The organisation's current stated purpose is to "contribute to the development of young people in achieving their full physical, intellectual, emotional, social and spiritual potentials as individuals, as responsible citizens and as members of their local, national and international communities".

Its national executive committee sets policy and programs and coordinates its state and territory branches.

The national executive committee appoints the organisation's Chief Scout, currently David Hurley, the Governor-General of Australia.

The organisations position of Chief Scout of its Australian Capital Territory branch was allowed to lapse and has been left vacant.

Initially, each Australian state branch was directly responsible to the Imperial Headquarters of the Boy Scouts Association in London.

[21] In 1997, the organisation adopted the new trading name Scouts Australia, new logo, uniforms, and branding to be more appealing, but participation rates and numbers continued to decline.

More recently,[clarification needed] participants have come from many faiths, although the majority of Scout groups promote an interfaith approach to religion.

Option Two: On my honour, I promise To do my best, To be true to my spiritual beliefs, To contribute to my community and our world, To help other people, And to live by the Scout Law.

[38] In 2011, the institute added a number of the SIS10 qualifications to its scope, and changes are occurring in the individual state branches to allow Adventurous Activity Leader training to also lead to the Certificate IV in Outdoor Recreation.

[41][42] Awards for Gallantry are made by the Chief Scout of Australia for actions involving risk, for example for saving someone from a burning building to individual participants or groups.

Scouts Australia was called before the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse for its failures in handling complaints against its leaders.

In 2014, Darryl Rubiolo, a former Scout Association of Australia leader, publicity officer, leader trainer, St. George Area Commissioner and member of the New South Wales state branch council, was convicted of serial child sex offences against three boys aged 9, 13 and 14, between 1975 and 1987 while he was an official of the Scout Association of Australia.

[43][44] In 2012, Steven Larkins, a former leader in New South Wales, was imprisoned for offences he had committed 15 years earlier.

[45] In February 2000, Roderick Albert Joseph Corrie, a former NSW Branch Commissioner and scout leader of nearly thirty-two years was convicted of child sexual offences.

"Corrie, one of the most senior and highly decorated Scouts in NSW, was jailed for seven years in February 2000 after pleading guilty in the District Court to eight most serious of 77 charges of sexually abusing children as young as 11, including rape and buggery, occurring 1969–1995.

Two years earlier, Corrie had been convicted of eight charges of "aggravated indecent assault" and placed on a bond, given counselling and 70 hours of community service."

The head of Scouts Australia, "Dr. Bruce Munro, apologised to the families of those abused after The Sydney Morning Herald obtained a copy of a 14-page report written by a senior Scout leader in 1981 that detailed serious allegations of Corrie abusing four boys, one aged 12 at the time.

Munro admitted that those allegations were not properly investigated or referred to the police and that although Corrie was initially suspended, he was then simply allowed to transfer as a leader to a North Shore Scouting group.

Even after police began investigating Corrie in 1994, he was allowed to continue having contact with, and sexually abusing, scouts until at least May 1995.

"[46] Mark Geoffrey Fisher, the scoutmaster at 1st Hunters Hill troop in New South Wales from 1969 to 1988, pleaded guilty to charges of 35 sex offences involving eight boys aged between 11 and 15 between 1971 and 1988.

In 2017, former scout leader Chris Edmondson was convicted of the sexual abuse of three young boys between 1975 and 1978 in Warrandyte.

Former scout leader Kim Richard Harvey was jailed for the sexual abuse of 15 teenage boys in Melbourne's South Eastern suburbs between the years of 1974 and 1989.

Harvey's behaviour posed a uniquely disturbing pattern, whereby premeditated grooming was a natural part of his 'game', often plying his victims with alcohol, lollies, and pornography.

[47] Since then, Scouts Australia put child safety training and procedures in place to try to protect the children under their care.