Submission to the Review of the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission Legislation

This letter to the Treasury panel conducting the statutory review of the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC) legislation supports the Act’s existing objects of maintaining public trust, sustaining an independent and innovative not-for-profit sector and reducing unnecessary regulation. Research Australia opposes the ACNC Commissioner’s proposal to add objects promoting the effective use of not-for-profit resources and enhancing accountability to donors, beneficiaries and the public. It maintains that an effectiveness object would let the regulator judge how charities use their resources, stifling innovation and independence, and that the ACNC lacks the expertise of the committees guiding research charities’ funding decisions. It describes the accountability object as redundant alongside the existing public trust object. Citing uncertainty until March 2016 over the ACNC’s abolition, it recommends regulatory stability and supports only the minor amendments proposed by Philanthropy Australia.