Michael Sukkar (Deakin, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister to the Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

That is a grab bag of character assassinations, complaints and the shadow minister crowing about being the shadow minister for charities and not-for-profits. I looked at the MPI that he put forward earlier. Your title is longer than the entire remainder of this document. We have the Hon. Dr—or Professor, as we like to call him over here—Andrew Leigh, shadow assistant treasurer, shadow minister for competition and productivity, shadow minister for charities and not-for-profits, shadow minister for trade in services, member for Fenner. Was that your pay-off? You went to the Leader of the Opposition and said, 'Throw a couple more titles in there, just to make me feel better.'

Character assassination is not going to cut it here, Member for Fenner. In that diatribe of complaints from the member for Fenner, we didn't hear any thought or concern for the people who fund charities: the donors. You never hear the member for Fenner talking about donors. All the member for Fenner does is enter into character assassination and, quite sadly—as I pointed out during your contribution—why would you attack a former Keating minister? Does this show how far your party has moved to the Left in that you are focusing all of your attention on attacking a former Keating minister—a minister that, quite frankly, will be remembered much more than you ever will be, member for Fenner. Someone said to me when I was first elected that the member for Fenner was the new attack dog. I was sitting here watching you then, and I saw a lot more chihuahua than German shepherd.

Getting down to the range of unsubstantiated claims made by the member for Fenner—I won't go through the multitude of other titles—when we look at foreign donations, the member for Fenner used the most ridiculous examples and he didn't answer the basic question, which is what the Labor Party needs to answer: Do they think we should allow foreign individuals, foreign entities and foreign governments to directly participate in Australian elections or Australian political processes? The Labor Party will not answer this question. Do they fundamentally believe that there's a role for foreign money to enter our political sphere?

We believe political parties, candidates and campaigners should be prohibited from receiving foreign donations. One would think that would be uncontroversial. One would think that the Labor Party would work constructively to try and ensure we could get that outcome. This ban has been carefully designed to prevent loopholes for foreign money. We believe foreign interests shouldn't be funding election advertising or how-to-vote material, regardless of whether that campaigning is undertaken by a political party or somebody else.

I say to the member for Fenner, 'Focus on the objective.' We don't want political interference from anybody associated with a foreign entity, a foreign government or foreign interests, who don't necessarily have our best interests at heart. The member for Fenner should reflect on that and show some leadership. He should, like his very lofty title suggests, show some leadership, and try to pull his leader, who has lurched massively to the Left, into a sensible position on this. That would be leadership people would appreciate.

Turning to the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission, I will say again that I've had a number of individuals contact me, who are very disappointed with the conduct undertaken by the member for Fenner. The character assassination of somebody appointed through a statutory process—a person serving the government—is quite outrageous. You would expect that a member with a constituency in Canberra would understand that. This process you're undertaking is discrediting you, member for Fenner. It's discrediting you. I think Dr Johns, as he has pointed out, will apply the law and will enforce the law as the ACNC is there to do. The ACNC is not an advocacy body for the sector. The ACNC, like ASIC and like any other regulator, is there to regulate the industry.

The member for Fenner doesn't talk about donors. He never talks about the people who fund the altruistic activities of charities and not-for-profits. He couldn't care less, because he's captive to a very small group of individuals who have very close links to the Labor Party and very close links to the member for Fenner—quite dubiously close links, in fact. He shouldn't be trading on those.

The Turnbull government's position is very clear. We obviously had a process over many years of seeing the ACNC in action. The member for Fenner referred to the former ACNC Commissioner—whom the government reappointed, I might add. He is someone who was respected. Now we have another highly respected individual, in Dr Johns, who will take carriage of the ACNC. The ACNC's job is to ensure that charities are used for the purposes for which they are on the register, the purposes for which they obtain tax concessions generously provided by taxpayers. The ACNC's job is to ensure that there is no 'set and forget' for charities. Once you are on the register, once you are entitled to generous tax concessions provided by Australian taxpayers, you must continue to act in accordance with what you've promised you're going to do.

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