People who preach hate, spread bigotry or have serious criminal convictions would be barred from running charities under changes called for in the antisemitism royal commission. Source: The Australian.
National charities regulator head Susan Woodward said the rules should be the same for all charities and she would consider calls to remove tax benefits from groups that use their resources to break racial discrimination laws.
The Royal Commission on Antisemitism and Social Cohesion asked the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC) to consider possible policy changes intended to prevent misuse of charity resources and taxpayer funding of organisations run by convicted criminals, promoters of hate speech or threats to national security.
At present, the commission heard, the ACNC has varying levels of authority over state and federal charities, with religious charities given additional exemptions. Ms Woodward said this should change.
“We believe it would be more efficient and basically fair that the same standards apply to all registered charities,” she said. Breaching the RDA [Racial Discrimination Act] didn’t stop someone becoming a charity’s “responsible person” and the ACNC was completely barred from removing members of religious charities.
“It would assist the (ACNC) commissioner if a responsible person could be removed in a broader range of circumstances. For example, where the responsible person (commits) certain serious criminal offences.”
The proposals earned the endorsement of the Community Council for Australia, a peak body for the charity sector, though with a warning that any changes shouldn’t discriminate against good Samaritans moving on from chequered pasts.
CCA chief executive David Crosbie said he supported tying ACNC regulation to the RDA and standardising regulation across charity types.
He feared making convicted felons ineligible to run non-profits could have unintended consequences for rehabilitation and drug and alcohol charities.
“People deserve the right to reform and rehabilitation, particularly from drug and alcohol dependence in their youth, and where they can make a contribution and provide insight they should not be excluded because of the decisions they made many years earlier,” he said.
Opposition assistant Treasury spokesman Dean Smith said the Coalition would “treat very seriously all recommendations from the royal commission”.
His Labor counterpart Andrew Leigh, who is responsible for charity regulation and the ACNC, was contacted for comment.
FULL STORY
Hate preachers and criminals could be barred from running charities after antisemitism inquiry (By James Dowling, The Australian)
