Submission to the Consultation Paper: Review of Not-for-Profit Governance Arrangements, December 2011

This submission responds to the December 2011 consultation paper on not-for-profit (NFP) governance arrangements, which sought views on the governance standards that entities would need to meet to register with the new Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC). Research Australia maintains that, for the health and medical research sector, the aim of reducing regulatory duplication and simplifying interactions with government matters more than imposing new governance requirements. It contends that most NFP entities are already regulated under State, Territory or Commonwealth laws and that additional conditions of registration would add complexity and cost without improving governance. Answering the consultation questions in turn, it opposes legislating to whom responsible individuals owe duties, mandatory qualifications for board members, prescribed conflict of interest criteria, mandatory risk management, insurance or internal review requirements, compulsory meeting rules and public disclosure of remuneration where an entity does not fundraise from the public. It supports the ACNC issuing guidance, template policies and model rules that entities may adopt voluntarily, accepts higher financial reporting standards for larger entities, and suggests minimum governing rules only for new entities regulated solely under the ACNC legislation. It also proposes that the ACNC develop national protocols with funding bodies and regulators to standardise governance and reporting requirements.