Sprawled across a full-page in The Australian newspaper, this letter has taken the space of a traditional advertisement.
It was written by a collective of Australian charities to ask the Prime Minister to remember the work they do and consider how new regulations might affect them.
"New regulations proposed by the Federal Government will put that work at risk, and the consequences could be dire. These regulations must be abandoned. The work of Australia’s charities should not be stifled when the country needs us the most."
The government is seeking to amend standard three of the 2013 Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission Regulation.
It would expand the scope of activities that registered charities are not allowed to engage in, and therefore the scope of reasons why they could lose their registration.
The first amendment states that registered charities must not engage in conduct that may be dealt with as a summary offence relating to property or people.
Alice Drury is a senior lawyer at the Human Rights Law Centre, and she’s been using this analogy to explain what this new regulation would mean.
It's the equivalent of having the Australian electoral commission de-register a political party because a candidate jay-walked. There are no equivalent laws that are this punitive against businesses or political parties or anyone else. This is really singling out charities because they speak out."
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