David Bradbury (Lindsay, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Treasurer ) Share this | Hansard source

Talk about demonstrations of hubris—people coming into this place talking about what they are going to do when they get into government. For the sake and interests of those hardworking people in the charitable sector, I hope the hubris that underlines that assertion never becomes a reality.

I find the member for Menzies, by and large, to be an honourable person but in this particular debate he has been misleading people at every opportunity. He has come into this place on repeated occasions and quoted from submissions that were made by stakeholders at earlier stages of the process. Some of the submissions he quoted from were submissions made to the very first exposure draft. There has been a subsequent exposure draft and then, in addition to that, the bill was the subject of consideration by three parliamentary committees. We have responded to the issues that were raised in many of the submissions he quotes from.

The member for Menzies comes into this place and says there is a queue of people in the charitable sector lining up to come and see him about these matters. I can only ask the question: why are they not also queuing up to come and see me? My door is open. To demonstrate that we have been listening, we responded at every step of the process to accommodate further amendments. This would have to be one of the most scrutinised bills in the history of this place and we have brought forward additional amendments to attend to those concerns.

The member for Menzies might want to reflect upon the complete lack of attention that the charity sector received during the time that he was a part of government. In fact, it is wrong to suggest that there was a lack of attention because it did come in for some attention, some rough treatment. There were gag clauses. The coalition government threatened the sector that they would withdraw funding if people did not play ball. This is the sort of regime you get when you get a coalition government. Instead of going down that path, we are effectively prohibiting gag clauses from being in place. In addition to that, we are working to alleviate many of the regulatory burdens the sector faces.

The member for Menzies said that none of the states are going to get on board. He should subscribe to my press releases. It is easy to do. You go into the Treasury Ministers portal, type in your email address—if he has got one; if he is up to speed with these matters—and every time I put out a press release it will be delivered to your inbox. If he had done that he would have realised that I put out a joint press release with the Deputy Premier of South Australia, Mr Rau, and also Minister Butler to indicate that South Australia has already come on board and will make amendments to its incorporated associations and charitable collections legislation to harmonise reporting requirements. South Australia will authorise charities to collect charitable donations in South Australia once the organisation has formally registered with the new national regulator, the ACNC.

Once more there has been misleading commentary in these debates from the member for Menzies. South Australia are leading the way. They are sending a very strong signal to the other states that the piecemeal, ad hoc regulation that has governed this sector in the past will be a thing of the past but it does require some leadership not just from the Commonwealth but from the states. I know many people in the sector will be knocking on the doors of state premiers, treasurers and other ministers to try and ensure that we are able to get some genuine regulatory reform at the state level. When that occurs, that will be a positive thing for the sector. Frankly, there are not many people out there in the sector suggesting that this regime should be repealed if it goes through. The member for Menzies, unfortunately, seems to be of the mistaken belief that this would be a proposition that some support.

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