Brindabella Christian College could lose funding for non-compliance

Senator David Pocock asked Education Department officials about whether the school had broken conditions it agreed to after the proprietors were found to be not fit and proper to operate a private school.

Assistant secretary of Schools Assurance Robyn Beutel said the school was non-compliant with some of the conditions imposed.

She said the department had taken "incremental action" against the school and only had two options left, which were to pause or cease funding.

"Where we're at now there are probably only two more options available to us so we need to make sure we take a balanced approach to it, because the two options available would be to pause funding or cease funding," Ms Beutel said.

Ms Beutel said she had written to Brindabella Christian College to remind the board they had not complied with some conditions and they had obligations to comply with the law.

"I have also written to the ACT Education Directorate as the territory regulator to inquire about what actions that they are taking with the legislation as well. So I'm working quite closely with the ACT on that," she said.

When asked whether the school had complied with obligations to pay staff superannuation entitlements on time, Ms Beutel referred to a Canberra Times report that the school was not up-to-date with super payments.

The charity which runs the school, Brindabella Christian Education Limited, was found to be not fit and proper to be an approved entity to operate a non-government school.

The school appealed this decision in the Administrative Appeals Tribunal in March 2023.

The hearing ended early and the school agreed to a raft of conditions relating to financial management and governance. Some of these conditions included:

The school was required to provide a report to the minister in writing, signed off by an independent auditor, on their progress with implementing all of the conditions. A report was due on the first day of the month of May, August and November 2023 and in February 2024.

Ms Beutel said the department had not received the report due on February 1 this year.

She said she did not have information to hand on whether the board structure was compliant with the conditions.

The current board members of the school include board chair Greg Zwajgenberg, Allan Davis, Alyn Doig, Flora Tan, Suzanne Power and John Clarke, the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission shows.

Ms Tan, who is married to a teacher at the school, was added to the board as a parent voice after the AAT hearings.

Ms Power is employed by the school as executive principal of connected education.

Mr Clarke is employed as the school's business manager.

Alyn Doig is also on the board of Life Unlimited Church, which owns the property where the Brindabella Christian College Charnwood campus is located.

The school racked up a tax debt of $4.8 million by the end of 2022 and agreed to pay it back in $130,000 instalments.

In an email to staff, the board chair blamed media commentary from the union and the ACT government about unpaid superannuation payments for "derailing" a refinancing deal that was going to go towards paying tax debts and fortnightly superannuation.