More than 6,000 charities have been deregistered or had their status revoked by the national watchdog since it was established at the end of 2012, but only six charities were stripped of their not-for-profit status for failing to comply with the commission’s standards for charities.
The Australian Charities and Not-for-Profits Commission (ACNC) was established by the Gillard government in December 2012. It has more than 45,000 charities on the books, the vast majority of which were transferred from the Australian tax office register when the ACNC was established.
A spokesman for the ACNC told Guardian Australia that about 2,200 charities were transferred to the register in error. Approximately 2,400 charities opted out of registration with the ACNC, and about 1,600 were delisted because the commission believes they are no longer operational, the spokesman said.
The Coalition had vowed to scrap the ACNC when it took office in September 2013, as part of its push to reduce red tape. The legislation to scrap the commission was briefly debated in House of Representatives at the end of the last parliamentary sitting period, before being shelved.
The social services minister, Scott Morrison, told Fairfax earlier this month that the government had put on ice plans to scrap the commission.
“I have advised key stakeholders in this area I have no immediate plans to be progressing that issue while I focus on higher order priorities,” he said. Calls and emails to Morrison’s office for this story were not returned.
Labor wants the ACNC to remain. The shadow assistant treasurer, Andrew Leigh, said the ACNC had given Australians confidence that the charities they were donating to were genuine.
“Anyone can quickly check the Australian charities register to see if the group they’re donating to is above board,” Leigh said. “This is simply not something that existed before.”
“With the Australian not-for-profit sector turning over more than $1bn a year, we need a dedicated agency which is keeping an eye on charity activity.”
The Australian Council of Social Service (Acoss) said the commission restored public trust in the sector.
“With charities and not-for-profits in Australia contributing 5% of GDP and 8% of employment nationally, effective national regulation is critical to sustaining the economic significance as well as the social contribution of this important sector,” the chief executive of Acoss, Cassandra Goldie, said.
Acoss has been a strong supporter of the ACNC, she said.
The national secretary of the Salvation Army, Major Calvin Alley, told Guardian Australia that his organisation was “happy for it to stay” even though the ACNC has not delivered on its promise to cut red tape.
“It’s early days,” Alley said. “It’s a complex thing that takes time.” He acknowledged that the commission had “given the sector a bit of credibility”.
The executive director of ActionAid Australia, Archie Law, said “it would be a shame” if the ACNC was abolished.
“We would want it to continue,” Law said. “I think it’s worthy.”
He said larger charities like his were not impacted by the regulatory burden of having a federal oversight body like the ACNC, but added that the commission puts extra strain on smaller charities.
