Craig Kelly (Hughes, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I must admit that when I first saw the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission Bill 2012 and the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (Consequential and Transitional) Bill 2012 the first question I asked was: what is the problem? What evil is occurring that these bills need to address? Where is the problem in our charities sector, our non-profit sector, that needs an explanatory memorandum that is 325 pages long? Where is the problem? What do we need to fix with our charities sector? Maybe we have one or two problems at the edges, but do we really need this verbose piece of legislation, this detailed explanatory memorandum, which every not-for-profit organisation in the country will now have to go through and read?

We heard about the estimated additional cost to the Baptist church of $1 million to comply with this legislation. That is $1 million less they will have to spend on assisting people with disabilities. That is $1 million less they will have to assist people with aged care. How can we here in this parliament even suggest legislation that makes groups like the Baptist church have to spend another $1 million on their bureaucracy?

An opposition member: Shame!

Shame, exactly right. This is just an example that shows this government do not know what they are doing. They are simply making things up as they go. But at the end of the day it is all about the Labor way of creating a new bureaucracy. Instead of allowing the citizens of our country to get in and do the good work they do in charities, without the government on their backs, this is all about creating more red tape, tying them up and stopping them from doing the productive work they actually need to do.

I would like to also support the questions asked by the member for Bradfield. I hope the shadow Treasurer might take the opportunity to advise on some of these questions.

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