Brindabella wind-up action set to be adjourned

The Australian Tax Office’s wind-up application against Brindabella Christian College is expected to be adjourned for a few months at a hearing due on Wednesday (26 March).

The Tax Office is pursuing the college proprietor Brindabella Christian Education Ltd for an $8 million debt accrued from its failure to submit employees’ pay-as-you-go tax payments, as well as interest.

The debt was revealed in a 2023 Administrative Appeals Tribunal hearing in which BCEL was appealing against a previous ruling in the AAT that it was not a “fit and proper person” to manage the school under the Australian Education Act 2013 following a Federal Education Department investigation.

In 2023, its tax debt was $5 million. A payment plan for the school had been created with the ATO on 19 January 2022 when the school’s debt was just over $3 million.

BCEL and the Lyneham-based private school are now in the hands of administrators from Deloitte, brought in by the board after the school could not pay some of its staff.

The administrators are now working constructively with the Tax Office and other creditors, including the school’s financier, NAB, the community, governments and other stakeholders.

They have held an initial creditors meeting, but a full list of people and entities owed money by the school is still not known.

A second meeting will be due about mid-April.

The administrators will seek to restructure the school’s debts, arrange payment plans, and keep the school running so it can ‘trade’ its way out of trouble.

Both the ACT and federal government are weighing regulatory action while the administration continues, both providing more time for the school to respond to their notices.

ACT Education Minister Yvette Berry said that last week the government had received a response to the show cause notice that proposed further action against the school.

She was considering that response, along with advice from the Registration Standards Advisory Board, before deciding whether or not to take any action, but she was not about to cancel the school’s registration.

“It would be inappropriate for me to provide further comment or to disclose any action while this process is underway. However, it is important to note the show cause notice does not contemplate cancelling the school’s registration,” Ms Berry said.

“I acknowledge this is an uncertain and distressing time for the college community and I will provide additional updates when I can do so without compromising the process.”

The Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission has also confirmed that it is investigating BCEL.

ACNC Commissioner Sue Woodward AM said the Commission had become aware that information about the investigation was now in the public domain.

“We have been working with other relevant regulators on this matter, including the Commonwealth and ACT Departments of Education,” Ms Woodward said.

The ACNC issued a ‘show cause’ notice to BCEL on 12 December 2024, which sets out details of the ACNC’s concerns. BCEL responded to the notice on 3 February 2025.

Ms Woodward said the Charity Register had been updated to reflect the appointment of the administrator, with the administrators now named as the charity’s ‘Responsible People’ for the purposes of the ACNC Act.

She said the ACNC could investigate concerns that a charity has breached the ACNC Act or the ACNC’s Governance Standards.

“Our regulatory approach is to act firmly where vulnerable people or significant charity assets are at risk, where there is evidence of serious mismanagement or misappropriation, or if there is a serious or deliberate breach of the ACNC Act or ACNC Governance Standards,” Ms Woodward said.

Brindabella Christian College has more than 1000 students enrolled, and it would be a major headache for the government if it were to close.

The school board, including its chair Greg Zwajgenberg, no longer have any say in the school’s operations.