community lunches, suppers, sausage sizzles and events catering.

If you understand your legal responsibilities, properly plan and prepare and in good time, complying with the law is straightforward. You need to handle, prepare and store food and drink in a way that best reduces the risk of others becoming sick from foodborne bacteria, germs and disease. Good food hygiene and handling principles aim to prevent food from becoming contaminated and causing food poisoning or illness.

The Australia New Zealand Food Standards Code standards are legislative instruments under the Legislation Act 2003. The authoritative versions of these standards are on the Australian Government Federal Register of Legislation or via www.foodstandards.gov.au/code/Pages/default.aspx

It is important to be aware of the local government regulations, requirements and approvals needed that are specific to your council area.

Check out your own state and territory local government site. Know who you need to contact if you have requests or queries.

New South Wales: www.olg.nsw.gov.au

New Zealand: www.lgnz.co.nz

Northern Territory: www.lgant.asn.au

Queensland: www.dlgrma.qld.gov.au/local-government

South Australia: www.lga.sa.gov.au

Tasmania: www.dpac.tas.gov.au/divisions/local_government

Victoria: www.localgovernment.vic.gov.au

Western Australia: www.dlgsc.wa.gov.au/local-government

In New Zealand, the Privacy Act controls how agencies collect, use, disclose, store and give access to personal information. Personal information is information about identifiable, living people. Almost every person or organisation that holds personal information is an agency. So, congregations and parishes are considered agencies.

In Australia, privacy law generally relates to the protection of an individual’s personal information. Personal information is information or an opinion about an identified individual or reasonably identifiable individual.

The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner provides information on 13 Australian Privacy Principles. These principles cover:

• open and transparent management of personal information
• anonymity and pseudonymity
• collection of solicited personal information
• dealing with unsolicited personal information
• notification of the collection of personal information
• use or disclosure of personal information
• direct marketing
• cross-border disclosure of personal information
• adoption, use or disclosure of government-related identifiers
• quality of personal information
• security of personal information
• access to personal information
• correction of personal information.

So, what does this mean for congregations?

You should not release personal information, including email addresses, home addresses and phone numbers, to third parties unless authorised by the owner. As a matter of policy, the LCA does not show home contact details or the names of people appearing in photographs without the individual's agreement. Contact the LCA Communications team for support and advice about gaining and recording the agreement to use photographs of individuals.

Congregations and parishes should familiarise themselves with the LCA 06.09 Privacy Policy, which can be found on the LCA website Policies page.

1. It is important to manage personal information in an open and transparent way.
2. Have a clearly expressed and up-to-date policy about the management of personal information.
3. Individuals must have the option of not identifying themselves.
4. A congregation must not collect personal or sensitive information unless it relates to the organisation's activities and the information relates solely to the organisation members or individuals who have regular contact with the organisation in connection with its activities.

The best practice is to review the Australian and New Zealand Privacy Principles to ensure that you meet the legal requirements.

Australia: www.oaic.gov.au/privacy/the-privacy-act

New Zealand: www.privacy.org.nz

Policies

SC09 Privacy Policy_3.0

SC09 Privacy_Guidelines 01_1.0
SC09 Privacy Guidelines – Photo Permission Adult
SC09 Privacy Guidelines – Photo Permission Child

Public liability is an important form of insurance that all church entities should have.

There are two main risks that churches can protect themselves against with public liability:

1. the risk of causing damage to another person’s property
2. the risk of causing injury or death to another person.

These are both very serious risks, and the legal system does allow people who have suffered such losses to sue the organisation responsible through the courts.

Public liability covers personal injury and property damage suffered by another party during church activities, including church-authorised external activities such as youth camps, fetes, excursions, etc.

This is not a general accident policy whereby anyone who injures themselves on your property can make a claim. Negligence on behalf of the insured, its employees or volunteers would need to be proven by the claimant.

When a non-Lutheran group uses your facilities, for example, a girl guides group, dancing group or sporting club, they must have their own public liability insurance. These groups must provide evidence of a current public liability policy of no less than $10,000,000. A notation must also be included in the documentation sent to users to cover this contingency. Users should be encouraged to endorse their liability policies to include your interests.

Hirer’s liability is provided by the public liability policy to individuals using your facilities for one-off events like a wedding or birthday party.

For more information or queries, please visit the LCA Insurance website.

For social media policies and procedures, visit the Social Media page.

Whistleblowers are people from inside organisations who report potential misconduct or breaches of the law. They play an important role in identifying and calling out misconduct and harm to consumers and the community. To encourage whistleblowers to come forward with their concerns and protect them when they do, the Corporations Act 2001 (Corporations Act) gives certain people legal rights and protections as whistleblowers.

Whistleblowers can find themselves in difficult and stressful circumstances and may risk their careers, reputations or personal safety. Concerns whistleblowers raise with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) are taken seriously.

The LCA is preparing a Whistleblower policy.

See the ASIC government website at
www.asic.gov.au/about-asic/asic-investigations-and-enforcement/whistleblowing/whistleblower-rights-and-protections

Australian and New Zealand government legislation considers every person who ‘works’ in your organisation to be a ‘worker’, whether they are paid employees or volunteers when at least one person is remunerated by the entity. There is also a duty of care to provide a safe and healthy environment for everyone who walks onto your property, through the doors of your buildings, or attends or participates in any event you organise.

You must understand your council’s legal status and responsibilities as a person conducting a business or undertaking (PCBU). The relevant workplace health and safety acts in Australia and New Zealand place the primary duty of care and various other duties and obligations on a PCBU. While churches may not be considered businesses, they are ‘undertakings’. They fall under the ‘not-for-profit organisation that engages and pays administrative staff’ category.

Workplace health and safety (WHS) should be an agenda item for every church council meeting.

It is important to be informed about WHS legislation and know where to find relevant, up-to-date information.

Find more detailed information under workplace health and safety on the Churchworkers page.

New Zealand

WorkSafe New Zealand is New Zealand's primary workplace health and safety regulator. Their website provides information on your responsibilities as the PCBU and information and resources that will assist you in providing a safe working environment for employees and volunteers: https://worksafe.govt.nz

The New Zealand Acts, Regulations and Standards are found on this website, as well as helpful guides and resources: https://worksafe.govt.nz/laws-and-regulations

Australia

The Safe Work Australia website provides information on your responsibilities in your role as the PCBU and the Workplace Health and Safety Act: www.safeworkaustralia.gov.au

It also provides a guide to the model WHS regulations: www.safeworkaustralia.gov.au/doc/guide-model-work-health-and-safety-regulations

The Australian Government Department Comcare administers the Commonwealth Work Health and Safety Act 2011 and Work Health and Safety Regulations 2011 and is the national regulator of work health and safety.

This site gives you access to the regulations and the codes of practice under the act: www.comcare.gov.au/scheme-legislation/whs-act

You must check your state or territory laws and regulations as these may vary. The Safe Work Australia site provides links to the state and territory sites.