This article was written by Fr Brian Lucas and first appeared in the The Sydney Morning Herald on 10 September 2014
Regulators, like death and taxes, are always with us. Good law advances the common good by balancing the benefits of regulation with the extra paperwork.
On Monday at the National Press Club the CEO of World Vision Australia, Reverend Tim Costello, said that one church denominationopposed the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission, because it didn’t “want a secular, atheistic regulator in charge”. On Tuesday Fairfax Media said he was referring to the Catholic Church and I completely reject that claim.
The Catholic Church has always taken a pragmatic approach to government regulation. Our concern has always been about the value and extent of the regulatory red tape, rather than the identity of the regulator.
We support having light touch national regulation of charities by an expert body to determine charity status, ensure accountability, promote transparency and help reduce red tape.
We make no apologies for pointing out that additional reporting obligations might be unnecessary and costly, for those charities that already have to meet heavy regulatory obligations. In some cases, particularly for smaller charities staffed mainly by volunteers, additional reporting could be burdensome. What has to be measured is the relationship between risk and regulatory burden.
Church agencies of course are regulated by all manner of government bodies, as they should be.
Catholic schools provide education to more than 700,000 children across Australia. They are already highly regulated through Commonwealth, state and territory funding and school registration requirements. They report publicly through the MySchool website. In this particular case the new ACNC regime offers little additional public benefit but comes with a cost.
Catholic hospitals provide for more than 9500 beds and aged care homes provide more than 19,000 residential beds. These services are are also subject to a high level of regulatory scrutiny and public reporting at both state and federal level.
The Catholic Church comprises a vast array of dioceses, orders and agencies that help make up the more than 3600 entities in its GST religious group.
Under the umbrella of the Catholic Bishops Conference and its specialist tax working group, church entities are committed to work constructively with the government on charity regulation.
The sector needs stability so that charities can operate without further disruption and plan ahead with certainty, providing an outcome that supports charities to undertake their positive work in the community for the public benefit.
It has to be remembered that every dollar spent on yet another submission to Treasury or a Senate inquiry, or in meeting unnecessary compliance costs, is a dollar less for that charity to spend on its charitable purposes.
The Catholic Bishops Conference in a number of past submissions has suggested a useful way forward would be to have a body which determines charitable status, removes unnecessary duplication of regulation and works with state and territory regulators to reduce red tape. Harmonising state fundraising laws would be an obvious “quick win” but there has been years of talk and little action.
There should be a simple process for endorsement or registration of entities as charities and to access tax concessions. The Catholic Church supports a searchable central register, similar to the Australian Business Register, as a starting point to find whether a charity exists and basic contact details as well as information on who runs it.
Charities can supplement that basic information by providing more details of their activities on their own websites for the information of members, donors, and members of the public. There is a strong case that new charities should be able to secure simultaneous Australian Business Number and ACNC/ATO endorsement/registration.
As the largest group of charities in the country the Catholic Church wants a bipartisan resolution on regulation. One that retains the best features of the current ACNC, while reducing Commonwealth/state duplication and unnecessary red tape.
Rev Brian Lucas is General Secretary of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference