Nita Green (Queensland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

What a very sad state of affairs we find ourselves in here today in the Senate, having to bring to the Senate's attention the very real lack of action by this government to do its job when it comes to regulating and supporting our fabulous charities all across the country. I am very concerned about the lack of response to this select committee report on charities, and I do believe that it is characteristic of a systematic problem of this government to get in there and do the hard work, to respond to the recommendations of reviews that are made by select committees, by organisations and by government authorities and to put in the hard work to do the reform that is needed to help Australians.

The charities that we are talking about today do hard work in our community. They help people all around Australia. Where I am from in Far North Queensland, everybody would know that we have particularly incredible charities, and people are working tirelessly to do the hard work to help Australians. Some of them that come to mind straight off the bat are the fantastic organisations that have been pulling together to bring attention to suicide prevention in Far North Queensland. Those organisations that do that hard work do it because our community has lost people too early and too soon, and they need our help. The government's lack of action in this area is heartless. It is another example of the government not putting in the hard work to provide the regulatory reform needed to help charities like those in Far North Queensland.

This select committee report is not the first time that this charity law has been considered. We know that there have been six reviews and six ministers but no action in this area. That is really an astounding number, and you wonder how many ministers it's going to take before someone actually rolls up their sleeves and does the hard work that people in our community are out there doing. The government's failure to respond to these recommendations—I will say one of the recommendations actually just referred back to another report and other recommendations because the government hadn't responded to those! Obviously the report I'm talking about is the ACNC report, and that started in 2017. Those recommendations have been available to the government for 18 months. There are 30 recommendations in that report, and the select committee report actually drew a few of those recommendations out to draw the attention of the government to those recommendations that are their responsibility.

Ultimately, I just want to read from one of those recommendations: 'A single national scheme for charities and not-for-profits to be developed.' That's a simple recommendation. Yes, some hard work is needed to get there. But this recommendation has been on the books for 18 months and now has been part of a select committee report, with the hard work that senators in this place have done to go through and look at the reviews that have been done and, again, to make those same recommendations. And yet when we've asked the minister to come in here to respond to an order for production of documents, he can't do it. He can't provide the government's response to these recommendations.

We really have to start to wonder what this government has been doing for those 18 months. What have those ministers who were responsible for this area been doing instead of responding to this information? When I heard the words 'recommendations', 'report' and 'no response', I have to say that it reminded me of so many other circumstances which we're in at the moment—particularly with the ACCC report into insurance. I'll take a moment to talk about this report, because it shows that this government are systematically not responding to recommendations that are made by the select committees or government authorities which have gone in and done the reviews, putting in the hard time. They've spent taxpayer dollars, I imagine, to get the information that the government need to implement good policy, but the government are not interested in it. They won't even respond to it. The ACCC report has been available and it has 28 recommendations for government to respond to. The government haven't responded to a single one of them. I asked the government in estimates, 'When are you going to respond?' The answer was, 'In due course'.

Insurance prices are going up and up in North Queensland. We have the situation where the archdiocese in Townsville is considering not insuring its properties, and it won't be able to provide the services it provides because of insurance costs. This is another regulatory burden on good charities and people doing good, hard work. But this government think it's too hard; that it's just too hard even to respond. I would like to see the government come in here and respond to all of these recommendations from these reports—the ACCC report on insurance, particularly, and also the report about charities. But the government are not interested in transparency and accountability. We know that. We know they're not interested in talking about what they're doing with their time.

Two very good examples of that come to mind. I don't know when we will ever see the drought envoy's report tabled in parliament. Actually, we know we won't because it was provided by text message! So we know that we won't get those reports tabled in parliament. That's because the government don't care about transparency and accountability. We just found out the other day from answers provided to questions in estimates that the reef envoy's report won't be tabled in parliament. So this parliament will never find out what work has been done there. We also know, in terms of the order for production of documents, that the government have had a really hard time responding to those in this chamber. Senator Keneally, in particular, has had to put in a lot of orders for the production of documents and has had to get the support of this chamber—the support of the Senate. When the Senate asks for documents to be provided, that is something that this government should listen to and adhere to. It's not something that they can just whisk away, like a fly! It's not something that they can just consider to be an optional maybe. Orders for the production of documents from the Senate are a serious business, and this government don't want to respond to them.

This government have failed to provide responses to reports of recommendations systematically. Hard work has gone into those reports, but they're not willing to do the hard work to implement those policies. I certainly want to make sure that I put on the record my very strong support for the charities in Far North Queensland that have done the hard work, that have provided submissions to these inquiries, have gone out and lobbied government to do their job and have been on the ground, providing services to our constituents. Senator O'Neill referred to some of the fantastic organisations in her neck of the woods. In Far North Queensland, the Salvation Army is one that provides such an incredible number of services and support to people in our community. I want to particularly mention their financial counselling services; their services around domestic violence support; and their services for refugees who are coming to our country, giving them the support that they need in our community. These organisations could do so much more work if it weren't for the red tape, the doubling of regulation and the lack of a national scheme. The lack of action from this government is stopping charities from doing the hard work in our community when we know that they can do so much more.

What a very sad state of affairs that we have to come into the Senate and demand that documents be provided to help our charities. What does that say about this government? It says that they are heartless, it says that they don't care about transparency and accountability, and it says they're not willing to do the hard work. What are they willing to put the hard work in on? We know that last week they spent a lot of time putting hard work in on bashing unions—bashing organisations that go out there and help young workers fight wage theft. You really have to look at who this government takes on to understand who it doesn't support—