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

I withdraw. It might have been nice if the minister had stayed to listen to the debate.

Charities fundraising online have to register with seven different states and territories to comply—seven different sets of charity regulations. These state and territory laws are mostly a product of a time when fundraising primarily involved going from door to door, rattling a tin. In one state there is even a law on the statute book that bans fundraising by collecting money using a tin attached to a pole because collectors once used them to tap on the windows of carriages. That's how out of date some of the charity laws are in this country. It's a great example of how many of our charity fundraising laws are for a bygone era. Fixing this problem does require one thing: national leadership. In the 21st century, when so much charity fundraising is done online, it makes sense to have a single, focused, national set of regulations governing fundraising. But it appears pretty difficult to make those opposite understand this reality and act on it when we have an analog government, as I said the other day, operating in a digital age.

In the meantime, charities labour under a mountain of paperwork, and the contributions of their donors are eroded by this bureaucratic nightmare. Charities themselves are reporting that, without harmonised fundraising laws, they are spending at least $15 million a year on unnecessary paperwork. That figure comes from a Deloitte Access Economics report. The figure is even higher if you include other not-for-profits, and some of the witnesses whose gave evidence to the Senate inquiry believe this figure to be a gross underestimate. This is a colossal waste of money which charities should be able to direct to their charitable causes.

Instead of fixing this problem, the Morrison government are letting down Australian charities and charitable donors. Despite their stated commitment to take action on bringing Australia's fundraising laws into the 21st century, I have seen nothing from the government to demonstrate that they have any intention of progressing this important reform. In August this year, they missed a really important opportunity, the latest meeting of the Consumer Affairs Forum, held in Queenstown, New Zealand. This forum, a meeting of Commonwealth, state, territory and New Zealand consumer affairs ministers, would have been the perfect opportunity to discuss steps towards harmonising charity fundraising laws, but the issue was not even on the agenda, which shows what the government thinks of charities. The minister's sorry excuse of an explanation does not address the question of why the government has failed to give Australian charities the support they need.

Labor has already done much of the heavy lifting by establishing the ACNC, but since those opposite came to power progress has ground to a halt. As if the government's lack of action on fundraising reform isn't bad enough, this government has spent the last six years waging war on Australian charities. As I said earlier, they've had six ministers responsible for charities in six years. Shortly after coming to office they tried to abolish the ACNC, despite its establishment being recommended by more than a dozen reviews and having the overwhelming support of the charities and not-for-profit sector. Had they succeeded, it would have set back action on harmonising charity fundraising laws by years, or probably decades. Ironically, the legislation to abolish the ACNC was contained in one of the government's omnibus repeal bills which was supposedly designed to reduce red tape. Well, the charities wouldn't have been able to reduce their red tape.

When the government failed to get that legislation through parliament, they appointed a charity critic as the head of the organisation. Then we had attempts by the government to introduce legislation to gag charities and to prevent them from advocating on social and environmental causes. As much as Mr Morrison likes quiet Australians, it appears he prefers silent Australians, but charities won't be silenced. This action prompted two open letters from the charities and not-for-profit sector to the Prime Minister. In one of those letters, the signatories wrote:

The proposed Bills conflate advocacy for good policy with political campaigning for elections. They impose severe criminal penalties on expression and access to information that is central to public debate and accountability in a democratic society. The changes will stop charities, community organizations and not-for-profits from speaking out about issues that are of great importance to the Australian community.

The Morrison government's continued assault on the most trusted sector in Australia is completely outrageous. With the government demonstrating over and over again their contempt for charities, it's no wonder they're dragging their feet on fundraising law reform and keeping charities in the dark. Following his excuse for an explanation to this parliament, I invite Senator Seselja to come back into this place and provide genuine answers to the following questions: when will the Morrison government respond to the report of the Senate Select Committee on Charity Fundraising in the 21st Century—on what date? What is the time frame to finally fix fundraising, and why has it taken them so long? To what degree will their plan include harmonisation of existing state and territory laws, and to what degree will it involve the expansion of the Australian Consumer Law? When is the minister going to negotiate these changes with the states and territories?

It's time for Senator Seselja and the Morrison government to come clean, outline their plan for reform and commit to fundraising law reform as a matter of urgency. Charities and not-for-profits are crying out for action, and every month that this government drags its feet is costing the sector over $1 million in unnecessary red tape. We will not accept any more excuses or delays, and neither will Australians, charities and not-for-profits. As I said, the Morrison government's been dragging its feet for way too long on charity fundraising law reform. It's been more than 18 months since the five-year review of the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission was delivered to government and more than nine months since the Senate Select Committee on Charity Fundraising in the 21st Century tabled its report. (Time expired).