Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission: Draft Legislation Criticised

The proceedings of the federal parliamentary committee reviewing the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission draft legislation in Canberra this last week has heard criticism of it from interested parties according to recent media reports.

By way of background the draft Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission Bill 2012 and the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (Consequential and Transitional) Bill 2012 (the ACNC Bills) propose to establish a Commission that will determine charitable status, including “public benevolent institution status”, for all Commonwealth purposes. The Commission will also provide education and support to the Charities/Not for Profit (NFP) sector and administer a regulatory and reporting framework.

Recently on (5 July 2012), the Assistant Treasurer announced the referral of two exposure drafts for the ACNC to the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Economics for review over the Parliamentary winter break. The legislation flows from Government 2011-12 Budget announcements that it would establish the ACNC.

In the past week the draft reforms have been criticised by the groups which they affect as being unclear and needing more discussion.  Another criticism has been that many charities and NFP organisations are already incorporated and covered by existing legislation, namely,  the corporations law and its regulatory ASIC.

The Federal opposition has attacked the reforms saying the proposed legislation to set up Australia’s first charity regulator fails to simplify or ease the regulatory burden on NFP.

Read more on the

• proposed legislation 

• review criticism 

• oppositions response

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