The Senate Economic Legislation Committee’s hearing into the ACNC Repeal Bill (No 1) was held 23 May 2014. The committee heard from 12 organisations or individuals, including the Community Council for Australia, Universities Australia, the ACT Government, the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference, the Department of Social Services (DSS) and the ACNC.
Since the hearing, the ACNC has submitted a supplementary submission to answer questions on notice from the committee and to correct key factual errors in the statements made at the hearings and in some of the submissions.
More than 150 submissions to the committee have been published on the Parliament of Australia website to date. There is also a range of analyses publicly available detailing the arguments and issues put forward in the submissions.
The DSS officers did confirm “until the second bill receives royal assent, the ACNC is empowered by legislation to continue its functions, and the Commissioner and the Board to retain their powers.” This has implications for charities in relation to regulatory and reporting requirements.
The ACNC is scheduled to appear before the committee again for the Senate Budget Estimates hearing. The ACNC’s full allocation of funding in the Forward Estimates was retained for 2014-15 in the Treasury papers.
The ACNC supplementary submission can be viewed here.
