Luke Gosling (Solomon, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Fair enough too, Deputy Speaker. What I was getting at is that I want those opposite to stop using our charity sector as a shield. They see it as good for a photo op but then say: 'Don't say anything. Don't advocate, because if any of your members do anything wrong, we'll take your DGR status from you.' DGR status is the very thing that citizens of our nation use to make donations to those organisations, because they believe in what they're doing. Stop using these shields.

Mr Deputy Speaker, this is the final Tom Cruise reference. It goes to another movie: A Few Good Men. We need a few good men, because they're mostly men on the side, to say: 'We can handle the truth! We can hear what members of the charity sector have to say. We're not afraid of criticism, and we're not going to strip away your ability to operate if you step over the lines that we keep drawing in front of you.' Even the Australian Charities and Not-for-Profits Commissioner himself, Gary Johns, has said under questioning during Senate estimates that he has seen no evidence to support the changes to the regulations. The Liberals' own review recommended the existing regulations around unlawful conduct be scrapped. Instead, the Morrison government wants to expand dramatically the scope of the activities the regulations could capture. I believe these changes will be terrible for our democracy.

Freedom of speech is important. We hear that from those opposite all the time, but that belief is inconsistent with what they're doing with this legislation. Deb Di Natale, the CEO of NTCOSS, the Northern Territory Council of Social Service, which is the peak body for our local community sector in Darwin, said 'the regulations are a case of extreme overreach and that it's not clear what problems they are meant to solve'. With only 0.003 per cent of charities having incidents in this area, it is hard to see what problems they are meant to solve.

Commissioner Johns has criticised Beyond Blue and Recognise—the minister at the table, the member for Hasluck, will be well aware of their work—and sees Australian charities as being rife with impure altruism. Scott Morrison should not give him more tools to strip charitable status. We don't want Commissioner Johns to have more tools to strip the charitable status of organisations that only raise their voices to criticise governments, whether it be the current government or a future Labor government.

In summing up, I've worked in the not-for-profit sector, and I stand with faith groups and the community sector, who oppose these very concerning changes. Labor values the contribution that charities and not-for-profits make to civil society, public discourse and the democratic process, and we'll do everything that we can to protect that important role.

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