Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Finance and Deregulation) Share this | Hansard source

The Assistant Treasurer has provided the following answer to the honourable senator's question:

(1)   The ACNC is currently being established as a regulator for the not-for-profit sector. Current projects include:

  developing legislation establishing the ACNC;

  building the ACNC information portal and website;

  developing requirements for the new general reporting framework;

  recruiting staff for the ACNC;

  designing and building systems for the registration and review of charitable entities; and

  working with the ATO to, amongst other things, set up back office functions for the ACNC and structurally separate the ATO's current charity status determination functions for transfer to the ACNC.

(2)   As at 27 April 2012, 30 positions have been filled, with the recruited staff for these positions being in various stages of transferring to the ACNC.

The positions consist of:

  2 ACNC SES Assistant Commissioners: General Counsel and Charity Services;

  8 EL2 ACNC Directors across the range of ACNC operations;

  9 EL1s comprising Managers, Legal Counsels, Senior Investigators, HR support;

  6 APS 6 Investigators;

  3 APS 6 Advice Services Officers; and

  2 APS 6 Guidance and Education Officers.

(3)  The Government recently extended the start date for the ACNC from 1 July 2012 to 1 October 2012 (see then Assistant Treasurer's Media Release No. 11 of 1 March 2012).

(4)   The policy decision to create an independent Commonwealth level regulator for the sector was subjected to the full Regulatory Impact Assessment process.

  As part of this process, Treasury prepared a Regulation Impact Statement (RIS) in accordance with the Government's Best Practice Regulation Handbook.

  The RIS was formally assessed and considered as adequate and meeting Government standards by the Office of Best Practice Regulation (OBPR). The RIS was published on the OBPR's website.