Catryna Bilyk (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I have spoken on a number of occasions about issues concerning Australian charities because I am a strong advocate for charities. Charities and not-for-profits deliver enormous social benefit for local, national and global communities. Without charities, a lot of the work done addressing poverty and social inequality, looking after animal welfare, caring for the natural environment and a range of other important causes simply would not happen.

The Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission, or ACNC, has around 60,000 charities on its register. Some of these are separately registered sub-branches of larger organisations such as the RSL or Surf Life Saving. However, many are small organisations in their own right. One-third of charities are classed as very small, with an annual revenue of less than $50,000. It's great to have that diversity in the size of our charities. There is a place for both small charities, which are closer to their local communities, and large charities, which have the scale needed to tackle some of the big global issues.

A great example of what can be achieved with the scale of these larger charities is that of Rotary International, which has been instrumental in the global effort to almost completely eradicate polio. Australian charities employ around 1.4 million workers, or over 10 per cent of our country's workforce. In 2020, they contributed $176 billion to Australia's gross domestic product, not to mention a great deal of additional social benefits that would not be reflected in the GDP figures.

Senator Smith and I recently established the Parliamentary Friends of the Charitable, Not-for-Profit and Philanthropic Community to promote discussion of some of the emerging challenges charities are facing. We're going through a time where charities are being squeezed from both ends, facing pressures on both demand and supply. The demand for their services is rising in the wake of more frequent and intense natural disasters, the result of human-induced climate change and increases in cost-of-living pressures for Australian households. At the same time, rates of volunteering are declining, fundraising has become stalled and the community connectedness that is the glue holding charities together has been steadily declining over decades. These pressures were all exacerbated by the COVID pandemic, where lockdowns and social distancing, while being necessary for the protection of public health, increased financial pressure and social isolation. Many volunteers, who were unable to contribute due to the public health restrictions, did not return after the restrictions were lifted.

The Parliamentary Friendship Group will have its first event in late March, a presentation and discussion with Philanthropy Australia about polling they commissioned on attitudes to philanthropy and what insights this polling can offer the Australian government's efforts to double giving by 2030. One of the ways in which we can help charities raise funds is by harmonising charity fundraising laws. This is a subject I've spoken on several times over the years in this place, but, for those unfamiliar with this issue, I will provide some brief background.

Before the event of digital technology—and those school students up in the gallery won't understand this—back in the days when going online meant catching a train, the states and territories developed laws to regulate charitable fundraising. As a legacy of these laws, to raise funds in any state or territory, you need to comply with the relevant law in that jurisdiction and, in most cases, submit a registration to the relevant authority. The problem arises when you have charities raising funds nationally, including those that now raise funds online. You see, funds raised online can be received from anywhere in Australia, so you have to comply with the law in all state and territory jurisdictions, with the exception of the Northern Territory, which doesn't have any charity fundraising laws. In other words, if you want to raise funds nationally, you have to follow seven different sets of laws. You may think it's difficult to comply with, but it's actually impossible to comply with, because some of these laws are contradictory. This is a red-tape nightmare that is costing Australian charities over $15 million a year.

To give you an idea of how outdated these laws are, a Senate inquiry into this issue heard that one state still had a law in its statute books that made it an offence to collect money with a tin attached to the end of a pole. This was apparently to prevent the gentry from being harassed by enthusiastic charity collectors tapping on the windows of their carriages. That's how old the law is. In 2018, the Productivity Commission recommended the introduction of a harmonised national charity fundraising law. This was followed up several months later by the Senate Select Committee on Charity Fundraising in the 21st Century, which I chaired, recommending that this important reform be completed within two years.

Sadly, the previous government dragged its feet and, over the course of four years, made very little progress on the harmonisation of fundraising law. But I'm pleased to say that the Albanese Labor government is getting on with the job. Our very capable assistant minister for charities, Dr Andrew Leigh, is a powerful advocate for charities, and his enthusiasm for this reform is producing results. By October last year, Assistant Minister Lee had consulted with the charity sector and made substantial progress on the development of a national framework for charity fundraising laws. In mid-February this year, a meeting of the Commonwealth, state and territory treasurers agreed to a set of nationally consistent fundraising principles, finally.

These principles have been developed by a working group comprising all the states and territories and informed by stakeholder consultation. The principles will give charities and donors a clear understanding of appropriate conduct while allowing for greater flexibility as to how charities achieve compliance. Each participating jurisdiction will release an implementation plan by July 2023, explaining how it will give effect to the principles through regulatory changes or legislation. So we're on track to get this reform done in a timely manner, and, for charities facing the red-tape nightmare that comes with the current arrangements, it cannot be done too soon.

Labor paved the way for this reform by establishing the ACNC, which was always intended to be a one-stop shop for charity registration and regulation. A couple of jurisdictions have since dropped the requirement for charities to obtain a licence if they are already registered with the ACNC, and several have streamlined their reporting requirements, removing the obligation for incorporated associations to report information that has already been reported to the ACNC.

While I'm on the subject of charity fundraising, it's worth reminding Australians that one of the purposes of charity fundraising regulation is to curtail criminal activities such as charity scams. Following various recent fire and flood disasters or the recent earthquake in Turkiye and Syria, many Australians feel motivated to help, and one of the best ways to help is by donating to charity. But, unfortunately, there are some very unscrupulous people who prey on our sympathy and our generosity for personal gain. Hundreds of thousands of dollars are being lost every year to charity scams, and that money is being stolen not only from the donors but also from the important causes to which the donors try to donate. According to Scamwatch, from the 1 January to 25 September last year, $336,000 was lost to charity scams.

Following simple rules will help Australians to ensure that their donated funds are going to genuine charitable work:

This advice was issued recently to the public by the ACNC in the wake of the Turkiye and Syria earthquake. It's thanks to the establishment of the ACNC, a great Labor initiative of which I am very proud, that we have the Charity Register and regulations which hold charities accountable for being genuine in meeting their stated charitable aims and being responsible with donated funds. We need to promote more awareness of this great resource and the fact that the Charity Register is publicly available and easily searchable. It's an important weapon in the fight against charity scams and the damage they do to generous and well-meaning— (Time expired)