The Coalition government will abolish the Australian Charities and Not-for-profit Commission which in the view of the Coalition Government imposes an unnecessary and ponderous compliance burden on the sector, said Minister for Human Services Mr Kevin Andrews
Mr Andrews said the Australian Institute of Company Directors does a superb job of promoting and supporting directors and boards operating in both the profit and the not-for-profit sectors. There’s no reason for a Government to reinvent a smoothly turning wheel.
“When it comes to good work already done by private-sector organisations, our job should be to facilitate it, not to duplicate it,” added Mr Andre.
“Those in Government must always be on guard against the temptation to think that their wisdom is equal to their power. For as Friedrich Hayek warned in The Fatal Conceit:” said Mr Andrews.
“Rather than a cumbersome top-down government-knows-best approach that quite frankly smacks of patronizing paternalism, we believe in bottom-up, grass roots enterprise.,” Mr Andrews said.
Mr Andrews said that an adept and adroit private not-for-profit organisations can adapt to changing circumstances and evolving needs.
“We believe that no-one knows local communities better than local community members. They have the best grasp on the problems in their back yard and how to best address them, ” he said.
Mr Andrews said that at the bottom-up principle is the motivating force behind our decision to set up the National Centre for Excellence.
“The abolition of the ACNC and establishment of the Centre will move the focus from the stick to the carrot. We want to transfer the focus from coercive compliance and regulation to collaborative education, training and development.” Mr Andres said.
I see the Centre of Excellence as a fount of both innovation and advocacy. I noted the comments on capacity challenges in your 2013 Social Impact Study.
The National Centre for Excellence can play an important role in helping address these issues.
“The Centre’s mandate will include support for the range of organisations that make up civil society, regardless of size, type or mission. Its ambit will include charities, clubs and associations that focus on social welfare, the arts, environment, health, medical research, animal welfare, education, and more. And the Centre’s mandate will encompass both organisations that receive government funding and smaller local community groups that get little or no direct government support,” Mr Andrews said.
Mr Andrews said that one-size-fits-all attitude can never work because the needs in the tiny rural hamlet of Fitzroy Falls, New South Wales are vastly different from the needs in inner-urban Fitzroy, Victoria. And the requirements of a human service agency will be light-years away from an arts centre or educational institution.
Mr Andews said a fundamental tenet of the Coalition worldview that civil society is neither an instrument nor an agent of the state.
“You’ll always know your business better than we do and that’s why our ultimate aim is to transfer ownership of the Centre to the sector itself,” he said.
“We also intend to resurrect a Community Business Partnership that will be chaired by the Prime Minister, with me as his Deputy. This is a body that was initially established under the former Coalition Government of John Howard and I’ll be providing additional details on the Partnership Mark II over the coming months,” Mr Andrews said.