Mark Fowler is a director at Neumann & Turnour Lawyers. In this interivew with the ACL's Katherine Spackman he dicusses changes to the charity sector through the establishment of a charities commission and other reform. There is a 5 minute and 12 minute version of the interview available.

New Zealand

The Charities Commission in New Zealand has recently given notice to Family First NZ that it will deregister the organisation as a charity.

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In the last week, the ACL has been quoted in the media on issues such as not-for-profit (NFP) tax reform, euthanasia, and a proposed new anti-discrimination legislation. See below for links to mentions in the media.



On anti-discrimination legislation:

• ACL's Managing Director Jim Wallace was interviewed by The Project on Wednesday 16th January on this issue. Watch the video here.



• The Sydney Morning Herald - Religious groups free to discriminate



• Brisbane Times & The Age - Anti-gay rights to stay (ACL rejects notion of discriminating against "sinners" as laid out in this article)



• The Australian - Christian lobby can't set policy: Greens



• The Daily Telegraph - Sinner story a 'beat up': Christian lobby



• Sky News Australia - Sinner story a 'beat up': lobby group



• The Herald Sun - Christian lobby can't set policy: Greens



• ABC Online & Yahoo!7 News - Christian lobby rejects push to remove religious exemptions

On NFP reform:

• The International News Magazine - ACL says NFP reform must account for diverse nature of sector



• The Australian - Support grows for tax reform in not-for-profits



• Christian Today - Christian lobby says NFP reform must account for diverse nature of sector



• The International News Magazine - ACL misrepresented in NFP reform article

MEDIA RELEASE



For release: Tuesday, January 15, 2013



The Australian Christian Lobby said this morning it has been misrepresented in today’s article in The Australian, “Support grows for tax reform in not-for-profits”.



Managing Director of the Australian Christian Lobby Jim Wallace said, “ACL reiterated that while we understand the position of the Community Council for Australia that fringe benefits tax concessions have greatest benefit for the higher paid employees in charities, we believe that current FBT concessions for religious practitioners should remain.”



Mr Wallace continued, “With regards to churches, it is only 'religious practitioners' who are able to benefit from FBT concessions, and not other employees like the rest of the sector. These workers are generally not paid anywhere nearly as well as equivalents in the broader not-for-profit sector, and therefore the view of the Community Council does not apply to the great majority of churches.



“Importantly, the 2010 Productivity Commission report, ‘Contribution of the Not-For-Profit Sector’, did not recommend any changes to the current FBT arrangements for religious practitioners, but it did highlight concerns in other areas of the sector which clearly the Community Council was referring to,” said Mr Wallace.



“ACL further pointed out that any changes to the tax treatment of churches and charities must acknowledge the diverse nature of the sector and particularly the effect on the charitable activities of smaller churches and organisations caused by any increased administrative overheads,” said Mr Wallace.



“Therefore, ACL believes churches should be given the choice of opting into DGR or retaining their basic religious charity status with only income tax exemption, but fewer overheads.



“This is a complex issue, and what applies to one part of the sector does not necessarily apply to the other. These nuances need to be recognised,” Mr Wallace concluded.



 

MEDIA RELEASE



For release: Sunday, January 13, 2013



The Australian Christian Lobby said today that any changes to the tax treatment of churches and charities, must acknowledge the diverse nature of the sector and particularly the effect on the charitable activities of smaller churches and organisations caused any increased administrative overheads.



The ACL agreed with the Community Council of Australia’s concern to see that the FBT entitlements not be abused and its desire to see DGR status more easily available over time to all charities.



However it is concerned that due to the administrative overheads of compliance for DGRs, that churches be given the choice of opting into DGR or retaining their basic religious charity status with only income tax exemption, but less overheads.



“At the lower end of the charities sector are thousands of church congregations who channel a large part of the high proportion of giving religious people make nationally,” said Mr Wallace.  “While DGR status should be an option, churches must also be able to elect to remain income tax exempt as basic religious charities to simplify the administrative burden for their transfer function and that of their own direct charity work.”



US studies have identified religious giving as providing as much as 75% of donations received by even secular organisations and in Australia religious giving is the highest proportion nationally at one third of total giving.  It is estimated that Christians provide a very significant proportion of private giving to overseas aid through churches and Christian organisations.

Global Care Australia, the social justice and relief arm of Christian Outreach Centre (COC), is launching the first annual National Others Week (NOW) as part of a campaign aimed at developing a greater awareness of, and appreciation for, the people around us in our community.



NOW will run from October 29 to November 4, and will encourage Australians to focus on other people rather than themselves for seven days.



According to Global Care, dedicating one week a year to reminding people to care for others, is a “compassionate and humane answer to the violence, materialism and selfishness of our society.”



The Hon Kevin Andrews MP, Shadow Minister for Families, Housing and Human Services, launched NOW in a ceremony at Parliament House in Canberra last Thursday, which was also attended by ACL’s Chief-of-Staff Lyle Shelton.



“Global Care’s motto is ‘mates helping mates’, and during this very special week, I want to encourage people everywhere to look beyond their own four walls, and just ‘be there’ for someone else – to be a ‘mate’ to them,” Mr Andrews said.

 



Premier Campbell Newman has been making budget cuts in an effort to balance Queensland's budgets, but some are concerned that these cuts are going too far, with frontline services to the state's most vulnerable people being affected or cut altogether. ACL Queensland Director Wendy Francis spoke with Daniel Simon about the cuts.

MEDIA RELEASE

Friday, August 24, 2012



The Australian Christian Lobby welcomes the introduction of legislation to establish the new Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC) but is concerned about the impact of some provisions in the bill for churches and other not-for-profit organisations.



Assistant Treasurer David Bradbury introduced draft legislation to establish the ACNC and also to amend special conditions for tax exemption.



The Special Conditions bill will establish a new “in Australia” test, which will require that an organisation must operate principally in Australia to retain tax exempt status. This means that organisations which operate overseas or direct funds to overseas operations risk losing tax exempt status, which in turn means less money going to the world’s poor.



ACL Managing Director Jim Wallace says that the bill is alarming for charities and not-for-profit organisations.



“There is concern that charitable organisations providing overseas aid may be significantly impacted by this bill,” he said.



“Further, there will be less incentive for businesses or individuals to make charitable donations if they are not tax deductible.”



“Charities and not-for-profits make enormous contributions, not only in Australian society, but where it is most needed in other parts of the world,” he said.



“It is essential that in a wealthy country like Australia, charities can continue to operate efficiently and people are encouraged to give generously to help those in need.”

MEDIA RELEASE



Friday, 24 August, 2012



The Australian Christian Lobby has expressed concern that some frontline services to Queensland’s most vulnerable people are being affected by the Government’s budget cuts.



ACL Queensland Director Wendy Francis said ACL understood the need for the Government to balance its budget, but was concerned some of the cuts were going too far.



Ms Francis had spoken to a number of charities working with the disadvantaged.



“While the community and not-for-profit sector does need to play its part in helping reduce the deficit, it is hard to understand why cuts of relatively small amounts of money are being made to not-for-profits working at the coal-face with the disadvantaged,” Ms Francis said.



“They have proven track-records of effective assistance to our most needy,” she said.



In Ipswich alone, two Salvation Army community development programs have already been axed, and many trainees are now at risk of being forced out of their courses.



Other programs likely to be affected by the funding cuts include the Pacific Islanders program in Goodna catering to disadvantaged young people, and the Logan-based Participants in Prosperity program for ex-offenders.