Sue Woodward AM commenced as Commissioner of the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC) on December 12, 2022. Previously she was Chief Adviser for Not-for-profit Law with the charity Justice Connect.

Sue was awarded a Member of the Order of Australia in 2021 for “significant service to the not-for-profit sector, fundraising and the law.”

Sue played an instrumental role in the formation of the ACNC, serving as the inaugural Director of Policy and Education during the early years of the Commission.

She has been involved with a number of leadership bodies including: the Victorian Government Volunteer Strategy Taskforce, the Victorian Government’s Social Services Regulator Taskforce and the National Strategy for Volunteering Council.

In pursuit of a stronger, more resilient sector, Sue also contributed to the governance of organisations in the sector, most recently sitting on the boards of the Victorian Council of Social Service (VCOSS), the Human Rights Law Centre and the Australian Communities Foundation, and previously SANE Australia.

As an academic at Melbourne Law School, she made a seminal contribution to reform of the regulation for the charity and not-for-profit sector with her 2004 research report: ‘A Better Framework: reforming the not-for-profit regulation’. Justice Connect’s Not-for-Profit Law service was established in 2008 based on her research recommendations.

Sue is also a staunch supporter of reducing unnecessary regulatory obligations on the sector. She has worked with an alliance of peak bodies and federal and state governments to make modernised and harmonised fundraising laws a priority.

To hear more from Sue, you can follow her on X @acncommissioner and on LinkedIn, and read her monthly Commissioner’s Columns.

You can also listen to Sue talk about her career in the charity sector and her vision for the ACNC in our Charity Chat podcast.

Photo credit – Kristoffer Paulsen