The Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission has suspended Dr Sharmila Chandran as a responsible person of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians until 20 September, escalating a boardroom crisis that has already drawn in workplace safety regulators. The decision means Chandran will not take the presidency and board chair role the college had planned for after its annual general meeting on 29 May.
The suspension lands on a college that represents more than 32,000 physicians across Australia and New Zealand in 33 specialties, and it follows months of internal conflict that turned public. The college’s board told members last August that it had passed a vote of no confidence in Chandran, accusing her of engaging in adversarial and disrespectful behaviour and contributing to a toxic culture at the board table.
The ACNC said Chandran had persisted in writing to RACP staff despite a prohibition notice issued by SafeWork NSW on 5 May directing board members to refrain from communicating with staff except through the chief executive. SafeWork NSW had warned that her alleged failure to comply was exposing staff to immediate and serious risks to their psychological health and safety. The commission said the behaviour was exposing RACP staff to immediate and serious risks to their psychological health and safety.
The move comes after the college was found in March to have contravened workplace health and safety laws. In March and April, board members asked the ACNC to dissolve the board, and earlier this month the commission met with the RACP board before telling the college it intended to investigate. Those steps underline how far the dispute has moved beyond a simple governance row and into a regulatory battle with real consequences for the college’s staff and leadership.
Chandran had been due to move from president-elect to president and board chair after the 29 May annual general meeting, but that transition is now blocked. The suspension also lands after an extraordinary general meeting last month that was so combustible police were called, and after outgoing president Prof Jennifer Martin was ousted five weeks early in an April vote run by Chandran. The result is a college leadership structure that remains under pressure, with the regulator now directly intervening in who can act for it and until when.
The immediate question is no longer whether the dispute will affect the college’s next leadership handover; it already has. What matters now is whether the ACNC’s investigation can restore enough order for the RACP to function normally again, or whether the conflict that split its board will keep dragging the institution deeper into crisis through September and beyond.
