Supplementary Explanatory Memorandum
General outline and financial impact
Amendments
These amendments to the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission Bill 2012 (the Bill) and the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (Consequential and Transitional) Bill 2012 seek to:
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- allow the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC) Commissioner to decline to include or remove the details of warnings from the register, where the release of the information may cause detriment, the entity has acted in good faith, and the matter has been resolved;
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- add clarification that the governance standards will be focussed on outcomes and will specify principles as to how the registered entity must achieve those outcomes, including proportional standards that recognise the size and nature of the registered entity;
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- provide clarification that consultation on the governance and external conduct standards should involve public consultation, and that such consultation should be assisted through facilitation by the ACNC Commissioner;
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- provide mechanisms for additional Parliamentary scrutiny in relation to the development of the governance and external conduct standards including:
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- requiring that each provision of the regulations (
the standards
) cannot commence without both Houses of Parliament passing a motion approving each of the standards:
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- this is to allow Parliament to effectively 'disallow' any one governance or external conduct standard, rather than requiring them to decide to either disallow them all or not disallow them all; and
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- if Parliament decides not to endorse or dis-endorse a particular standard (or disallow the regulations containing the standards) within the disallowance period, there will be an automatic commencement of any un-actioned standards on the day after the last day on which the regulation could be disallowed by either House;
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- add an objects clause to the reporting framework which sets out the intent and purpose of the reporting framework - namely introducing a proportional framework to reduce unnecessary regulatory obligations, alleviating the need for information to be provided to multiple government agencies and promoting transparency and accountability of registered entities;
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- add a requirement that the ACNC Commissioner include, in the written notification to suspended or removed responsible entities, an explanation of the strict liability offences which apply to entities that breach the prohibition on managing registered entities and the obligations in relation to providing books and property to new responsible entities;
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- clarify that the annual report of the ACNC Commissioner will include an assessment of how the ACNC Commissioner has promoted the objects of the Bill, including the reduction of unnecessary regulatory obligations;
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- provide for the maximum annual revenue for a deductible gift recipient fund (DGR fund) operated by a basic religious charity to be increased from $250,000, in line with changes to the thresholds for small registered entities; and
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- simplify the transition of entities to ACNC regulation where entities are operating a public benevolent institution (or multiple public benevolent institutions) or a health promotion charity (or multiple health promotion charities) and where the whole of the entity is not such an institution (that is, where the institution is notionally operated or conducted in-house, usually by an unincorporated religious institution) to ensure these entities transition appropriately to the ACNC, and both the operated institution of the entity, and the remainder of the entity keep the existing concessions they currently have access to.
Date of effect: The ACNC will commence operations when the Bills receive Royal Assent.
Proposal announced: These amendments have not previously been announced.
Financial impact: Nil.
Human rights implications: Nil.
Compliance cost impact: Nil.