Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
(Presenter) If you work for a charity, you may have heard rumblings about a new government department in town
that's going to be regulating the not-for-profit sector Australia-wide.
You may be asking yourself;
Who are these people? And what will they want from me?
So, we'd like to introduce ourselves. We're the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission
and we'd like to have a go at answering some of the questions that you've been asking.
The ACNC was set up to make life easier for the thousands of organisations like yours
that do great work around the nation.
(David Locke) People set up charities because they want to do something positive in their community or because
they want to advance a cause or they want to change the world and we want them to spend
their time actually doing that rather than having to comply with reporting requirements
to us or to government
(Susan Pascoe) There's really quite strong, broad based support for
a charity regulator, but - and there's always a but - people are quite concerned at the
red tape, they're concerned that the ACNC be independent, they're concerned if there
are broad powers, heavily used.
And so we see it as quite important to engage on our regulatory approach and once the bill
is passed we will do that.
And there's a nervousness at what it might mean in terms of their own internal governance
practice and their data keeping for financial reporting, so we see a really important role
in getting information to them, but also in our own administrative requirements, only
asking for things that we absolutely need and then looking to the ways in which we can
use information more than once.
Australia's states and territories already have their own regulations, and you've voiced
concerns that the ACNC'll just create more hoops for you to jump through.
(Susan Pascoe) Well there's really a suite of initiatives that are under way. One that we've talked
about a little bit about already is the 'charity passport' and that brings in the promise
that the government's made to 'report once, use often', if you're a charity. In other
words, once you give your data to the ACNC, we will provide it across Commonwealth departments
and possibly, in time, across state and territory agencies as well.
So, for example, the information that you give us at the point of registration, and
the information you give us when you fill in your Annual Information Statement
which is a brief, two-page update, if you like, on your details, we use that information,
we electronically corral it, we can provide it instantaneously across government and there's
no need for departments to ask you separately for information on your finances,
on your governance arrangements, your details such as your contact details or your ABN, whatever.
Once we have it, they should get it from us.
So that's a very important first initiative.
Then in addition to that there's another initiative that's looking to map what currently
charities report to the various departments that they report to, if they're in receipt
of a grant or if they're contracting a service to government, and then we will put on the
table what the ACNC will be requiring. Where there's any duplication, one of them will go.
But at the same time we're going to look for red-tape reduction
that's the point at which you do it.
So we ought to be seeing some reduction out of that exercise, and that's going to happen
on a charity-type basis, in other words if it's a school or a hospital or whatever,
because it'll differ - there are statutory as well as administrative differences for the two
(Murray Baird) Most of the charities in Australia will have registered.
This is not a new thing. The ATO has been registering charities for over a decade.
And so we will simply take that register and that will form the basis of our register.
So, for most charities, they will already be registered
and on Day One, there'll be nothing to do.
They could decide to opt out later, but they've got time to think about that,
so certainly not a headache for existing charities.
It will be people who have a new mission, and want to create a new charity,
that will fill out a form - in a very similar way to what they had to do with the Australian Taxation Office
and the form will be online or there will be a paper alternative if people prefer,
and having filled out that form, that will cover all the information that we need
to determine whether they are a charity, and then we'll hand that form over
to the Australian Taxation Office to determine what tax concessions they'll be entitled to.
So I wouldn't imagine it'd be more than a two-Nurofen 'headache'.
And the benefits of having the ACNC there for the sector outweigh the drawbacks.
(David Locke) Our approach is very much not that we're going to be chasing people around with big sticks
We know that people are trying to do the right thing
and often the people who are running organisations
are doing it in their own time.
So our approach is to produce high quality education materials and information that clearly
explains what the requirements are and enables people to comply with those
and to run their charities successfully.
(Presenter) Another worry we've heard is about compliance, and that's one we can easily allay.
(David Locke) We expect that charities will make mistakes and that's OK
I mean our role is really to help boards and to help organisations to try and get it right.
So a lot of the emphasis that we will have is actually on giving advice and guidance and making it easy for people
to understand what they have to do, but if you make a mistake just contact us,
and our role will be to help sort it out.
(Presenter) We understand that Australia's third sector is very, very diverse,
and that charity law can be very complicated.
But don't ever hesitate to get in touch and ask us.
Call 1800 020 008 and ask for the ACNC, or catch us on email, Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn.